Sky Arts Documentaries

The extraordinary story of Qianlong’s Garden over three centuries of Chinese history, from its Imperial past to the fast-paced modern China today

Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene, the first American-produced documentary about Greene, weaves his novels, including "The Quiet American," "Brighton Rock," "The End of the Affair" and "The Third Man," and moves into the story of his life and reveals an extraordinary man who travelled the globe to escape the boredom of ordinary existence. Participants include; novelists John Mortimer, John Le Carré and David Lodge, writer Paul Theroux, former CIA operative and author Frederick Hitz, and Greene’s daughter Caroline Bourget. Greene’s writing captures the essence of what it means to be human: The struggle between faith and doubt, love and betrayal, action and inaction, the individual and the state. Greene famously warned writers to avoid personal, political and ideological ties: A writer must “have a sliver of ice in his heart,” he said, and “be a piece of grit in the State machinery.” After Greene’s death in 1991, Paul Gray wrote in TIME Magazine, “No serious writer of the twentieth century has more thoroughly influenced the public imagination than Graham Greene.” His influence continues. Greene is quoted on average 100 times every month in publications around the world, and the British Film Institute recently voted The Third Man the industry’s best British film. While Greene’s work and influence are apparent, Greene the man remains an enigma. Despite repeated suicide attempts, he lived to be 86. He was a British spy who befriended traitor Kim Philby. He was a committed Catholic who referred to himself as a “Catholic agnostic.” He craved anonymity, yet his writing made him famous. Greene attributed such incongruities to manic depression. Rather than allowing his condition to cripple him, however, he channelled it into enormous creativity, and from his death wish ultimately sprang an acute awareness of the value of life.

Eric Clapton, Traffic's Dave Mason, The Rolling Stones' Mick Taylor, Slash and Ginger Baker from Cream pay tribute to the man who could play the guitar upside- down and back to front, with his teeth or while it was on fire. In this documentary, they discuss how, in many ways, Jimi Hendrix wrote the book on the electric guitar and left behind a range of sounds, riffs and styles that musicians have been trying to emulate ever since his death.

The inspiring world of Leonard da Vinci is brought to life by acclaimed BAFTA winning actor Peter Capaldi in a unique dramatised documentary Inside The Mind of Leonardo is based on the artist’s private journals dating from the Italian Renaissance. With over 6,000 pages of handwritten notes and drawings, da Vinci’s private journals are the most comprehensive documents that chronicle the work of the world’s most renowned inventor, philosopher, painter and genius. Using this precious collection of writings and drawings to recount Da Vinci’s story in his own words, and combining them with stunning visual effects and 3D technology, we re-create the mindscape and ideas of mankind’s greatest polymath. In a powerfully haunting performance, award-winning actor Peter Capaldi portrays Leonardo and dramatically narrates passages and monologues from these journals. Capaldi captures the passion of Leonardo’s ambition, his opinion of the world and his views on art and life. From the epic to the ordinary, Inside the Mind of Leonardo explores how Leonardo experienced the world around him. Following a biographical narrative, the feature captures the artist’s thwarted ambitions, hurt, anger and sexual desire as documented within his diaries, but also the mundanities of normal life: his shopping lists, health tips and bawdy jokes.

Documentary exploring the Significance, meaning and challenges of the Irish playwright and poet Samuel Beckett's dramatic monologue Not I, with Lisa Dwan performing her acclaimed interpretation of the piece.

The critically acclaimed British singer-songwriter Roy Harper appears in this exclusive new documentary film. Shot mainly at his home in the Irish countryside near Cork, it traces his intriguing career as he records new material. Man and Myth is Harper's first studio album for 13 years. Examining the work that made him famous, respected and much loved, this film includes special interviews with fellow legendary musicians Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Johnny Marr.