Sky Arts

Tell us about producing Portrait (and Landscape) Artist of the Year over the past decade…

They are the most joyous shows I’ve been involved in. Artists tend to be really nice people, and we don’t show, as others do, the humiliation of a competitor packing their bags and leaving the programme, accompanied by sad music. There are scores of artists who [if not for the show]would still be amateur and are now professional – television often gets a bad rap, but we feel that to have achieved something like that is fantastic.

Over the past decade Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year has emerged as one of the channel’s flagship shows – and one in which skill triumphs over exhibitionism. As Sky Arts’ supremo, Phil Edgar-Jones, said: “The show is not all about loud, mad characters but people doing something well.”

He was speaking at an RTS London event, “Portrait Artist of the Year at 10”, where he was joined by members of the production team at independent producer Storyvault Films, and which was chaired by the company’s founder Stuart Prebble, also an executive producer on the show.

The story will unfold in real-time on digital and broadcast platforms, blending live performance with TV drama to create a new form of storytelling. 

Filmed and set in Wales, the series asks the question: what would happen if the future tried to contact us?

Galwad: A Story From Our Future tells the story of Efa (Aisha-May Hunte), a 16-year-old from Swansea who finds her life turned upside down when her 46-year-old mind from 2052 infiltrates her 16-year-old body.

Lockdown left its mark on TV coverage of the arts: Sky Arts went free-to-air, while Channel 4 scored a zeitgeist hit with Grayson’s Art Club and the BBC gave us its Culture in Quarantine initiative.

Sky Arts went free-to-air while Channel 4 scored a zeitgeist hit with Grayson Perry’s Art Club and the BBC gave us Culture in Quarantine. 

But are we living through a Golden Age of Arts on TV? That was the question posed by an enthralling RTS discussion chaired by Tim Marlow, CEO and director of the Design Museum, and featuring arts commissioners from the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Arts, and the co-founder and CEO of Marquee TV, the performance arts streaming service.  

Together they will transform the voices of six of the UK and Ireland’s worst singers.

Over three months, the ENO’s world class vocal coaches will teach them everything from vocal technique to stage presence and set them various challenges.

Along the way a few famous faces will lend a helping hand.

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Entertainment, said: “If I were to sing to you you’d be covering your ears, running for the hills, begging me to PLEASE STOP.

As part of the partnership, two of the theatre’s hit productions, Jane Eyre and Twelfth Night, will be broadcast on Sky Arts later this year; the first NT Live titles to ever be televised.

Jane Eyre, an NT co-production with Bristol Old Vic directed by Sally Cookson, received rave reviews for its portrayal of the pioneering heroine, played by Madeleine Worrall, and her struggle for freedom.

With an ambitious programme of activity aimed at supporting the arts through a vital time in the cultural sector, Sky Arts will focus on bringing the arts to more people.

BOYS

Ashley Walters directs this East London set short film written by newcomer Jerome Holder. Two best friends embark on a journey that will shape the men they will become when they fulfil a promise made to one’s older brother.