ART DETECTIVES, THE Season 2


Episode #201 - Glasgow
Pollok House is a country house in the middle of a Glasgow city park, bordered on one side by a highway and on the other side by the south side of Glasgow. Owned by Glasgow City Council and looked after by the National Trust for Scotland, it truly is a house for the people, surrounded by them. Pollok has an impressive collection of Spanish art, the legacy of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, who once owned the house. Unfortunately, some of Pollok's treasures have been placed in storage due to a leaking roof and urgent renovations. Could one of these displaced pictures be a priceless work by Rubens, hiding north of the border and lost for centuries?

Dr. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri investigate a long lost picture of one of history's most famous gay men, possibly painted by one of history's most famous artists. The subject of the painting is none other than George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was the lover of James VI of Scotland (James I of England). How did this painting come to Glasgow? While Bendor squares up to a rival portrait in Florence which claims to be the real Buckingham portrait by Rubens, Emma finds that William Stirling-Maxwell had a secret family in Jamaica and that sugar and tobacco built Glasgow long before ship building was its major industry.

Episode #202 - Derby
Along with a hippo skeleton, a stuffed hedgehog and a log boat, Derby Museum has the best collection of Joseph Wright of Derby paintings in the world. Wright of Derby is considered one of England's greatest artists. He painted the most astounding 'birth of science' scenes, his landscapes and portraits are exquisite and he was inspired by the Industrial Revolution.

But can our team peel back layers of modern restoration on a mysterious landscape painting stuck in the Derby vaults to reveal another hidden masterpiece by Wright of Derby? Dr. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri investigate a painting which suffered industrial scale restoration in the 1970s. Can it be saved and carefully restored now? While Bendor travels to Italy to find where the landscape may have been painted, Emma investigates Derby as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and the 'lunar-tics' of the Midlands who changed the world through science and philosophy.

Episode #203 - Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire County Museum is, itself, a slice of history. The building that houses it has been in continuous use since the 13th century. Once a Bishop's palace, it was where the Bible was first translated into Welsh. Could it also be home to some mysterious cases of mistaken identity and two lost paintings from the time of Charles II? Dr. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to Carmarthenshire to investigate two intriguing portraits of a local nobleman and his wife, the Earl and Countess of Carbery, possibly painted by the great Sir Peter Lely in the 17th century.

Yet all is not as it seems. Bendor has a hunch that one of the portraits is by another hand. Could the portrait of the Countess be a lost work by Mary Beale, Britain's first commercially successful female artist?

While Bendor gets to grips with the badly damaged portrait of the Earl, Emma traces the story of how he survived the Civil War, how Mary Beale was written out of the history books, and discovers how the cross-dressing men of the Rebecca Riots stormed Carmarthen.

Episode #204 - Arbroath
Hospitalfield House in the fishing town of Arbroath on Scotland's east coast is a Victorian treasure trove. The couple who owned this great house back in the 19th century were obsessed with the decorative arts and Hospitalfield is full of ornate carved ceilings, sculpted fireplaces, exquisite plasterwork and stonework carved by master masons. It's still a place where artists work today and it has a fine picture collection. Amongst the many Victorian paintings, could a mysterious 16th- century portrait by one of the great Old Master artists lie waiting to be discovered? Dr. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri investigate what could be a true Old Master painting, obscured by 400 years of dirt and old varnish.

Bendor suspects the painting is a lost masterpiece by giant of Dutch art Antonis Mor, court painter to Philip II of Spain. But, with no documentary evidence, it's a hard case to prove. While Bendor travels to Madrid to track down other examples of Mor's work, Emma digs deeper into the double-standards of Victorian morals, finds the true story of the couple who made Hospitalfield a haven for artists, and meets the contemporary artists working at Hospitalfield today.