Only Artists

Chantal Joffe was Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts until 2019, and is renowned for her bold, large-scale portraits of women, and for her self-portraits. She has won the Charles Wollaston Award for the 'most distinguished work' in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, chosen from more than 1300 entries. In 2018 she set herself the challenge of creating a self-portrait every day.

Olivia Laing's books include The Lonely City, a reflection on what it means to be alone, which has been translated into 17 languages and sold over 100,000 copies, and The Trip to Echo Spring, which focuses on the connections between creativity and alcohol. Her novel Crudo, set in the summer of 2017, was widely acclaimed and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2019.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Helen Cammock's work explores social history through film, photography and performance. She won the Max Mara Prize last year and is nominated for this year's Turner prize for her film The Long Note, which focuses on the role of women in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Suhayla El-Bushra has written extensively for TV including episodes of Hollyoaks and Ackley Bridge. Her plays include The Arabian Nights for the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, and she has also written for the National Theatre. She is currently adapting the novel The Long Song by Andrea Levy.

Producer: Clare Walker

The artist Helen Cammock meets the playwright Suhayla El-Bushra.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Kamila Shamsie was born in Pakistan, and has published seven novels. Last year she won the Women's Prize for Fiction with Home Fire, the story of two British Muslim sisters, and their jihadist brother - who wants to come home.

Akram Khan first danced professionally as a young teenager, and formed his own company almost 20 years ago. He appeared in the London 2012 opening ceremony, and last year he gave his final performance dancing in a full-length piece. His latest work Outwitting the Devil is inspired by a newly discovered fragment of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's earliest surviving works of literature.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Karine Polwart is Scottish songwriter and musician. She was BBC Radio 2's Folk Singer Of The Year in 2018.

Jen Frankwell is a visual artist and leatherworker, handcrafting sporrans and kiltbelts . She has created artworks for Karine's latest album, The Scottish Songbook, in which she re-interprets Scottish pop songs from the past 50 years.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Katie Paterson is an award-winning artist whose conceptual works have included the sounds of melting glaciers and a map of 27,000 dead stars. She also sent a meteorite back into space. An exhibition of her work can be seen at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art until May 2020.

The best-selling author David Mitchell has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize twice - for number9dream and Cloud Atlas. Next year he will publish his ninth novel.

Photo © Brendan McNeill

Producer Katy Hickman

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Marek Reichman has designed cars for some of the world's best-known marques and is currently chief creative officer at Aston Martin. Born in Sheffield, he graduated from Teesside University with a degree in industrial design and continued his studies in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art.

Peter Saville was in his mid-20s when he created renowned album covers for Factory Records' bands including Joy Division and New Order. Since then he has worked with leading fashion designers and musicians and was appointed creative director of the city of Manchester.

Producer: Paula McGinley

Industrial designer Marek Reichman meets graphic designer Peter Saville.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Max Richter has composed eight solo albums including The Blue Notebooks, Vivaldi Recomposed and Sleep, an eight and half hour long exploration into nocturnal neuroscience. His music has been used extensively in film, television, dance, opera and theatre.

Tacita Dean captures landscapes, the sea, clouds, solar eclipses, portraits and still life in paint, chalk and film. She works primarily in film and has fought for the survival of 16 and 35mm film production and processing.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Over the last 30 years, Nick Knight has worked with many of the biggest names in fashion and music, including Alexander McQueen, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. Other commissions include a 90th birthday portrait of Her Majesty the Queen.

Sir David Chipperfield has created prize-winning buildings around the world. In Britain, his most notable works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley, the Hepworth Wakefield gallery, and the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate. One of his earliest commissions was a house for Nick Knight - where they met for this conversation.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Nina Mae Fowler finds inspiration in the cinema past and present. She has created large scale pencil and graphite drawings of stars from Hollywood's Golden age, and her portraits of leading British film directors are on show at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Nick Park is an Oscar-winning animator, writer and director best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts and Shaun the Sheep.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Antony Gormley is best known for the giant Angel of the North near Gateshead. His work can also be seen at Crosby Beach on Merseyside, where 100 cast-iron figures stand looking out to sea. His current exhibition, at the Royal Academy in London, includes a work called Clearing, which fills a gallery with 8 km of aluminium tube, and Host, which floods another with earth and seawater.

