Programmes to watch out for on the Arts Channel in April

THE WRITING LIFE

Mondays from 1 April, 7.05pm

The Writing Life is a documentary series about writers and writing. Each episode focuses on one writer allowing the viewer to explore the author's writing process, the struggles and joys of writing, and the many interesting issues that come along with being a writer.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Saturday 20 April, 8.30pm

A Shakespeare's Globe Theatre production All’s Well That Ends Well grinds the romantic against the realistic at every turn and brilliantly reverses all the usual expectations of Shakespearean comedy. Some of Shakespeare’s most inventive language gives life to not just his single-minded heroine and her churlish lover, but a fantastic cast of frauds, cynics, sentimentalists and buffoons. Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her brand-new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions to their marriage – conditions he is sure will never be met. The cast features Michael Bertenshaw as Lafeu, Sam Cox as the King of France, Sam Crane as Bertram and Naomi Cranston as Diana.

TREASURES OF ANCIENT ROME

Mondays from 22 April, 7.30pm

Art critic Alastair Sooke sets out to show the art of the Romans for what it really is – both the best insight to the Roman world and an important grounding for western art. The series traces how, during the Republic, the Romans went from being art thieves and copycats to pioneering a new artistic style. And by following in the footsteps of Rome’s mad, bad and dangerous emperors, he finds that their taste in art chimes perfectly with their obsession with sex and violence. Enthusiastic, questioning and engaging, Treasures of Ancient Rome reveals how there was so much more to the Romans than just conquering and soldiering, and charts the decline and fall of the Roman Empire through some of its hidden and most magical artistic treasures.

THE FATWA: SALMAN’S STORY

Friday 26 April, 8.30pm

An intimate and involving documentary that charts in full – for the first time – the consequences of a worldwide controversy that forced author Salman Rushdie into hiding for over a decade. Following publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, Rushdie was accused of blasphemy by conservative Muslims. As the situation escalated, on 14 February 1989 Iran's then leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill the book’s author and publishers. This is the inside story of how it felt to be at the epicentre of an international crisis as Rushdie recalls the day-to-day drama of living under a death sentence, terrified for the safety of his child, and hearing horrific news of his publishers and translators being attacked and killed. The programme features unprecedented access to key figures, including Rushdie’s closest family and friends.