Close to Vermeer follows the painstaking work that went into creating the largest ever exhibition of the Dutch master's work.

📺 Watch the fascinating documentary now on BBC iPlayer.

We have lift off! 🚀

The #BBCProms 2024 has officially launched, and a scorching summer of music is just on the horizon 🌞

Head to bbc.co.uk/proms to check out all 90 of our concerts 🎺

Photographer Nan Goldin looks back at how she uncovered glamour and style amid the sleaze of early 1970s Boston.

📺 Watch the critically acclaimed All the Beauty and the Bloodshed on BBC iPlayer.

Calling all book lovers and sports fans!⚽️📚

In partnership with @BBCArts, we're launching the #BigSportingRead to celebrate books and a landmark summer of sport.

Keep an eye out for the official booklist, unveiling at Hay Festival on 29 May!

👉 readingagency.org.uk/the-reading-ag…

'To be or not to be... that is the QUESTION?'

When some of the world's finest actors struggled with how best to deliver Hamlet's immortal line, a surprise star had the final word.

Watch Gregory Doran Remembers... Shakespeare Live! on BBC iPlayer.

☠️ How would you survive on The Traitors? Watch these six classic strategies from Shakespeare plays on BBC iPlayer and learn from the very best. #TheTraitors #TheTraitors UK

“I've got into terrible trouble for laughing.” 🤣

Dami Judi Dench tells John Wilson about getting the giggles at the worst possible time on stage.

Listen to This Cultural Life now on BBC Sounds, or watch on BBC iPlayer.

'Who would these fardels bear?' 🤔

Billy Howle as Hamlet ponders some of life's biggest questions in this bold adaptation of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.

Watch Hamlet from Bristol Old Vic on BBC iPlayer.

🤔 What is it that makes Shakespeare so great?

Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Lucy Jago and Prof Ewan Fernie tackle the big question. Watch Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius on BBC iPlayer.

🎭 ‘The past is prologue’.

What makes a Shakespearean actor truly great? Generation-spanning performances from Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Hugh Quarshie, Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart.

“He's there, the Phantom of the Opera...” 🎭

Jon Robyns and Lily Kerhoas perform the title song for the Big Night of Musicals 2024 by the National Lottery, hosted by Jason Manford. Stream it now on BBC iPlayer.

Frida Kahlo's self-portraits are famous, but do they reveal anything of her true self?

🌺🎨 Watch Becoming Frida Kahlo on BBC iPlayer.

”I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard.” ⚡

Alex Kingston stars in The Read: Frankenstein, streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

💃 Join Moulin Rouge dancer Jen for a look behind the scenes as she gets ready for a show at the legendary cabaret club.

📺 All episodes of Moulin Rouge: Yes We Can-Can! are streaming now on BBC iPlayer. #GRWM

🕵️ Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on the Case of Conan Doyle is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

Watch Arthur Conan Doyle himself speak about the Scottish surgeon who helped to inspire his greatest creation, Sherlock Holmes.

🩰💥 Peaky Blinders: Rambert’s The Redemption of Thomas Shelby is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

'It was a trick that was well known in the 14th and 15th century...'

Here's an expert look at how Picasso created Guernica, his 1937 monochrome anti-war masterpiece.

📺 Watch Picasso: The Beauty and the Beast on BBC iPlayer.

“Spinning is life.” 🚲

In the vibrant township of Soweto, Johannesburg, kids show off some impressive tricks on bikes they've crafted themselves.

📺 Watch Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch on BBC iPlayer

Hidden Treasures of the National Trust is returning soon, but the first series is still available on BBC iPlayer.

Here's a look back at when Sir Paul McCartney's brother Mike was enlisted to help recreate a key detail from their childhood home.

Aardman Animations was founded #OnThisDay in 1972. Here's a look behind the scenes at how they crafted the cute creatures for the BBC's Things We Love. bbc.in/4cz82cQ