Producer Clare Walker

Novelist Roddy Doyle meets the sculptor Antony Gormley.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Sandy has 14 Academy Award nominations, including two this year for The Favourite and Mary Poppins Returns. She has won three Oscars - for Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator and The Young Victoria - and has worked extensively with Martin Scorsese, most recently on The Irishman.

Simon works with leading fashion houses such as Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci and Stella McCartney. He collaborated with Alexander McQueen to stage his spectacular catwalk shows. He is also Director of the Museum of British Folklore, and the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Tony performs under the name Longfella, which describes his 6ft 5in frame. His first collection of verse, Sex & Love & Rock&Roll, was published in 2015. He came to worldwide attention in May 2017 when he recited his poem This is the Place at the vigil following the Manchester Arena bombing.

Julie played Hayley Cropper on Coronation Street for 16 years, and has appeared in acclaimed TV series including Broadchurch and Happy Valley. On stage she recently took the title role in Brecht's Mother Courage at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. She runs a theatre company, Take Back, which stages performances of short scripts written in response to current events.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Producer: Clare Walker

Writer Tracy Chevalier meets ceramicist Edmund de Waal at his studio.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists is a new series which takes its title from the first two sentences of The Story of Art by the renowned art historian E. H. Gombrich: 'There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists.' There is no presenter, just two artists - from different disciplines - discussing creative questions, processes or decisions. It's up to them.

Can computer games be called art?

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Before turning to writing, Keggie made a career as a conceptual artist, painting, running a studio space and a shop called 'theworldthewayiwantit'. Her first book, Dadland, won the 2016 Costa Award for Biography. It describes her long and complex investigation into the life of her father Tom, a World War 2 hero who parachuted behind enemy lines into both France and Burma, set against his decline into dementia towards the end of his life.

Original Music by Brian Eno

Produced by Alex Mansfield.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists is a new series which takes its title from the first two sentences of The Story of Art by the renowned art historian E. H. Gombrich: 'There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists.' There is no presenter, just two artists - from different disciplines - discussing creative questions, processes or decisions. It's up to them.

What's it like to make your art in the moment?

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

As a film-maker Sally records the city at one moment - so what techniques does Iain use to document his surroundings and their changes over decades?

Sally El Hosaini was born in Swansea, the daughter of a Welsh mother and an Egyptian father. Her first feature film, My Brother the Devil, won the best screenplay award from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and numerous international prizes. Sally herself received the Best Newcomer award at the 2012 London Film Festival. My Brother the Devil charts how two brothers are drawn into gang crime in East London, where Sally has lived for for more than a decade.

The writer Iain Sinclair was born in Cardiff. Since the early 1970s, his work has focused on London and its surrounds. From his home in Hackney, he has almost obsessively walked the city's changing streets, recording details and finding patterns. For his much-acclaimed book London Orbital he followed the route of the M25 motorway on foot. He has said that his next book - The Last London - will be his final word on the capital.

Producer Alex Mansfield

Original music by Brian Eno.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

David Adjaye's most notable recent building is the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, which was opened by President Obama in September 2016. Since then, well over a million people have visited. David Adjaye reflects on the creation of a building which had to act both as a monument and a museum, and reveals the important role water played in his thinking, partly influenced by the words of Martin Luther King.

He also discusses how his travels throughout Africa have influenced his ideas about the fundamental role of buildings within specific landscapes and climates, and reflects on how the political power of architecture can establish a civic or national identity, using the long history of Rome as an example.

Producer Clare Walker

With original music by Brian Eno.

The artist Yinka Shonibare meets international architect Sir David Adjaye.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

His other clients include Paul McCartney, who commissioned Steven and his design partner Tim Whitmore to create his London headquarters. Steven remembers the freedom he was given to create a retail world unlike any other, and reflects on having the confidence to say yes to creative opportunities - regardless of experience. He also outlines his belief that the pressure of a deadline and some moments of zen-like calm in the midst of a busy office can lead to the best ideas.

