Renaissance Revolution

Like countless others Philippe, Michel, Andre and Patrick were labeled 'idiots', locked away and forgotten in violent asylums, until the 1960s, when the young philosopher Jean Vanier took a stand and secured their release - the first time in history that anyone had beaten the system. Together they created L'Arche, a commune at the edge of a beautiful forest near Paris. A quiet revolution was born. Now in his 80s, still at L'Arche and revered by some as a living saint, Jean has discovered something that most of us have forgotten - what it is to be human, to be foolish, and to be happy.

40 years after he last played the Wembley Arena, Gary Numan staged the comeback of a lifetime. Follow Numan on his road back to Wembley and follow his turbulent careers, from the crushing lows to the exhilarating highs.

Artist David Hockney discusses his theory that artists were secretly using optical devices such as mirrors and lenses in creating their work as early as the 15th century.

Documentary about the painter Lucian Freud.

A documentary about the work and personality of artist David Hockney.

The English novelist, John Le Carré discusses his life as a secret agent and writer in this documentary about spies in fact and fiction, produced for British television.

Biographer Sir John Richardson and Picasso’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, are the star witnesses in a documentary that reassesses the artist’s output in the years before his death in 1973. The story is of a creative spirit finding new impetus in response to both death’s approach and the censure of contemporaries and critics. Those who were members of Picasso’s private inner circle – gossip about his lifestyle also helped to fire him back up – put the later work forward as some of his frankest, wittiest and most profound.

In a definitive and moving film to mark her 75th birthday, artist and national treasure Maggi Hambling tells her story while working on a mysterious black canvas.

Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects - the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century. Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She engages us with the beauty and brilliance in the designs, revelling in what is now often viewed as unfashionably pretty or ostentatious. These objects represent the unbelievable skills of 18th-century France, as well as the desires and demands of an autocratic regime that was heading for revolution.

Lucian Freud, the controversial grandson of Sigmund Freud, has been called one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. His extraordinary portraits - of children, lovers, gangsters, supermodels, even the Queen of England - pushed the boundaries of art and broke world records at auction. They also enraged sitters and ended friendships. The royal photographer for The Times of London was so incensed by Freud's picture of the Queen that he said Freud should be thrown from the Tower of London. Freud, who died last summer, was notoriously elusive. Shortly before his death, however, he gave his full backing to this documentary. The film includes the only known footage of him painting on what turned out to be the last day he ever worked.