Urban Myths

Things take a surreal turn when folk hero Bob Dylan pays Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics a house call.

Inspired by true events, this charming comedy charts the unlikely friendship between Nobel Prize-winning writer Samuel Beckett and a young André the Giant.

With the help of his friend Gustl, a young Adolf Hitler attempts to get in to the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

This fictionalised comedy joins dashing Hollywood film star Cary Grant and renowned psychologist Timothy Leary on the set of Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller North By Northwest.

In the early 1980s, after his recent and high profile defeat to Larry Holmes, boxing legend Muhammad Ali takes it upon himself to talk a suicidal stranger down from a ledge. Using his unique brand of wit and wisdom, he succeeds in persuading the man that life is worth living, and learns a huge amount about himself in the process.

Comedy about Marilyn Monroe's bust-up with Billy Wilder.

Original comedy telling the hilarious behind-the-scenes story of Live Aid, as Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Elton John, Sade, Freddie Mercury, Status Quo and more cross paths.

This is the tale of Johnny Cash's dramatic run-in with a killer ostrich in a Nottingham hotel, much to the surprise of manager Jean.

Facilitated in suitably surreal fashion by Alice Cooper's agent Shep Gordon and Salvador Dali's wife Gala, this is the incredible "true story" of a fascinating and weird few days in 1970s New York between the artist and his new found muse; one which led to the creation an extraordinary work of art involving a chocolate éclair and a brain.

It's the swinging 60s and teenagers David Bowie and Marc Bolan are yet to hit the big time. In fact, such is their lack of success they are costing their manager Les Conn money. So in lieu of payment the two spend an afternoon painting Les's Soho office.

Comedy about Agatha Christie's mysterious 11 day disappearance in 1926, which gripped the nation and set off one of the biggest manhunts ever mounted. In desperation, Britain's most famous crime writers of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers are drafted in to help the search.

Multimillionaire rap legends Public Enemy are stranded in an English town when their tour bus leaves without them, and are desperately trying to get to their gig in Sheffield. With time running out, their knight in shining armour arrives in the form of Kev, an unassuming local and huge fan.

The reimagined story behind The Sex Pistols' infamous appearance on Bill Grundy's show in 1976, a year before their legendary debut album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was released. The foul-mouthed encounter catapulted The Sex Pistols into the public eye and signalled the arrival of mainstream punk, while simultaneously destroying Grundy's career - and all because of a last minute cancellation by Freddie Mercury.

This story is an inspired, fictionalised account of an event that's part of the folklore of the Vauxhall Tavern. It features a night that Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett put a disguise on their good friend, Princess Diana, and took her out for a night on the town, ending up at a club which results in a fictionalised encounter with Gareth, a drag artist with a painful secret.

In 1984, property magnate and entrepreneur Donald Trump bought an American football team. In an attempt to stir up some publicity, he held cheerleader auditions in the basement of Trump Tower with a panel of celebrity judges, including Andy Warhol. Though initially reluctant to take part, Warhol had some unfinished business with the tycoon, who had previously commissioned some artwork which he never paid for. So Warhol decided to use the opportunity to confront the future US president about the debt.

Bleak House Guest tells the story of when Danish author and Dickens superfan Hans Christian Andersen turned up unexpectedly on Charles and Catherine Dickens' doorstep, quickly proving himself to be the most impossible (and unshakeable) house-guest imaginable.

This story revolves around the trial where Joan Collins went head-to-head with Random House in the mid-nineties. The author and actor was paid a large advance for her novel, which the publishers claimed was unpublishable, leading to one of the most extraordinary – and glamourous – trials of the decade.

This is the story of a burglar who stumbled into Grace Jones and artist Jean-Paul Goude's New York apartment, armed with a very small gun. When he inadvertently chose to break into Grace and Jean-Paul's home (with a little interruption from Debbie Harry and Andy Warhol), he ended up with more than he bargained, having to deal with these two flamboyant, volatile lovers. Veering from desperate and dangerous to awe-struck and bemused, this was an afternoon which none of the three were expecting, least of all the burglar.

Before she was famous, Madonna had a short but passionate and influential relationship with Jean Michel Basquiat, a pioneer and darling of the 1980s New York art scene. Basquiat was riding high while Madonna was a coat check girl, but she already had the self-belief to know she had something special. This myth takes place across one night on the New York subway, just before she infamously door-stepped music producer Seymour Stein at his hospital bedside where he signed her on the spot. This is a poignant moment, before Basquiat's untimely death and just before Madonna broke through to "take over the motherfucking world".

Telling the incredible tale of how Paul McCartney dreamt the melody of ‘Yesterday'. With a dollop of creative licence from writer Simon Nye, this is a heartfelt comedy drama showing how the greatest song of the twentieth century came to be.

Examining the decades-long friendship between Mick Jagger and Princess Margaret, we find out that Tony Blair submitted Jagger's name for the Queen's Honours' List annually, from 1997 to 2002. However, every year the Queen turned him down. This comic tale travels from London to the Caribbean and dives head-first into the worlds of rock and royalty to ponder exactly why that was.

Inspired by his heroes, the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, a young Les Dawson leaving his home in Manchester to live in Paris in order to pursue his dream of becoming a serious novelist. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as he planned, and he ended up becoming a pianist in a brothel.

This episode is based on Joan Rivers' recollections of play she starred in with Barbra Streisand, which Streisand has remained tight-lipped about. A sixteen-year-old Barbra Streisand, is in rehearsals for Driftwood, an off-Broadway play, when a woman, dressed head to toe in fur, bursts through the door. She's Joan Molinsky, although the world will soon come to know her as Joan Rivers.

Housemates separated by time, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel grapple with the stresses of the music business in this funny and intimate portrait of two eccentric musical geniuses and the events leading up to a transformative moment when Jimi saw Handel's ghost.

A story of how the great star briefly went missing in Norwich in 1972 whilst working on F for Fake, a faux documentary now regarded as his last masterpiece.