Producer Clare Walker

Original music by Brian Eno.

Comedian and painter Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) meets Biba shop designer Steven Thomas.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

They meet at Yellow Arch Studios, where he has recorded all his albums, and talk about the way in which the city of Sheffield has inspired his work. Keggie and Richard also muse on the subject of time; how his songs often seem to stretch it, why he decided to go slow, and the importance of sharing time with their fathers towards the end of their lives.

Producer Clare Walker.

Artist and biographer Keggie Carew meets producer and singer-songwriter Richard Hawley.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Rob and Nick work with new technology, light and photography. Realising that most gallery goers only spend seconds looking at an artwork, they make us slow down by creating three hour films in which Old Master paintings and drawings are digitally re-imagined: a Sleeping Venus breathes and opens her eyes; a frog slowly decomposes; and the insects round a vase of flowers from the Dutch Golden Age begin to fly and crawl as the blooms flutter in the breeze. Rob and Nick Carter are the only living artists to be shown alongside the Old Masters at the renowned Frick Collection in New York.

Their recent work includes Oak Grove, nine identical full-size tree stumps, cast in bronze. They are based on a drawing from 1600, and created using 3D printing along with bronze casting, to reproduce every detail of the bark and wood. The stumps are currently arranged in a circle in Kensington Gardens, London, where visitors can sit, climb or play on them.

Producer Clare Walker.

Surrealist Nancy Fouts meets the artist duo Rob and Nick Carter, who create digital art.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

In her art, she often brings these objects together in surprising combinations. A stuffed budgie perches on the bar of an electric heater, an opened purse bares its teeth, a rifle is painstakingly covered in hundreds of rose thorns. Each piece is crafted and executed with precision. Nancy's home is meticulously organised - with her work on the walls, her studio in the basement, and countless cupboards full of her collections.

Producer: Clare Walker.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Jonathan Yeo's subjects include David Attenborough, Malala Yousafzai, Grayson Perry and numerous Hollywood stars. He has also been an official General Election artist, and has painted Tony Blair, David Cameron and Charles Kennedy.

Musician and composer William Orbit has won worldwide renown for his work as a music producer, most notably for his recordings with Madonna. Other high-profile collaborations include work with Blur, U2 and Britney Spears, along with albums he has released under his own name. He began by setting up his own studio, with equipment bought from a nearby junk shop.

Series producers Alex Mansfield and Clare Walker.

Painter Jonathan Yeo meets music producer William Orbit.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Alice Lowe wrote, directed and starred in the acclaimed comedy slasher film Prevenge, which she made while pregnant. Her work on screen as an actor includes roles in Hot Fuzz, Horrible Histories and the horror parody series Garth Marenghi.

By the age of 20, Toyah Willcox had appeared on stage at the National Theatre, recorded an album and taken a leading role in Derek Jarman's film Jubilee, as the flame-haired pyromaniac Mad. Since then she has acted in more than forty plays, recorded over a dozen studio albums, and appeared in numerous feature films - alongside icons such as Katherine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier. She is currently performing as Elizabeth 1 in a stage version of Jubilee.

Director and actor Alice Lowe meets singer and actor Toyah Willcox.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

For Only Artists, he meets the painter Mark Alexander. Mark attended art school as a mature student: before that, he had trained as a silversmith, before finding better paid work in factories, where he moved from job to job, becoming a charge hand and then a quality inspector in the aerospace industry.

As a painter, his works include versions of Van Gogh's Dr Gachet, rendered entirely in shades of black, and portraits of Beethoven, following a residency at Beethoven's house in Bonn.

Producer Clare Walker.

Artist Humphrey Ocean meets painter Mark Alexander.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Mark's best-selling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time has won numerous awards and become an internationally successful play. Most recently he published his first ever collection of short stories called The Pier Falls.

Tai Shan Schierenberg won the National Portrait Gallery's Portraiture Award in 1989, and the Ondaatje Prize in 2011. His works hang in the National Portrait Gallery and notable sitters include the Queen with Prince Philip, Seamus Heaney and Stephen Hawking.

