Yayoi Kusama: The artist who painted infinity

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The work of Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama is famed for its use of dots and inspired the likes of Andy Warhol. She was a work of art herself, often photographed wearing a bright orange wig and technicolour clothes covered in her signature polka dots. But, behind the canvas Yayoi was suffering with her mental health and spent almost five decades living in a psychiatric hospital. Frances Morris, the former Director of Tate Modern, now chair of the Gallery Climate Coalition, curated a retrospective exhibition of Kusama’s work. The Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić was jailed for life in 2017 for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" and infamously ordered the death of thousands of men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. The author and journalist Tim Judah met and interviewed Ratko Mladić and tells his story. When the actor Tim Curry slapped on full make up, donned fishnet stockings and corset and let loose his uniquely powerful voice, no one in the audience was ever going to forget meeting the Rocky Horror Show's Frank N Furter. Curry was born in Warrington in 1946 and his first acting job came after university in the original London production of the equally groundbreaking rock musical “Hair” in 1968. He was known also as the original Pennywise from Stephen King's "It”, the naturalist Nigel Thornberry in the much-loved children’s series “The Wild Thornberrys”, and Long John Silver in the 1996 film “Muppet Treasure Island” alongside a young Kevin Bishop who recalls his experience of working with Tim Curry. Violet Hensley has died at the astonishing age of 109. She was one of the last surviving links back to depression-era America, she was also a luthier, or instrument maker, and a fine fiddle player. Her instruments were of such high quality that she became known as the “Stradivarius of the Ozarks”. Violet made her first instrument when she was 14, but four years later she got married and stopped performing and making fiddles while she raised nine children. After a thirty-year break, she started making music again. Her daughter Sandra Flagg remembers her. Presenter: Matthew Bannister Producer: Ben Mitchell Assistant Producers: Lowri Morgan and Alice McKee Researcher: Jesse Edwards Editor: Andrea Kennedy Archive: BBC One, Newsnight, 01/02/2012; BBC Radio 4, Front Row, 09/02/2012; BBC One, News, 26/05/2011; BBC World Service, Witness History, 29/10/2025; BBC One, News, 04/11/2011; BBC, Film Week, 26/07/1975; “Muppet Treasure Island”, directed by Brian Henson, produced by The Jim Henson Company and The Walt Disney Company, 24/05/1996 (UK release)