Originals

"I always said that Nick was born with a skin too few", says actress Gabrielle about her brother, the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948-1974). This documentary approaches the silent landscapes, locations, people and music in the life of this unorthodox loner. Nick Drake is one of rock’s most tragically romantic figures. He died when he was 26: an age that for many would be far too young to develop a talent, or realise an ambition or dream. It took 20 posthumous years for his music to gain recognition. One autumn morning in 1974, Nick’s parents were unable to wake him. Nick Drake died silently and unobtrusively, and to this day it's not clear whether his death was self-determined. The significance of his three albums was only discovered two decades later. Now his music is more popular than ever and appears in big film productions and television commercials. This late success is surprising and tragic, considering Nick Drake's tortured existence. Except for boarding school and university (Cambridge) he seldom left his parents' home. Contact with others became a tremendous effort. His sensitivity was the basis for this talent but at the same time made him unable to face an audience. Caught in this spiral, he became increasingly embittered by his lack of success and gradually isolated himself.

John Martyn is one of Britain's originals; a musician whose distinctive, drawling vocals and virtuoso guitar playing have been an inspiration to household-name musicians for decades. This intimate documentary follows John Martyn as he emerges from a near-fatal encounter with "a dark cow on a dark night", a "hangman's fracture", infected cysts... At the beginning of filming, he's recording a new album in his front room and facing an operation to have his right leg amputated below the knee. With extraordinary behind-the-scenes access, we spend time with him cooking, drinking, recording, trying on silly hats (and latterly his new prosthetic leg) as he makes the painful progress towards getting back on the road

A veteran of the common law marriage between Sixties art school and rock 'n' roll, Stanshall was co-founder, lead singer and co-writer of cult Sixties sensation The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, the missing link between satire and psychedelia, pop and performance art, pastiche and Python. Stanshall was a dapper Zappa, perfecting what he called "ballet for the vulgar". Like Peter Cook, he burnt himself out tragically early, virtually drinking himself to death before dying in a fire at his house in 1995. He was, as the title of his last ever broadcast put it, a Renaissance man: writer, composer, performer and painter. This film tells Viv's life story from mum and dad to Dada and Mummery. It follows his progress from an 'odd boy' Southend seaside childhood, through art school, his intro to and outro from the Bonzo Dog Band and subsequent spectacular resurfacings as solo artist with his Peel Show monologue about Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (later a book and a film starring Trevor Howard), his comic opera Stinkfoot performed on board the Bristol Showboat and at London's Bloomsbury Theatre and his final appearances with Rawlinson DogEnds. Tracing Viv's musical journey from its Bonzo beginnings to Rawlinson End and beyond, this expedition into the archival canyons of his mind is peppered with contributions from colleagues, close friends and comic descendants. But at its centre is a portrait of the man who made his life and art into what he called "a sur-Ealing comedy", drawing on a wealth of largely BBC audio and video. It combines interviews with his collaborators from the Bonzos and beyond, including band members Neil Innes, Legs Larry Smith, Rodney Slater and manager Gerry Bron, plus later associates like John Peel, Jack Bruce and lifetime fan and Stinkfoot financier Stephen Fry.

Following Martin on a very personal musical journey, filmmaker Greg Bailey accompanies Martin as he and his wife Norma Waterson go to Buckingham Palace to collect Martin's MBE; to St Paul's Cathedral to cross swords with the 'great man' theory of English history; and to see Martin's unique guitar style drive the famous Morris Dancers of Bampton in Oxfordshire. The program sees Martin's inimitable guitar playing and singing develop from his groundbreaking partnership in the 60s with Dave Swarbrick, the doyen of folk fiddlers, to the recent acclaimed work with his wife the great folk diva Norma Waterson - along with the leading light of the new generation of folk performers, their daughter, Eliza Carthy. Along the way, this passionate, complex artist challenges many preconceived notions of English identity and culture and suggests how his beloved traditional music could point to a more meaningful, radical alternative. Named Folk Singer of the Year 2002 by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Carthy was born in Hertfordshire in 1941 and sang in church choirs as a child. Lonnie Donegan was, in part, responsible for Carthy's love of the guitar and he was consumed by the skiffle boom before enjoying 60s London with the likes of Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, Odetta and Diz Disley. An acknowledged influence on both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon (with whom he recently performed) Carthy's pioneering ventures took him into the heart of the 70s folk explosion. He has also enjoyed three decades of celebrated performance with wife Norma and more recently has toured and recorded with their daughter Eliza.

This documentary celebrates the "Godfather of British jazz", Stan Tracey. Using archive footage, rare performances and a wealth of musical compositions, it recreates the times and changes of post-war British jazz. Stan tells his own story in the film which follows his 60-year career epitomized by Under Milk Wood Suite, the masterpiece that single-handedly defined British jazz on the international scene. The self-taught star of the post-World War II London jazz scene, Tracey sailed to New York in the 1950s on the Queen Mary to catch the Bebop Revolution in full swing. His seven-year stint as bandleader at Ronnie Scott's in the 1960s brought him fame and success alongside jazz greats Roland Kirk, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins. Always forward looking, Tracey went on to embrace the turbulent era of 70s improvisation and free jazz. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, his triumphant career as an interpreter, arranger and composer earned him the affectionate title of The English Ellington. Contributors to the program include jazz greats such as Dame Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, musical collaborators Bobby Wellins and Keith Tippett, friends and colleagues Bob Monkhouse, Humphrey Lyttelton and Michael Horovitz and commentators John Fordham and Val Wilmer. The latest generation to be inspired by Stan Tracey's music legacy such as Courtney Pine, Julian Joseph and son, Clark Tracey, bring the story up to the present day.

Thirty years after his untimely death, BBC Four presents the first-ever documentary film about the musical legend Gram Parsons. Over five years in the making, the 90-minute documentary film tells the story of the musician and heir to a million dollar fortune who died on 19 September 1973 aged just 26, under the influence of drugs and alcohol near his favourite place - the Joshua Tree National Monument in the Californian desert. As the founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers, a member of the hit-making, legendary Byrds, an important influence on the Rolling Stones and the man who discovered the singer Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons wrote music history in only a few years. The important role he played in the development of popular music and the bizarre circumstances of his early death are the major themes of this documentary. The film was made on location by director and musician Gandulf Hennig and American music journalist, musician and biographer Sid Griffin. Friends, contemporaries and devotees of Gram Parsons talk about the importance of his work and the bizarre circumstances of his early death. Rare footage of his performances shows why Parsons has become a legend. Interviewees include Gram's wife Gretchen, his sister and daughter, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Chris Hillman and "Road Mangler" Phil Kaufman.