Producer: Clare Walker.

Writer Mark Haddon meets portrait and landscape painter Tai Shan Schierenberg.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Maxine Peake was born just outside Bolton. Her television credits include leading roles in the series Dinnerladies, Shameless and Silk. In 2014 she played Hamlet at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. She has written for radio and the stage, and her play about Lillian Bilocca - who campaigned for better safety in the fishing industry - was part of Hull's City of Culture celebrations.

Cosey Fanni Tutti was born in Hull, and began her artistic career there in 1969, when she joined a subversive art collective called COUM Transmissions. Founded by Genesis P-Orridge, the group staged surreal events or interventions around Hull and beyond. Cosey worked for two years as a model for sex magazines and films to create a show about pornography and the sex industry called Prostitution. When it opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1976, it prompted walkouts, made headlines, and provoked questions in Parliament. Cosey co-founded the industrial music band Throbbbing Gristle with Genesis P-Orridge, Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter. Chris and Cosey later created their own band and now perform under the name Carter Tutti.

Producer Clare Walker.

Actor and writer Maxine Peake meets musician and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

For Only Artists she meets Hussein Chalayan at the Place Theatre, the home of the London Contemporary Dance School.

Hussein Chalayan has twice won the Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, and was awarded the MBE in 2006. He was born in Cyprus and moved to Britain with his family when he was 8. From his first graduation collection which he left to decompose buried in a garden, to a coffee table which transforms into a skirt and remote-control dresses, Chalayan is known for his highly creative designs, worn by the likes of Bjork and Lady Gaga. He has made films, had his work shown in galleries and directed and designed a dance piece, Gravity Fatigue, at Sadler's Wells Theatre.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh meets fashion designer Hussein Chalayan.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Tariq has published six novels, and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. His latest, Nature and Necessity, charts the lives of a dysfunctional family over 30 years. Its matriarch, Petula Montague, has been described as 'a great new monster of English fiction'.

Brett is a singer and songwriter, who co-founded the band Suede. Three of Suede's albums have topped the British charts, and they won the Mercury Prize in 1993. Earlier this year, Brett published a memoir, Coal Black Mornings, about his unconventional childhood on a council estate just outside Hayward's Heath, and his initial struggles for success as a musician.

Producer Clare Walker.

Novelist and publisher Tariq Goddard meets singer and songwriter Brett Anderson of Suede.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Hollie won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry in 2016, and has published five books of her poems. Her most recent book, Plum, draws on memories and writing from childhood and her teenage years, along with her experiences as a parent. She first made her name as a performance poet, and her videos have received millions of views online.

Paapa played Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016 - the first black actor to take the role for the RSC. The production toured the UK earlier this year, and also travelled to North America. Paapa first joined the RSC in 2012, shortly after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has also worked at the National Theatre, and at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol.

Producer Clare Walker.

Poet Hollie McNish meets actor Paapa Essiedu, best known for playing Hamlet for the RSC.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Louise lives in Glasgow and is the author of eight novels, including The Cutting Room, Naming the Bones, and the Plague Times trilogy, which imagines a world ravaged by a pandemic.

Duggie studied at the Chelsea School of Art in the 1960s, and is known for his colourful geometric canvases, inspired by pop and classical culture. For the past 50 years, he has lived and worked in the same Earls Court flat- which he once shared with Syd Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd. A re-creation of the flat is currently on show in Glasgow - complete with paint-spattered floor, furniture, and life-sized photographs of the walls, covered in art-works.

Producer Clare Walker.

Glasgow-based novelist Louise Welsh meets artist Duggie Fields.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Tori was born in North Carolina and released her first solo album, Little Earthquakes, in 1992. It has sold more than two million copies around the world. She has released 14 more studio albums, winning eight Grammy nominations. Her musical, The Light Princess, premiered at the National Theatre in 2013.

Most recently, Natalie has co-written the screenplay for In Darkness, a psychological thriller.

Producer Clare Walker.

