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Last week was an important one for arts at the Â鶹ԼÅÄ. On Tuesday 26 February, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Four Controller, Richard Klein, set out . There looks to be some fascinating programming coming up – personal highlights include What Do Artists Do All Day, which goes behind closed doors to find out about the working lives of some of the UK’s leading artists, including popular Scottish painter Jack Vettriano; and Great Artists In Their Own Words, which explores the 20th century revolution in the visual arts through some of its chief practitioners: Picasso, Dali, Rene Magritte, Man Ray and Max Ernst.

Photography played an integral part in the modernist movement and has undergone many revolutions itself over the course of its relatively short lifetime as an art-form, and last week Â鶹ԼÅÄ North and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Two’s The Culture Show announced a collaboration with the Walker Gallery in Liverpool to stage the challenging new project by world-renowned photographer, Rankin, called Alive: In the Face of Death, the .

Finally on the arts front, last week also saw the . The Fund, which was set up in 2003, uses some of the revenue received from the voting lines on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One entertainment shows to support aspiring individuals and community groups to achieve success in the performing arts.

On Wednesday 27 February I went to the press launch and screening of the first episode of the new Â鶹ԼÅÄ Three drama In The Flesh. As well as all the interviews I did with the director, cast and writer that can , there is also a that to brings to mind the old ‘Protect and Survive’ government information films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which struck fear into me as a child.

In other drama news, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One announced a , which features the evergreen Peter Capaldi as Cadinal Richelieu; whilst on Friday the in a new adventure called The Bells of St John was confirmed for Easter Saturday, 30 March. Ìý

And in radio drama, . With an impressive cast that includes James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Romola Garai, Natalie Dormer and Johnny Vegas, it tells the story of a subterranean world set beneath the streets of London. . It will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday 16 March and the remaining five episodes on Radio 4 Extra from Monday 18 to Friday 22 March.

It was a good week for some of our online platforms as well. January 2013 saw , with a significant rise in the numbers coming via mobiles and tablets; whilst the recently launched .

Finally, called Magic Hands which will feature poetry translated into British Sign Language. From Robert Louis Stephenson to Roger Stevens and Michaela Morgan, the programmes will be fun, five-minute packages that mix sign language, the spoken word, music and vibrant animation to bring the poems to life and capture the imaginations of both deaf and hearing children. We recently went along to speak to the presenting team and so will have some filmed interviews on the site soon.

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Ben Murray is Editor of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Media Centre.

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