BBC launches new digital channel

The BBC was today launching a new digital cultural and arts channel to replace BBC Knowledge.

BBC Four will transmit daily from 7pm until 1am with a programme mix ranging from new dramas, documentaries, world cinema and live performances.

On its first night only, the channel will be simultaneously broadcast on BBC Two to give non-digital viewers a taste of what is on offer.

BBC Four will begin with a programme about artist Michael Landy, who destroyed everything he owned in the name of art.

The Man Who Destroyed Everything documents how the artist rehabilitated himself into society after losing everything but an overdraft and a cat.

Although Landy was more acclaimed than Damien Hirst in the early nineties, he did not make saleable art and galleries dropped him when they realised he had no commercial value.

In a similar theme, the channel’s launch season will include a separate series of three programmes called Britart giving the history of the scene that produced characters such as Hirst and Tracey Emin.

The first night will also feature a study of the elusive Spanish painter Goya by critic and broadcaster Robert Hughes.

Other documentaries include Kissinger, an unauthorised biography of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and King of Communism about the personality cult of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

BBC Four will also mark the six-month anniversary of the US terrorist attacks with an evening of programmes.

Strange New World will look at the world’s reaction to the atrocities and What the Intellectuals Said will feature the response of academics.

Performances will include Eddie Izzard in the West End production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, the Welsh National Opera’s Madam Butterfly and Birmingham Opera’s Fidelio.

Regular strands include Profile and The Talk Show, hosted by Andrew Marr.