Actress Natalie Dormer meets singer-songwriter Tori Amos.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Sadie Clayton launched her eponymous brand in 2015, 2 years after graduating from Kingston University, and has gone on to show on the catwalks of London, Berlin and Shanghai. Her signature fabric is copper and her architectural designs have been worn by Gigi Hadid, Skin and Ellie Goulding, as well as being exhibited in art galleries around the world.

Ron Arad is an award-winning industrial designer, artist, and architect. He was born in Israel and went to the Jerusalem Academy of Art and later the Architectural Association in London. His career as a designer began in 1981 with the Rover chair, a recycled car seat anchored on a tubular steel frame, and he has gone on to design everything from furniture to eyewear to skyscrapers.

For Only Artists Ron Arad gives Sadie Clayton a tour of his studio in North London where they discuss serendipity, escaping the design label and what to do with two thousand plumbing saddles. The sketches they make of each other can be seen in the Gallery on the home page.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Steven Isserlis is one of the world's top cellists. He's acclaimed for his musicianship, technical mastery and thrilling performances. He is a chamber musician as well as a concerto soloist and appears regularly with the world's leading orchestras. He gives frequent masterclasses and has written books for children about the lives of the great composers. He has premiered many new works, including John Tavener's The Protecting Veil which was written for him.

Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright and novelist. He has won the Costa book of the year award twice for his novels The Secret Scripture and Days Without End. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009 and named the laureate for Irish Fiction this year.

For Only Artists, Steven and Sebastian reflect on how their family histories have influenced their work, on the fear and ecstasy of performance, and why listening is vital to writing.

Music played by Steven Isserlis: J.S. Bach's Cello Suite No 5 in C minor, John Tavener's The Protecting Veil and Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major.

Producer Katy Hickman.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Tracey Thorn formed the duo Everything But The Girl in 1982 with fellow singer-songwriter Ben Watt when they were both students at Hull University. Together they released nine studio albums, and in the mid-1990s their single Missing sold more than three million copies around the world. Since 2007, Tracey has released four solo albums, and published an acclaimed memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to be a Pop Star.

Carol Morley grew up in Stockport and was in a band by the age of 14, because she felt it was the place 'where real life took place' - although she now admits she couldn't sing. She later studied film and video. In 2011 she wrote and directed Dreams of a Life, an investigative drama-documentary about Joyce Carol Vincent, who died towards the end of 2003, but lay undiscovered in her London flat until early 2006. More recently she has scripted and directed Out Of Blue, based on the novel Night Train by Martin Amis.

For Only Artists, Carol and Tracey reflect on the art of editing, on whether the film and music industries have changed in the past decade, and the pleasures of writing - including the joy of finding an unusual rhyme when writing lyrics.

Producer Katy Hickman.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Amanda Levete's most recent work includes the bold new extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as major buildings in Lisbon, Melbourne and Bangkok. Her earlier work, with Jan Kaplicky, includes the Media Centre at Lords Cricket Ground, which won the Stirling Prize, and the Selfridges store in Birmingham.

Asif Kapadia's film Amy, about the life and death of Amy Winehouse, won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2016. His film about the Formula One champion Ayrton Senna was widely acclaimed, and he has also directed a documentary about the controversial football legend Diego Maradona, to be released next year.

Producer: Clare Walker

Architect Amanda Levete meets film-maker Asif Kapadia.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Don Paterson received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010, but when he left school at 16 he was aiming for a career in music, and worked as a guitarist and composer for many years. In 1993, his first volume of poems, Nil Nil, won the Forward Prize for the Best First Collection, and since then his work has won every major British award. He is professor of poetry at the University of St Andrews.

By his mid-20s, Thomas Ad耀s had won an international reputation as a composer, notably for his opera Powder Her Face, and his orchestral work Asyla, premiered by Simon Rattle in Birmingham. Since then he has written two more large scale operas, as well as numerous works for orchestra and for smaller groups. He is also a conductor and pianist.

