9x1 - Sir Alec Guinness

October 6, 1985

9x2 - Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor

October 13, 1985

9x3 - Ian McKellen, Diary of a Year

October 20, 1985

9x4 - Theatre of Comedy workshop

October 27, 1985

9x5 - Pete Townshend: After the Fire

November 3, 1985

9x6 - Sir Stephen Spender

November 10, 1985

9x7 - Marguerite Duras

November 17, 1985

9x8 - Karole Armitage

November 24, 1985

9x9 - Peter Shaffer

December 1, 1985

9x10 - John Cleese

January 12, 1986

Cleese was silently scripting A Fish Called Wanda at the time this interview was filmed. It is not mentioned in this program. What is mentioned is Cleese's spectrum of work from sketch comedy to industrial training films to therapeutical books. Video clips include sequences from Cleese's classics: At Last the 1948 Show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Fawlty Towers.

9x11 - Vladimir Ashkenazy

January 19, 1986

9x12 - Paul Schrader

January 26, 1986

9x13 - Purcell's Dido and Aenaes

February 2, 1986

9x14 - Patrick Heron

February 9, 1986

9x15 - Blue Note Records

February 16, 1986

9x16 - Michala Petri

February 23, 1986

9x17 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

March 2, 1986

9x18 - Absolute Beginners (film)

March 9, 1986

9x19 - Arthur Boyd

March 23, 1986

9x20 - Hal Prince: Rethinking the Musical

April 6, 1986

9x21 - British Soap Operas

April 13, 1986

9x22 - Hull Truck Theatre Company

April 20, 1986

9x23 - Velvet Underground

April 27, 1986

The South Bank Show’s Velvet Underground documentary contains interviews with Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker, Nico, Andy Warhol and lots of early Velvet performance footage.

9x24 - Al Jolson

May 4, 1986