Great dames with a dramatic pedigree

DAMES JUDI Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowrighti, inset, will reflect on their lives and careers in a new programme for BBC Two.

The old friends will spend a weekend together at the retreat once shared by Dame Joan and Laurence Olivier, reflecting on their time living through some of the most dramatic landmarks of the 20th and 21st centuries for a one-off programme directed by Notting Hill filmmaker Roger Mitchell. The film has the working title

Nothing Like A Dame, and is one of a raft of arts shows announced by the BBC.

The broadcaster will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book with a one-off programme on BBC Two, Harry Potter: A History Of Magic, which will follow the run-up to the opening to an exhibition about the books at the British Library. Also on BBC Two is Joe Orton Laid Bare, which utilises the playwright’s own words from his outrageous personal memoirs, stage and TV plays to examine his life and work, and to celebrate his ambitious voice 50 years on from his death. BBC Four will tell the story of explorer and linguist Gertrude Bell in Letters From Baghdad – with access to more than 1,600 letters. The programme will follow her extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British male colonial power at the turn of the 19th century.