Producer Clare Walker

Poet Don Paterson meets composer Thomas Ad\u00e8s.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Elizabeth Llewellyn first won wide critical acclaim in 2010, when she starred in Jonathan Miller's production of La Boh耀me at English National Opera. Her path to success was unconventional: she gave up singing at the age of 22, and worked as a project manager for an IT company for a decade before gradually returning to music. She has now performed in opera houses around the world, including leading roles in Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Porgy and Bess.

Amma Asante appeared in Grange Hill as a teenager, and moved on to writing and directing. In 2004 she won the best newcomer BAFTA for her film A Way of Life. She went on to direct Belle, which was inspired by a portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a girl born into slavery, but brought up in the house of a British lord. Her film A United Kingdom, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, opened the London Film Festival in 2016.

Producer Clare Walker

Opera singer Elizabeth Llewellyn meets film director and screenwriter Amma Asante.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Hossein Amini co-created and co-wrote the TV series McMafia, which focused on Russian gangsters and global organised crime. His screenplay for the film The Wings of the Dove, based on the novel by Henry James and starring Helena Bonham Carter, won an Oscar nomination. His other screenwriting credits include Drive, which starred Ryan Gosling.

Conor McPherson's play The Weir, first staged in 1997, was voted one of the most important plays of the 20th century in a National Theatre poll, and has been performed around the world. More recently Bob Dylan's representatives invited him to create a stage-work featuring Dylan songs. The resultant play, Girl from the North Country, was widely acclaimed in London, and opened earlier this year in New York, where the New York Times described McPherson as 'perhaps the finest English-language playwright of his generation'.

Producer Clare Walker

Screenwriter Hossein Amini meets playwright and director Conor McPherson.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Jackie Kay is currently the Scottish Makar or poet laureate. Her first collection, The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991, and drew on her own experience as a black child, adopted at birth by a white couple. Since then she has written prize-winning poetry, stories and fiction, as well as a memoir, Red Dust Road, about tracing and finding her birth parents.

In 2017 Lubaina Himid became the first black woman to win the Turner Prize - and its oldest winner, at the age of 63. Her paintings and installations often focus on hidden black history and creativity - so for her work Swallow Hard: The Lancastrian Dinner Service, she overpainted willow pattern plates with images of slavery. She lives and works in Preston and is professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire.

Producer Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Joanne Harris worked as a teacher for fifteen years, until the success of her novel Chocolat allowed her to write full time. Chocolat has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone, and became a film starring Juliette Binoche. Since then, Joanne's work includes 15 more novels, short stories, screenplays and three cookbooks. She has written four books inspired by her long-standing love of Norse mythology.

Howard Goodall's music has reached millions of listeners through his film and TV scores, which include Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley and Mr Bean. His choral work Eternal Light: a Requiem has received hundreds of performances around the world, and his West End musicals include The Hired Man and Bend It Like Beckham. He was also England's first National Ambassador for Singing, encouraging primary age children to sing together.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Katherine Parkinson is best known for her role as Jen in the Channel 4 sit-com The I T Crowd, which won her a British Comedy Award and a BAFTA. She has also appeared in the long-running drama Doc Martin and the science fiction series Humans. Her most recent stage work was at the National Theatre, where she starred as Judy - an obsessive housewife stuck in the 1950s - in Home, I'm Darling by Laura Wade. The production transfers to the West End next year.

Roxana Halls is a figurative painter who has exhibited across the UK and around the world. Her work has been included five times in the renowned BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, and has been selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show. She has won numerous prizes , and next year her art will feature in a touring show reflecting the life of Christine Keeler.

Producer: Clare Walker

Actor Katherine Parkinson meets artist Roxana Halls.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Norman, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, invites Robert to his studio in Bermondsey, London. They discuss their fascination with wild landscapes and islands, and how they attempt to come to a deeper understanding of place. They also share their thoughts on their working methods: for Norman, printmaking is like writing music - trying to capture and fix light and weather. For Robert, writing is a strange and solitary process: he reflects on the rhythm of prose and reads his latest `selkie` or seal-folk song.

Norman has been etching and painting for seven decades, with a focus on the British landscape - from the south of England to the most northerly parts of Scotland. His works are in the collections of leading museums and galleries around the world.

