In 1988, art student Damien Hirst and associates mounted an exhibition in London's East End entitled Freeze. Its critical and commercial success propelled them into the spotlight of the avant-garde. This portrait of Hirst is presented as a drug-induced nightmare after Hirst has been put to sleep by a sinister dentist, played by Donald Pleasence.

Liza Minnelli refers to him most respectfully as Mr Abbott. Others call him the master stager of musicals and the apprentice's sorcerer. Since turning to musicals in the mid-30s, George Abbott has produced a stream of famous Broadway shows - including Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, On the Town, The Pajama Game and Pal Joey. And he has championed a succession of unknown writers and directors who have since become famous themselves - Leonard Bernstein, Sammy Cahn, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse and Hal Prince all got an early break with him. Now aged 106, the legendary Mr Abbott is about to revive his hit Damn Yankees on Broadway. Omnibus talks to him and his many co-stars about his glittering career. Producer: Ken Howard A Landseer production

Vikram Seth's novel A Suitable Boy is over 1,300 pages long and weighs several pounds. Yet it outsold popular novelists like Jilly Cooper and John Le Carre and has made an international star of its author. Film-maker Nadia Haggar travelled to Delhi to meet Seth's family as part of this profile, discovering the true stories that contributed to the complex narrative of A Suitable Boy. While composing his great prose work, Seth also found time to write Beastly Tales from Here and There (a collection of children's fables) and a libretto for the English National Opera. Excerpts from these and his earlier work feature in the film. Seth himself is seen at publishing parties in London, negotiating with his agent, and at a family reunion in Delhi, where he meets his music guru and other influential childhood figures. The profile was co-produced by Vikram Seth's sister, Aradhana Seth.

No one knows what trauma was experienced by the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya during his 40s but it left him profoundly deaf and dramatically changed both his style and the subjects he painted. The joyful, colourful celebrations of the Spanish people gave way to pictures of dark fantasy and bitingsatires on the corruption and social injustice of the time. His series of etchings The Disasters of War, which he produced when the French invaded Spain, still stand as the most terrible indictment of man's inhumanity to man. It seems as if his deafness sharpened his insight into his subjects. Leslie Megahey's film portrait of the twists and turns of Goya's life was first broadcast in 1972. It was made during a Spanish fiesta and uses a real street theatre performance, as well as the words of Goya and his contemporaries, to reflect different aspects of the artist's life. Now revised.

Sister Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th century nun, a composer of music, a scientist, painter and visionary. Arraigned by her Abbot for harbouring a suspected witch and for her "false" visions, Hildegard was eventually vindicated and founded her own women-only religious community at Bingen on the Rhine. Patricia Routledge plays the multi-talented nun in a dramatic re-creation of Hildegard's heroic career by James Runcie and Nigel Williams.

In the hothouse of the American dance world, choreographer Bill T Jones is one of the brightest stars. His 1990 work, Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin, shocked New York audiences with its confrontation of racism, sexism, sexuality, religion and AIDS, but brought standing ovations at its close when, every evening, the stage was occupied by 50 naked dancers. Mischa Scorer's Omnibus film follows Jones and his company during the creation of Last Supper, and explores the events in Jones's own life that inform his radical dance style. Born to a poor farming family in upstate New York, athlete Jones went to college to study theatre and in 1971 met Arnie Zane, the man who was to become his lover, life-long partner and co-founder of the dance company. When Zane died from an AIDS-related illness in 1988, Jones's world was shattered; Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin is, in part, his response to that loss.

From the stage of the Old Vic Theatre, where he first walked on in 1921, one of Britain's greatest actors Sir John Gielgud reflects on a career that has spanned over seven decades. Shown to coincide with Gielgud's 90th birthday this week, the programme, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, includes footage of his key performances as well as past interviews with him where he discussed his work, his life and his world. It also gives an insight into the actor and the man through the views of colleagues such as Sir Peter Hall, who reveals that he sometimes thinks of Gielgud as a "terrible old rascal sitting in the rehearsal room doing The Times crossword with an enormous fag ash hanging out of his mouth!" and Sir Alec Guinness who describes Gielgud's voice as "like silver trumpets muffled in silk". Producers: Charles Chabot and Ann Hummel

