BBC Arts Announces New Documentaries, Including Oscar Wilde Doc with Stephen Fry

In 2019 BBC Arts will offer audiences innovative programming and partnerships with the best artistic talent - giving unique perspectives and an unmissable front-row seat to the best arts and performance in the UK and beyond. The documentaries include:

• The Novels That Shaped Our World (w/t) for BBC Two forms the centrepiece of major BBC season marking and celebrating the 300th anniversary of Robinson Crusoe and the novel
• Paul McGann, Dr Hannah Fry, and artist Philippa Perry explore the technology, art and culture of the 1890s in a fascinating three part-series for BBC Four, Victorian Sensations (w/t)
• Alan Yentob speaks to comedian Jo Brand as part of a new imagine... run on BBC One
• Celebrity Big Painting Challenge heads the return of Get Creative, a nine day festival encouraging creative participation. Health and well-being will be a major focus with the results of BBC Arts' Great British Creativity Test
• Conceptual artist Ryan Gander investigates the art of the 'selfie' in a new documentary for BBC Four
• Jim Moir - AKA Vic Reeves - celebrates the centenary of the Bauhaus movement in a Bauhaus takeover of Central St Martin's as part of a new BBC Four moment looking at the history and legacy of this iconic era
• #DancePassion will see an on-air and online celebration of the UK's dance sector with exclusive performances, backstage access and live rehearsals from some of our leading dance organisations and independent artists
• Reggie Yates reveals the revolutionary change in the fortunes of black talent in the TV industry whilst rapper Fab 5 Freddy goes on a quest to uncover the hidden black figures of Renaissance Italian art in new documentaries for BBC Two
• A BBC Two documentary uncovers a little-known side to Oscar Wilde. Featuring on-screen performances of his work from Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner and Anna Chancellor amongst others and comments from Stephen Fry and Wilde's grandson
• Mark Kermode turns his own, unique lens on disaster movies and award-winning films in two new SECRETS of Cinema episodes for BBC Four
• To mark the 350th anniversary of the artist's death, Rembrandt's story is recounted as never before as a three-part BBC Four documentary tells his story from an unusual perspective - his own
• The Space and BBC Arts offer the best in performance, from a new contemporary dance piece from Phoenix Dance Theatre celebrating the arrival of SS Windrush to the Northern Ballet's Victoria, which celebrates the 200th anniversary of the monarch's birth with a dance biopic

Featuring a wealth of TV, radio and partnership initiatives across the year, BBC Arts led moments hope to engage the nation and encourage a love of the arts. Across the BBC the 300th anniversary of Robinson Crusoe and the birth of the British novel will be marked and celebrated with a landmark pan-BBC season in the autumn, whilst the artistry of dance will be explored and profiled with BBC Young Dancer 2019 in the spring. There will also be an inaugural Dance Passion festival, a focus on arts and wellbeing around the return of Get Creative - the participatory arts movement in partnership with the arts sector- and in the autumn, Contains Strong Language, the BBC's poetry festival will also return.

Jonty Claypole, Director of Arts, BBC says: "This year we'll be giving you a front-row seat to the best in arts and culture from celebrating the novel and the art of poetry with landmark programing, to encouraging participation in the arts with the return of Get Creative. Above all we'll be telling brilliant stories from fresh, new perspectives. From conceptual artist Ryan Gander's take on the selfie, Reggie Yates' investigation of the RISE of black talent in the TV industry, rapper Fab 5 Freddy's unique exploration of Italian Renaissance Art, a new look at Oscar Wilde, Bauhaus, Victoriana and Rembrandt to the return of the much-loved Mark Kermode's Secret of Cinema, Arena, Front Row Late and imagine..., there is something for everyone with a passion for arts and culture."