Clive James Documentaries

Clive James offers a fascinating and humorous view of one of the great gambling cities of the world - Las Vegas. The sharp witted presenter also meets a selection of the rich and famous that inhabit the desert oasis.

A special programme, filmed in Paris, in which the Polish-born film director of "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "Tess" talks openly for the first time about his extraordinary life and work. In this exclusive interview, Roman Polanski talks to Clive James about his childhood in the Warsaw ghetto, his early struggle to become a film director, the horrific murder of his wife Sharon Tate, his relationship with young girls, and the rape charge which led to his flight from California to France.

A remarkable interview with one of cinema's legends, Katherine Hepburn. Long known for her reluctance to discuss her private life, she talks at length to Clive James in her New York home and discusses, among other subjects, her relationship with Spencer Tracy.

Intrepid Aussie investigator Clive James sets out to find the real goings-on in the American city of Dallas. During his time in the city of mirrors, Clive visits a reverend who presides over a church covering five entire blocks, is a guest at millionaire's dinner party, goes shopping in style and meets Dallas's real life equivalent of the Ewings - the Hunt family. Then there's the real estate tycoon, Twinkle Bayoud, who has made millions out of buying and selling the homes of the rich. The end to Clive's glittering visit to Dallas, with it's oil barons and football teams, is a ball where the cars in the drive are bigger than most people's houses.

It's 30 years since legendary author Ernest Hemingway went on his last safari and in this special programme Clive James follows in his wheel tracks accompanied by Hemingway's original guide. He takes a humorous look at the animals and the people of Nairobi and the African bush while staying part of the time in a moveable camp and part of the time in game lodges. But he finds that setting off on safari is anything but simple. His guide through the game reserves of Kenya is Dennis Zaphiro, the same man who accompanied Hemingway in the mid-1950s. This is the land of the Masai and, incredibly, Clive is initiated into the tribe!

It fell to television's most unlikely playboy, Clive James, to seek out the man who started the sexual revolution nearly forty years ago: Hugh M. Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire. We find out how Hefner is facing up to feminism, the worldwide threat of AIDS and the moral majority.

American football is an up-market, billion dollar business. The teams are run like movie studios, they are awash with talent and glamour and no team has more glamour than the San Francisco 49ers, winners of two Superbowls and one of America's top teams. Clive James spends a week with the 49ers - he meets the players off the field, spends some time with the cheerleaders and enjoys a new experience 2,000 feet above San Francisco Bay.

Clive James finally travels to Japan and finds out for himself what it's like to participate in the kind of crazy game show he has observed for so long. Clive discovers what the Japanese 'salaryman' does to let off steam at the end of his record-breaking productive day. Culture shock hits Clive hard, sitting cross-legged for hours on end, being fed raw fish by Geisha girls and attempting to navigate the Tokyo subway system. All this on top of jet lag!

Clive's culture shock worsens as he continues his journey through Japan. He's almost flattened by a 35-stone Sumo wrestler and travels to the health spa of Beppu to be voluntarily buried up to his neck in volcanic sand and simmered like a potato in a boiling sulphur bath, inexplicably full of grapefruits.

When Clive James was invited by the Australian Grand Prix organisers to take part in their celebrity challenge it was a dream come true. There was just one small problem ... he couldn't drive. Clive needed help quickly and who better to teach him than former world champion Stirling Moss?

Clive James visits Nashville Tennessee. In spite of the fact that he has no musical talent, with the help of such luminaries as Tammy Wynette, Mark Knoplfer and Chet Atkins, he makes a record.

Clive James follows racing driver Damon Hill for two weeks during his battle for the Formula One world champion title in the summer of 1996.