Robert has written widely about the natural world: his book The Old Ways is a best-selling exploration of Britain's ancient paths. In 2017 he published The Lost Words, a collaboration with the artist Jackie Morris, in which they aimed to bring nearby nature - the animals, trees and plants from our landscapes - back into the lives and stories of Britain's children.

Producer Clare Walker

The painter and print-maker Norman Ackroyd meets the writer Robert Macfarlane.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

The landscape painter and print-maker Norman Ackroyd meets the writer Robert Macfarlane.

Norman, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, invites Robert to his studio in Bermondsey, London. They discuss their fascination with wild landscapes and islands, and how they attempt to come to a deeper understanding of place. They also share their thoughts on their working methods: for Norman, printmaking is like writing music - trying to capture and fix light and weather. For Robert, writing is a strange and solitary process: he reflects on the rhythm of prose and reads his latest `selkie` or seal-folk song.

Norman has been etching and painting for seven decades, with a focus on the British landscape - from the south of England to the most northerly parts of Scotland. His works are in the collections of leading museums and galleries around the world.

Robert has written widely about the natural world: his book The Old Ways is a best-selling exploration of Britain's ancient paths. In 2017 he published The Lost Words, a collaboration with the artist Jackie Morris, in which they aimed to bring nearby nature - the animals, trees and plants from our landscapes - back into the lives and stories of Britain's children.

Producer Clare Walker

The painter and print-maker Norman Ackroyd meets the writer Robert Macfarlane.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

The tenor Stuart Skelton was born in Australia, and has appeared in leading opera houses and concert halls around the world. His most notable performances include the title role in Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten, and Tristan in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, with the conductor Sir Simon Rattle . He recently made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, playing Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walkure.

Chris Addison started out as a solo comedy performer and writer. He played Ollie, a hapless junior advisor, in Armando Iannucci's political satire The Thick of It, and also appeared in the spin-off film In the Loop. He has directed numerous episodes of the Emmy award-winning comedy Veep, set in the office of the Vice President of the United States, and is familiar as a panellist on shows such as Mock the Week.

Producer: Clare Walker

Opera singer Stuart Skelton meets comedian, actor and director Chris Addison.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Debbie Wiseman began composing at the age eight and has written over 200 scores for TV and film, including Wilde, starring Stephen Fry, Wolf Hall and Dickensian.

Peter Kosminsky's BAFTA winning fact-based dramas include No Child of Mine, about sexual abuse, and Warriors, which focused on the first British peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. More recently he has directed the multi-award winning TV series Wolf Hall, based on the novels by Hilary Mantel.

Producer: Clare Walker

Composer Debbie Wiseman meets film director Peter Kosminsky.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Iqbal Khan was born in Birmingham. His productions include innovative stagings of Othello and Much Ado About Nothing for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Benjamin Zephaniah is also from Birmingham. He's written more than a dozen books of poems, as well as novels, plays and children's books.

Producer: Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Haroon Mirza was born in London and was obsessed by audio technology from an early age. He has exhibited his work widely around the UK and overseas. His installations have often mixed old-fashioned radios, TVs and gramophones with film loops, light and sound to explore sensory perception.

Fashion designer Osman Yousefzada meets artist Haroon Mirza.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Richard Long is one of Britain's best known land artists: using natural materials such as soil, rocks, water and vegetation in works sited in rural landscapes. He lives and works in Bristol, the city of his birth and has been shortlisted four times for the Turner Prize.

Nitin Sawhney is a musician, instrumentalist, composer and producer with over 20 studio albums to his name. He writes music for film, videogames, dance and theatre and received the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017.

Producer: Clare Walker

The artist Richard Long meets the musician Nitin Sawhney.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Sara Pascoe is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor, appearing on shows including W1A and Mock the Week. Her first book, Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body investigated sexuality and evolutionary history. Her current show, Lads Lads Lads, chronicles her efforts to be happily single after the breakup of a four-year relationship.

Bryony Kimmings tackles taboos, stigmas and social injustice in her shows. In Sex Idiot she retraced an STI to its source and in 7 Day Drunk she investigated the link between intoxication and creativity. Her latest show is about motherhood, postnatal depression and finding inner strength. Her first screenplay, Last Christmas, written with Emma Thompson, is in production now.

