TV Work

Over the years I’ve done a lot of work on TV and radio here in the UK as well as in other countries although it’s never been a full-time job. I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in some very important ‘prime-time’ British arts TV programmes, particularly on the BBC. I’ve been on a very wide range of programmes, a few of which have not been to do with art.

On the radio I’ve been on the BBC’s ‘PM’, ‘You and Yours’, and ‘Tuesday Lives’, as well as LBC Radio etc., and on TV on programmes as diverse as ‘The Late Show’, ‘Collector’s Lot’, ‘Mastermind’, ‘Art Fake’, ‘Mad about Monet’, ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, ‘Wartime Farm’, ‘The Big Breakfast’, ‘Omnibus’, ‘Newsnight’ and ‘Art that Shook the World’. You can see my ‘show-reel’ on YouTube. (If you have trouble viewing the video on YouTube, please contact me.)

Although some of these programmes are not recent they do, nevertheless, give a glimpse of the range of work I’ve done.

In most of these programmes I’ve usually been demonstrating and talking about the techniques used to make great art or the motivations behind art. In some that have drama scenes in them I have coached actors on how to look like they’re real artists – or I have stood in for them wearing their clothes when they can’t paint. I have even acted in some drama scenes, for example in The Impressionists series (where I was ‘The man on the train’!), or in another TV production where I played the part of Paul Gauguin – complete with wig and Tahitian skirt or ‘pareo’. I have an ‘Equity’ card so I might as well use it!

In some of these programmes I have also been helping ‘behind the scenes’ by making and using ‘props’ in the drama scenes. See Gallery 6.

My work on The Impressionists TV series.

A BBC programme on Van Gogh’s iconic sunflower paintings

Ancient X-Files on the secrets of the Mona Lisa. This is one of four TV programmes Leonardo that I’ve been involved in, including the BBC’s epic series on him.

The next ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’ I worked on was Michelangelo. Here you see me part way through painting a replica of part of his Sistine Chapel along with fellow artist Fleur Kelly. A lot of intensive fun over a very hot summer.

The final ‘Turtle’ I worked on was Raphael. In ‘Raphael - A Mortal God’, a superb BBC production, I demonstrated how he painted his girlfriend in the erotic painting called ‘La fornarina’.

This is me on the isle of Staffa on the west coast of Scotland for the series called ‘Britain’s Finest Natural Wonders’ originally made for and broadcast on Channel Four. It was nice to make art in my own style for this programme instead of mimicking other artists.

Another photo of me in ‘Britain’s Finest Natural Wonders’. A happy time. Here you see one of the paintings of Staffa that I made as a result of this trip, you can see this painting gallery 1.

Me on the beach at Etretat, France, with the presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon, with whom I’ve worked before, e.g. in the programme ‘Mad about Monet’.

A programme for NHK TV in Japan on the painter J.M.W.Turner. I’ve done other programmes for these people before, interesting and very different work.

Me on the BBC’s ‘The One Show’ with Minna Moore-Ede, Ronnie Wood and Phil Tufnell.

No, these are NOT my own clothes! This is me getting into the spirit of the ‘Wartime Farm’ series for the BBC, a documentary series in which various experts (including me) talk to the three presenters about our area of knowledge relating to World War 2. I talked about the role of war artists and did a painting depicting a real event that took place above Manor Farm in Hampshire where the series was filmed. See ‘Closing In’ in my aviation paintings gallery.

Here is my re-creation of Paulo Uccello’s famous but weird painting ‘The Battle of San Romano’ as it would have appeared when new. See here for more information on this painting in my Serious Fakes gallery

The BBC’s series ‘The Impressionists’ broke new ground in many ways because this was ‘documentary told through drama’, and not a documentary/drama. I had many roles in the series, for example as an art historian advising the script writers and as an artist advising the actors (including Julian Glover seen here) on how to paint. I also did dozens of paintings and drawings for the series, and even appeared in three little ‘cameo’ appearances.

The BBC’s series ‘The Impressionists’ again, this time showing me coaching Julian Glover in role as the older Monet. The whole emphasis of the series was on veracity and authenticity, for example this scene was actually filmed at Giverny where Monet lived and worked.

The BBC’s series ‘The Impressionists’ again, this time with me coaching the actor Richard Armitage who played the younger Monet.

Dressing up or dumbing down?! Here you see me in various roles on TV and film including my only lead role (to date) as the artist Alfred Sisley in the short film ‘I always begin with the sky’. A reminder that I must never give up ‘the day job’.

Some reviewers have liked what I’ve done on TV…

“I rejoiced to see Leo Stevenson, an exact and scrupulous imitator of old masters and a giver of complicated technical information in classically simple terms”
(Brian Sewell reviewing the BBC1 Leonardo series The Divine Michelangelo in the Evening Standard)

“[Leo Stevenson’s] experiment to recreate what the painting would have looked like originally is one of the series’ best revelations”
(Review of the BBC2 programme on Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano in The Daily Telegraph)

“Well worth watching”
(David Review of the BBC2 programme Raphael – A Mortal God in The Radio Times)

“The experiments by contemporary artists and conservators illuminate brilliantly the genius of his [Raphael’s] artistic method. A real pleasure”
(review of the BBC2 programme Raphael – A Mortal God in The Daily Telegraph).

TV Work

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