Claire Whalley

Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy

The unique life and talent of Caroline Aherne is celebrated in a new Arena film, featuring unseen photographs and contributions from a cast of her lifelong friends, including Steve Coogan, John Thomson, Craig Cash and producer Andy Harries.

The First Masterchef: Michel Roux on Escoffier

Michel Roux Jr explores the life and influence of his great culinary hero, Georges Auguste Escoffier. The man who turned eating into dining. The first great restaurant chef, Escoffier established restaurants in grand hotels all over the world and in these centres of luxury and decadence, the world's most glamorous figures of the day would mix: actresses and princes, duchesses and opera singers. Catering to this international jet set, Escoffier produced fabulous dishes that combined luxury and theatricality, elevating restaurant food to an art form. In a time of untold luxury and decadence, when money and pleasure combined like never before, he cooked and named dishes for all of London's society - from Queen Victoria and Bertie, the fun-loving Prince of Wales, to the most glamorous entertainers of the day - Oscar Wilde, the actress Sarah Bernhardt and opera singer Nellie Melba.

Brilliantman!

Ian Hedge is a very ordinary man who sees himself as a secret super hero with a mission to protect the distressed and vulnerable. Single and living in a rented room with his sour-tempered landlady Mrs Wardle, Ian works 'undercover' as a council worker and spends the days walking the streets of the city in a high viz jacket holding a trundle wheel, with his costume ready to go in his backpack.

Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled

This is the story of Queen Victoria as never heard before; a psychological insight of the woman told through her own words, her experiences recounted solely through her personal diaries and letters.

Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis's biographer A.N. Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia, a highly secretive man whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved.

The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood

Historian and author AN Wilson explores the life of Josiah Wedgwood. Wilson reveals the achievements of the self-made, self-educated creative giant famous for his pottery.

In Search of Wabi Sabi with Marcel Theroux

Marcel Theroux travels across Japan in an attempt to understand Wabi Sabi, a theory of Japanese aesthetics in which imperfection and transience are the touchstone of beauty.