Theatrical producer and director Joan Littlewood has always been a controversial figure. Her extraordinary methods of directing have been much disputed, but despite this, she was responsible for some of the most memorable stage productions at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, during the 1950s and 60s. Now aged 80, Littlewood is as sharp, funny and outrageous as ever. For the first time on television she talks candidly about her life and her work, which includes hit shows such as Oh, What a Lovely War!, Fings Ain't What They Used to Be, and A Taste of Honey. And actors including Barbara Windsor, Richard Harris, Miriam Karlin, Victor Spinetti, and Lionel Bart give their own entertaining accounts of working with her. A Shooting Star production

In the week that a collection of Sir John Betjeman's letters is published, this documentary reflects on one of our most popular and engaging poets. Betjeman's poetry was accessible: it told of suburban correctness and indiscretions, urban loneliness and sadness and he made many films for the BBC which he felt were poems in their way, too. This portrait includes extracts from his much-loved Metroland, comments from some of his admirers such as Professor Malcolm Bradbury and Barry Humphries, as well as a sprinkling of classic Betjeman quotes ("I've always admired people who were taller than myself. I like freckles, turned-up noses, wide-apart grey-blue eyes and locks thrown loosely back, and sulky lips and a hint of latent power."). There are some rare insights, too, from Lady (Mary) Wilson and Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett-Green, who puts the record straight on some of the myths that have built up around him. Director: Rick Stroud

Robert Stephens arrives in London this week with rave notices for his performance in the Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear, opening at the Barbican Theatre. This Omnibus profile (the last of the current series) looks back at a stormy career and follows Stephens backstage at Stratford-upon-Avon as he prepares for and performs Shakespeare's tragedy. Stephens was one of the brightest stars of a theatrical generation that included Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris. His work at the Old Vic in the 60s made him a star, and his marriage to Maggie Smith propelled him into the showbusiness limelight. But it wasn't to last. Director: Nigel Williams

Discussion on the life and work of James McNeil Whistler. Re-creates some of his most famous paintings, in studio tableaux.

Doris Lessing, one of the most widely-acclaimed writers of her generation, talks about the years covered by her new book Under My Skin, from her childhood in colonial Rhodesia to her at age 30 leaving for England to publish her first novel, and how they shaped her intense, personal, radical style. Director: Randall Wright

As the latest offering by wunderkind of cinema Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction - opens this week in Britain, his cult classic Reservoir Dogs is still running in the cinemas, having been denied a certificate for video viewing because of its scenes of violence. This Omnibus profile delves into the background of one of Hollywood's most voguish directors. Director: David Thompson

A challenging history of the self portrait, from the first cave man who drew his image on the wall to today's provocative art, complementing several art exhibitions. Omnibus examines and contrasts many of the paintings included in the exhibitions and finds some striking connections. Director: Mark James

Though not starting out as a writer and journalist until he was 51, Dominick Dunne quickly sprang to fame in America for his coverage of high-profile criminal cases - most controversially the trial of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles. Omnibus looks at his chronicling of the rich in criminal situations, his view that a different set of rules apply to them - and the extraordinary events that changed his life. Director: Gillian Greenwood

The epic rise of one of the world's most successful bands, from its early days as a regular feature on the underground scene in the late 60s, through the heady years of the 70s when their classic Dark Side of the Moon seemed assured a permanent place in the album chart, to their current reappraisal as fathers of ambient rock. Includes interviews with band members and rare archive footage. Explores how the mental disintegration of their legendary songwriter, Syd Barrett, affected the group. Originally followed by film of Pink Floyd's 1994 sell-out concerts at Earl's Court, London. Producer: Caroline Wright

One of the 20th century's most distinctive artists, camera-shy master photographer Cartier-Bresson, now 86, makes a rare television appearance to talk about his life, philosophy and work. This documentary filmed in France is made by film-maker and photographer Sarah Moon , and has a short introduction by the art critic William Feaver.

The first of a two-part documentary celebrating the life and work of Robert Louis Stevenson, who died 100 years ago next Saturday. Among his works are some of the greatest classics of modern literature such as Kidnapped and Treasure Island. Producer: John Archer

The conclusion to the two-part documentary celebrating the life and work of Robert Louis Stevenson covers the last 14 years - the writing of his first novel Treasure Island; the story behind Jekyll and Hyde; a winter in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State which inspired The Master of Ballantrae; and his voyage in the Pacific where he was to die, on 3 December 1894, at the age of 44. The circumstances of his death are vividly recalled by an eyewitness, his stepdaughter Belle Strong, on a tape recording discovered in the course of making the programme. This much travelled man spent his final years a clan chieftain in Samoa, a Scottish exile witnessing native wars and who died before completing what remains, even unfinished, perhaps his greatest book, Weir of Hermiston.