Producer: Clare Walker

The comedian Sara Pascoe meets the performance artist Bryony Kimmings.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Josie Rourke is the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre, where her productions include Coriolanus, with Tom Hiddleston in the title role, and The Vote, by James Graham, with a cast including Judi Dench and Catherine Tate. Her first film, Mary Queen of Scots, was released in January.

The principal dancer of ENB, Tamara Rojo, meets theatre and film director Josie Rourke.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Tom Hiddleston's screen credits include The Night Manager on television, and the Thor and Avengers films in the cinema. On stage he has played Coriolanus to great acclaim, and is currently starring in Betrayal by Harold Pinter.

Nicholas Britell received Academy Award nominations for his scores for the films If Beale Street Could Talk and Moonlight. He also wrote the music for Vice, the recent film about Dick Cheney.

Actor Tom Hiddleston talks to composer Nicholas Britell.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Vin Deighan was born in Glasgow and draws under the name Frank Quitely. He is one of the leading artists in American comics, working for Marvel and DC on superheroes including Batman, Superman, and the X-men. He started drawing cartoon strips for the Glasgow underground comic Electric Soup in 1989 and continues to write and design his own short stories. An exhibition of his work was held at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow in 2017.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

David Lan was the artistic director of the Young Vic in London for 18 years, winning the special Olivier Award in 2018 for his outstanding contribution to the stage. Born in South Africa, he trained as an actor, and then gained PhD in social anthropology, before working as a writer and director.

Nico Muhly has written more than 80 works, including the opera Marnie, staged by English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including Philip Glass and Bjork, and his recent work for the screen includes the score for the BBC TV drama Howards End. Three of his compositions have inspired new dance works, currently being performed at Sadlers Wells.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

In 2016 Jess Gillam became the first-ever saxophonist to reach the final of the BBC Young Musician competition, and in 2018 she was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms. Her debut album Rise topped the UK classical charts. She also presents This Classical Life on BBC Radio 3.

Gail Ann Dorsey was a member of David Bowie's band from 1995 until his death. She would often duet with him on stage, including taking the part originally performed by Freddie Mercury on Under Pressure. She has released three solo albums and has worked with a wide range of artists, including Tears for Fears, Boy George and Charlie Watts.

Producer Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

The saxophonist Jess Gillam meets the bass guitarist Gail Ann Dorsey.

In 2016 Jess Gillam became the first-ever saxophonist to reach the final of the BBC Young Musician competition, and in 2018 she was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms. Her debut album Rise topped the UK classical charts. She also presents This Classical Life on BBC Radio 3.

Gail Ann Dorsey was a member of David Bowie's band from 1995 until his death. She would often duet with him on stage, including taking the part originally performed by Freddie Mercury on Under Pressure. She has released three solo albums and has worked with a wide range of artists, including Tears for Fears, Boy George and Charlie Watts.

Producer Clare Walker

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Charles Avery grew up on the island of Mull. For more than 15 years, he has worked on a single project - the invention of an imaginary island, creating its people, settlements, landscapes, forests and creatures through paint, sculpture and text. The main town is called Onomatopoeia, and it's rumoured that the island is home to an elusive beast called the Noumenon.

Producer Clare Walker

The writer Lavinia Greenlaw meets the artist Charles Avery.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.

Simon Stephens has created more than 30 works for the theatre. They include original dramas, such as Punk Rock, set in the library of a Stockport school, new versions of plays by Chekhov and Ibsen, and the highly successful stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which won the Olivier Award for the best new play, and the Tony Award for the best play on Broadway.

Simon Armitage is the current national Poet Laureate, a role he began in May 2019. He published his first full-length collection of poems, Zoom!, in 1989. Since then has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry, along with fiction, an acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, works for theatre, film, television and radio, and a book about of his love of pop music, and his band The Scaremongers.

Producer Clare Walker

The playwright Simon Stephens meets the poet Simon Armitage.

~Only Artists brings two artists together to talk about their creative work.