Michael Whyte

In the almost six decades that Bown worked for The Observer, she became renowned for insightful, highly individualistic portraits of the famous. Some of these portraits are now regarded as classics of the genre - Samuel Beckett, Queen Elizabeth II, The Beatles, Bertrand Russell, Mick Jagger and Margaret Thatcher. For the first time, she spoke candidly about her career and revealed how her very personal approach to the taking of portraits is informed by a deep sense of loss and abandonment. This private portrait is enhanced by a series of insightful interviews with Jane’s peers, family, colleagues, friends, and of course some of her subjects.

6.6/10
10%

View the pace of life at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Notting Hill, home to a cloistered order of Carmelite nuns.

7.4/10

Drama series about the varied lives of a couple and their three grown-up daughters.

8/10

Abel Mason is a man caught in a loveless marriage with a harridan wife who constantly berates him and beats their son Dick. When the one woman he loves dies at the hands of her husband after he was sent a letter by Mason's wife, exposing the affair, Abel leaves her for good taking to the road and young Dick with him.

6.7/10

An Irish artist, widowed by an IRA bombing, gradually learns that the American man she has become involved with is not who he seems.

6.3/10

Intertwined story of the lives of two women; an Englishwoman suffering abuse from her violent husband, and a Russian poet serving hard labour because of her subversive work.

7.8/10

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

A rich old gourmet that has decided to taste all there is of exotic meals has already tried the most, even human flesh, when he gets a tip from a rich midget. The midget had tasted everything out of this world, and even something not of this world. In other words, a ghost. The gourmet gets very interested and the midget gives him the info that is needed. And once he has found a haunted place, all he has to do is wait for the ghost to turn up so he can have the most exotic meal in his career as a feinschmecker.

8.7/10

Fledge needs a job. He'll take anything. And when Dawlish gives him strange errands to run, for cash in hand, strictly 'on the palm', it's a welcome change from the dole. Until he finds himself digging dirt on an old friend....