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The South Bank Show is an award-winning television arts magazine show, made by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

It first aired on 14 January 1978, with a show about Germaine Greer, Gerald Scarfe and Paul McCartney. It is now the longest continuously running arts programme on UK television, and the third longest-running series of any kind on ITV (after Coronation Street and Emmerdale).

From the beginning the series intention was to mix so-called high art with popular culture. This has remained, and the programme has always focused predominantly on art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

It has been awarded more than 110 awards (including 12 BAFTAs, 6 Emmys, 5 Prix Italia and 4 RTS Awards). Even Pat Gavin's animated title sequences have won 2 BAFTAs.

There have been many subjects of the show including:

• Paul McCartney in 1978
• Ken Dodd in 1978
• Francis Ford Coppola in 1979
• Arthur Miller in 1980
• Sir Laurence Olivier in 1982
• Gene Hackman in 1983
• Sir Alec Guinness in 1985
• Francis Bacon in 1985
• John Cleese in 1986
• Robert Redford in 1989
• Pet Shop Boys in 1990
• Anthony Hopkins in 1992
• Sir John Mills in 1996
• Bee Gees in 1997
• Juan Diego Florez in 2000
• Ewan McGregor in 2003
• Sir Malcolm Arnold in 2004
• June Whitfield in 2007
• Annie Lennox in 2007
• Eric Clapton in 2007

Sir David Lean once said, "The best directors in Britain are working on The South Bank Show." Directors who have made editions of the programme include:

• Kim Evans
• Andy Harries
• Mary Harron
• Tony Knox
• Ken Loach
• Ken Russell
• Jeremy Marre
• James Ivory
• Sebastian Doggart
• Tony Palmer

The iconic image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam, used since the series' inception.

The famous theme music is taken from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations composed in 1977 for his brother, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. This is based on the theme from Paganini's "24th Caprice". The brand image of the programme is an animated version of a detail from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling painting, specifically the image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam. It shows the two hands meeting, generating a lightning bolt.

The comedy series Dead Ringers often parodies The South Bank Show. It does this in a series of sketches called South Bank, a cross between The South Bank Show and the American cartoon South Park, set in the South Bank of London. In these sketches, Melvyn Bragg is Stan Marsh, Alan Yentob is Kyle Broflovski, Mark Lawson is Eric Cartman and Kenneth Branagh is Kenny McCormick.

From 18 September 2006, ITV have begun releasing a podcast of the interviews from the show, including extra material that isn't broadcast. There are plans to release past interviews as part of the podcast as well.^[1]

• The South Bank Show at itv.com
• Complete list of subjects from epguides.com
• The South Bank Show at the Internet Movie Database
• Variations performance by Julian Lloyd Webber and Colosseum II

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