Utopia: In Search of the Dream Series 1

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Arts, History Documentary hosted by Richard Clay, published by BBC in 2017 - English narration

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Utopia: In Search of the Dream Series in which art historian Professor Richard Clay explores visions of 'utopia' and examines what they reveal about our deepest hopes, dreams and fears.

Blueprints for Better

In this first episode, Prof Richard Clay explores how utopian visions begin as blueprints for fairer worlds and asks whether they can inspire real change.
Charting five hundred years of utopian visions and making bold connections between exploration and science fiction - from radical 18th-century politics to online communities like Wikipedia

Build It and they Will Come

Utopia has been imagined in a thousand different ways. Yet when people try to build utopia, they struggle and very often fail. Art historian professor Richard Clay asks whether utopian visions for living can ever reconcile the tension between the group and the individual, the rules and the desire to break free. Travelling to America, he encounters experimental communities, searching for greater meaning in life.

A Good Place Within

Seeking answers in a broad range of arts, Richard meets digital games pioneer Sid Meier, Rada improvisation teacher Chris Heimann and opera impresario Martin Graham. He tries to compose a haiku and uncovers traces of the hedonistic medieval Carnival tradition in the churches and pubs of his native Lancashire. Richard also compares and contrasts different musical escapes, interviewing Acid House legend A Guy Called Gerald and the celebrated minimalist composer Steve Reich