Episode 1 - Being Hamlet

Alan Yentob follows Welsh actor Wayne Cater and three other Hamlet hopefuls as they prepare for a Shakespeare role that has become a rite of passage for all who have taken it on. With advice and support from ex-Hamlets Ralph Fiennes, Derek Jacobi, David Warner, Jonathan Pryce and Simon Russell Beale.

Episode 2 - The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens

Alan Yentob presents a documentary telling the story of Yusuf Islam - the singer/songwriter who captured the hearts of a generation in the 60s and 70s with songs like Moon Shadow and Morning Has Broken under the name Cat Stevens. Yusuf explains that his hit songs were written to help him out of a spiritual depression, and that he shared with his listeners a quest for a deeper meaning to life. After a decade of flirting with religion he finally converted - after a near drowning incident off Malibu beach he promised to serve God if he was saved; he was and it was to the Koran he turned. Now one of Britain's foremost representatives of Islam, founder of a Muslim School paid for by his royalties, he has finally returned to the music he abandoned 23 years ago.

Episode 3 - The Ingenious Thomas Heatherwick

Alan Yentob presents a documentary profiling Thomas Heatherwick, most famous as the creator of the enormous sculpture The B of the Bang in Manchester. Heatherwick has established himself as one of the most exciting and innovative figures in British design. Described as a new Leonardo, he has turned his talents to everything from artworks and architecture to extraordinary feats of engineering and an ingenious handbag.

Episode 4 - A Picture of the Painter Howard Hodgkin

Alan Yentob presents a profile of painter Howard Hodgkin. Despite being one of Britain's most successful living artists, he doesn't like talking about his work and no one has seen him paint for over 20 years. With a major retrospective coming up at Tate Britain, he travels with Yentob to India, which has been described as his emotional lifeline. They seek out some of the great monuments of the Mogul empire, visit Hodgkin's huge mural in New Delhi, and go in search of the perfect Bombay sunset.

Episode 6 - The Beatles in "Love"

Episode 7 - Yusuf Islam - The artist formerly known as Cat Stevens

Yusuf Islam is the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens BBC1 screened an outstanding Imagine documentary about the superstar who vanished from the stage. At the end of his final performance in 1979, he told the audience: “We’ve only got one life and we’ve got to do the best with it. “You’ve got to find the right path and when you do, you know it. So I pray that you find the right path. Inshallah. Goodbye.” Last Sunday, the same channel broadcast Yusuf’s return to the stage at London’s Porchester Hall. It saw classic songs like Father and Son and Peace Train alongside tracks from his “comeback” album An Other Cup. Imbued with a sense of the years that have gone by and Yusuf’s own spiritual outlook, it was a stunning 50 minutes of television. The singer-songwriter and his backing musicians created some truly magical moments, as his grandchild slept in the audience. They included “a slight change to an old song, called Wild World, with some new words…in Zulu”. The evening begins at 8.30pm with a 1971 TV studio concert, screened again on BBC4 last year. That’s followed at 9.10pm by the 2006 Imagine profile and then at 10.05pm comes that repeat of his first solo concert in almost 30 years. In a week when a terror trial has again dominated news headlines, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens carries a Muslim message of peace. Peace Train was originally released in 1971 – during the Vietnam War – on the album Teaser and the Firecat. Some 36 years later, the anthem for peace is still out on the edge of darkness and in the hands of a remarkable man.

Episode 9 - And Then There Was Television

Exploring the development of television and the BBC on the 70th anniversary of the first highly defined TV broadcast from Alexandra Palace. Alan Yentob follows pioneering engineers and on-screen talent back to the studios, where they reminisce about the early days, including the famous potter's wheel 'interlude' shown when the cameras failed. Alan Yentob celebrates the 70th anniversary of the world's first scheduled high-definition television service, by the BBC from Alexandra Palace in 1936. He take some of the pioneering engineers and on-screen talent back to the studios to see what they can remember of TV's early days - from Picture Page to Muffin the Mule to the first news programme and the potter's wheel 'interlude'. Plus, some amazing archive footage and the Queen's 1953 coronation, TV's big breakthrough to mass acceptance.