Hidden Paintings

Liverpool actor Paul McGann goes in search of the North West's hidden war paintings. With 80 per cent of the national art collection in storage, there are thousands of hidden treasures in the basements and storerooms of our museums and galleries. McGann visits the Walker Art Gallery in his hometown and Manchester Art Gallery in search of the lost art of World War II. In Liverpool he is captivated by the work of Britain's youngest war artist and in Manchester he finds some long-lost depictions of the city's prodigious war effort.

Hardeep Singh Kohli goes behind the scenes at some of London's museums and galleries to find the hidden paintings of the sailors, slaves and scholars who shaped the city. Through the art, Hardeep discovers how the Thames became the entry point for thousands of foreigners in the 18th and 19th centuries, and how they established vibrant docklands communities. He explores how Irish migrants fleeing the potato famine helped build the city we know today but paid a heavy price for moving here, and discovers the portrait that inspired the slavery-abolition movement and helped change the course of history.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen uncovers a hidden painting with a remarkable story. The Badminton Game, by the Wiltshire artist David Inshaw, was once chosen by a prime minister to hang on the walls of 10 Downing Street. But now it languishes in a storage vault, hidden away from the public who helped to pay for it. The painting is just one of thousands that are publicly owned but not on display. Now, the BBC is helping to digitise the UK's vast collection of paintings, making the artwork available to everyone.

Dan Snow sets out to discover whether art can really sustain and inform our memories and knowledge of the past. He retraces the career of Nottingham-born artist Arthur Spooner (1873 - 1962) whose paintings are scattered across the region and faithfully record events and people as he saw them. But just how reliable is his work? In a specialist disability college situated in the middle of Sherwood Forest, Dan discovers a pair of virtually unknown Spooners that appear to tell a very specific story about a celebrated duchess, shed light on the role of the aristocracy during the First World War and hold a clue about the origins of the college. Dan sets out to solve the mystery and test the artist's historical accuracy.

Meera Syal searches for the hidden paintings which reveal the extraordinary story of a Norfolk Prince. At the heart of the film is the story of Frederick Duleep Singh, son of the Last Maharaja of the Punjab. Despite being disinherited by the British Establishment, he spent his life trying to become one of them. The story unfolds through an extraordinary collection of paintings that he bought - bargain hunt style - from the landed gentry, and then donated to the nation.

Interior designer Kathryn Rayward uncovers the hidden art of the Bloomsbury Set in Sussex, where a long-hidden painting of a lady in a red dress sheds light on the tangled love lives of novelist Virginia Woolf, painter Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She follows the trail of Bloomsbury's artistic legacy to the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery to unearth more hidden art, and visits the stunning murals at Berwick church and goes behind-the-scenes at Towner in Eastbourne.