Art That Made Us - Lights in the Darkness - 11:00 pm Monday, April 6 on BBC Four

About this Broadcast

Lights in the Darkness

An alternative history of the British Isles told through 1,500 years of art, with leading creatives exploring key cultural works that have shaped British art and culture. This first edition examines the turbulent era that followed the Roman occupation of Britain, with sculptor Antony Gormley examining Spong Man, a clay figure that once sat on a fifth-century funerary urn, and actor Michael Sheen performing Y Gododdin, a seventh-century Welsh poem of resistance against the Anglo-Saxons

HD subtitles 16x9 audio-description

Arts/Culture (without Music) Documentary General News/Current Affairs

Cast & Crew

David Threlfall (Narrator)

Sam Anthony (Director)

Helena Hunt (Producer)

Russell Barnes (Executive producer)

Denys Blakeway (Executive producer)

Melanie Fall (Series producer)

Michael Jackson (Executive producer)

Angus Sutherland (Editor)

More Information

Did You Know..

David Threlfall (Narrator)

Born: October 12, 1953 in Manchester

Best Known For: Playing foul-mouthed Frank Gallagher in Shameless.

Early-life: Born in Manchester on October 12, 1953. He has a brother; their father was a plumber. David never wanted to be an actor, his first love was football, but thanks to a little encouragement from teachers, he trod the boards in a school production of The Crucible. After a short stint at art college in Sheffield, and a few months labouring, he became a student at Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama. His breakthrough role came in the gritty 1977 drama Scum.

Career: Aside from a lean period at the back end of the 1990s, Threlfall has rarely been out of work. His small-screen work includes roles in Mike Leigh's Kiss of Death, a 1984 staging of King Lear (opposite Laurence Olivier), Conspiracy and The Queen's Sister. His most famous on-screen character is that of chain-smoking patriarch Frank Gallagher, a role he held in Channel 4 drama Shameless between 2004 and 2013. Other projects include The Russia House, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Housewife 49, Hot Fuzz, Nowhere Boy and The Ark. He was also made a surprisingly good Tommy Cooper in the ITV biopic Not Like That, Like This.

Quote: On acting: 'I just like getting up and pretending. It's the game of pretending you're other people, that's the liberating thing.'

Trivia: He supports Manchester City. He received an honorary doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2013.