8.8 /10 1 Votes
Country of origin United Kingdom No. of series 5 Producer(s) Simon Shaw First episode date 19 June 2011 Language English Presented by Fiona Bruce, Philip Mould | 8.8/10 IMDb Original language(s) English No. of episodes 19 Running time 60 minutes Genre Documentary film Number of series 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar The Private Life of a Masterpiece, The Queen's Palaces, Simon Schama's Power of, How Art Made the World, Dan Cruickshank's Adventur | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fake or Fortune? is a returning, award-winning BBC1 television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, Fake or Fortune? has become the most popular arts show on television, regularly drawing audiences of 5 million viewers in the UK alone.
Contents
- Fake or fortune se4 e01 lowry
- Synopsis
- Series 1 2011
- Series 2 2012
- Series 3 2014
- Series 5 2016
- Reception
- United States
- References
It is co-presented by journalist Fiona Bruce and art dealer and art historian Philip Mould (who helped formulate the programme) with forensic analysis and archival research carried out by a team of specialists. Each series has first aired on BBC1, except the third series accidentally first airing on SVT. The sixth series is due to broadcast in the summer of 2017.
Fake or fortune se4 e01 lowry
Synopsis
In each episode, Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce focus their attention on a painting (or a group of paintings), usually related to one particular artist. The team, assisted by Dr Bendor Grosvenor in series 1-5, investigate the paintings on two fronts: establishing the provenance of the piece by working backwards from present day to the time of the work's creation; and on a forensic level, with investigation and scientific tests on the materials used to help establish specific time frames and the unique painting styles and quirks of the artist. This evidence is then presented to established authorities to help to argue the legitimacy of the work and its possible addition to the relevant catalogue raisonné.
Series 1 (2011)
There were four episodes in the first series, which started on 19 June 2011:
Series 2 (2012)
The first episode of the new series was shown in the UK on 16 September 2012. The series had three episodes:
Series 3 (2014)
The third series features four episodes.
The first episode was first shown on 27 December 2013, on Sweden's SVT, with episodes 2 and 3 shown in the following weeks. Philip Mould described the appearance on Swedish television weeks ahead of the British premiere as a "weird BBC World cock-up". SVT on its website described the programme at the time as a "Brittisk dokumentärserie från 2012" (British documentary from 2012).
Series 5 (2016)
Filming for the fifth series started on 24 November 2015. The series was slated to be broadcast on 17 July 2016.
Reception
Describing the outcome of the first episode of series one as a "scandal", Sam Wollaston writing for The Guardian found the programme "incredibly interesting" and praised it "for being about just one case in which you can become totally involved, instead of flitting between three, which is what so many documentaries seem to do". In The Telegraph, Ceri Radford was described as being "flabbergasted" at the result of the first episode, but concluded her review by saying: "This may have been a disappointing finale, but it at least confirmed that this aesthetically pleasing, quietly enjoyable new series isn't afraid to thwart expectations." Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent had a mixed view as a result of the presentation of the facts, saying: "It was full of cliffhanger tension and thrilling moments of discovery. But I couldn't entirely shift the suspicion that some of it was just a little too good to be true."
The first programme of the third series, shown in the UK on 19 January 2014, pulled in 4.8 million viewers (a 21.8% audience share) while the first programme of the fourth series attracted 4.85m (24.5%).
The record audience was pulled in on 12 July 2015 with a peak attendance of 5.8 million viewers (episode 4.2 "Renoir").
United States
The programme has aired on PBS in the United States.