Latest news with #TheBanksyStory
BBC News
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Banksy Story 5. Deal and No Deal
Roll-up! Roll-up! The Banksy circus is coming to town... What happens when Banksy does one of his naughty drawings on the wall of your house? For Season 2 of The Banksy Story, super-fan James Peak investigates (even though he isn't an art critic, or a journalist). In the last episode of the season, Rod has some strong words for the man himself. Also, there's a mega-deal on the table. Will the Banksy sell for big bucks now it's off the wall and on the market? And will we finally find out what happened to Banksy's missing frying pan? Written, Produced & Presented by James Peak Voices: Keith Wickham & Harriet Carmichael Production Support: George Crowe Music: Alcatraz Swim Team & Lilium Street Art Consultancy and Investigative Support: Steph Warren Series Mixing: Neil Churchill Executive Producer: Philip Abrams Commissioner: Dan Clarke With special thanks to Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Rob Shiret, Rosie Bauer, Tracy Williams, Andy Voss & Noel Lewis. This series is dedicated to the memory of Duncan Crowe. An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4
BBC News
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Waking up with a Banksy on your wall: The differing fortunes of two homeowners
Owner of street-art gallery Stelladore in St Leonards, Warren is a purist, who feels that art made for the street should remain there, no matter its value. "With Banksy, where he puts the art is fundamental," she says. "Remove the work from the precise place on the streets that he put it, and the work instantly loses its power. Context is everything." But Banksy has elevated graffiti into a new art form, now monetised – street art. Banksy's signed prints can sell for six-figure sums. Graffiti, or street art, has not just come of age, it is now an asset class. Given this, how can any homeowner feel okay about scrubbing away a Banksy without feeling as if they have smashed a Ming vase? One thing I know for sure: if you wake up with a Banksy on your wall, you'll have to make a series of clever decisions to come out of it unscathed. As Sam says, after two years of dealing with the Banksy circus, "going back to normal life now is going to be terribly boring". The new season of The Banksy Story is available on BBC Sounds
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Waking up with a Banksy on your wall: The differing fortunes of two homeowners
Sam was lying in bed one morning when her tenant in a house she owned in Margate sent her a photo of a piece of graffiti that had appeared on the wall outside. Astonishingly, it looked like a Banksy. It would turn out to be perhaps the graffiti artist's most interesting new artwork of recent years, Valentine's Day Mascara (pictured above), which was revealed in Margate on Valentine's Day, 2023. Bamboozled, Sam googled: what do you do when you wake up with a Banksy on your wall? "What did Google say about that?" I asked her. "Nothing! And I was like, I need to contact the council, I need to find an art gallery who can advise me." Sam called Julian Usher at Red Eight Gallery. Julian's team, conscious that new Banksy's are under immediate threat from street cleaners, the weather, rival graffiti artists and other art dealers, promised he'd be in Margate within the hour: "We knew we had to get the piece covered," say Julian. And there was another reason Julian got to Margate double-quick: if Banksy chooses your wall for one of his drawings, you could be seriously in the money. For the second season of my BBC Radio 4 podcast The Banksy Story, which is called When Banksy Comes To Town, I've been following the very different fates of two sets of homeowners who wake up one day to find a Banksy on their wall. The season shows just how important his graffiti becomes for a local community – and why people disagree so vehemently about what should happen after it's discovered. Sam became the custodian of Valentine's Day Mascara, which speaks to the theme of domestic violence, incidents of which usually spike each Valentine's Day. It's a complicated bit of work. A peppy 50s housewife with a black eye has bludgeoned her partner. A real pan with flecks of red is at her feet, and his painted legs are upended into the real fridge-freezer that Banksy left by the wall. A broken plastic chair testifies to the fight they have had. Later on the day it appeared, refuse collectors arrived to spirit away the fridge-freezer. This precipitated a free-for-all, with the public helping themselves to the remnants. It was mayhem. A media scrum, a wrong-footed local council, millions of global onlookers. Exactly, one suspects, what Banksy wanted. And this time, just for laughs, he left behind oil painter Peter Brown, commissioned to capture the scenes he would miss. I spoke to Pete "The Street" Brown for my series. "The whole reason I was employed was because Banksy was questioning what was the art about," Pete explained. "Is it about the graffiti? Or is it about the reaction afterwards, and what happens to it?" As luck would have it, Pete was captured on video just as Banksy's team were putting the finishing touches to Valentine's Day Mascara – a video that The Banksy Story managed to obtain. In it we can see that one of Banksy's team let a local kid play with their drone. "They're in the process of putting a large piece on a wall and yet they're taking the time to teach a kid how to fly a drone," says Steph Warren, who used to work with Banksy and who appeared in my first series - about the artist's rise and rise. "Very sweet!" Alongside Sam, I've been following the story of Gert and Gary. They, like Sam, did not want me to use their last name. A 30ft-high seagull appeared one morning on the wall of their buy-to-let in Lowestoft in Suffolk. The bird needed to be massive for Banksy's ambitious visual gag to work. The artist had shoved large yellow insulation strips into a skip that now looked like a fast-food container that the seagull divebombed to steal chips. Banksy had chosen his wall well. Visitors arriving by train were treated to this witty meditation on the scourge of Britain's seaside towns, equal parts warning and celebration. The Lowestoft Seagull was part of Banksy's Great British Staycation, his post-Covid lockdown campaign to cheer us all up at the prospect of a summer holiday spent in the UK. But Gert was not cheered-up at all. "It's not a seagull, it's an albatross!" she quipped when I went to interview her. "How did you know it was a Banksy?" I asked. "There was scaffolding erected on the side of the house. I tried to find out if it was a particular scaffolding firm, but there was no phone number," Gert replied. "On the Monday morning the letting agency informed me that I could possibly have a Banksy. By then the scaffolding had gone and this seagull appeared." This fits with what we know of Banksy's modus operandi. He claims hiding in plain sight is the best way to remain invisible. "If questioned about your legitimacy," he wrote in his book Wall & Piece, "simply complain about the hourly rate." What do we know about Banksy? Nine days of Banksy, but what do the works mean? It's a good gag. But how fun is it for the folk on the other end of his spray can? I found that with good hustling skills a Banksied homeowner might see their bank balance expanded, but it's not an easy process. As Gert explains, exasperated, "Lowestoft people commented that it belongs to Lowestoft… But nobody's turned up to say, 'we'll help you protect it'. It doesn't belong to the person filming it, or the person taking pictures with their children. The problem is mine!" Gert had to contend with people putting their children into the skip for photo opportunities, the council trying to charge her for Perspex screens, and the threat of a Preservation Order which might have cost her £40,000 a year. And the two stories I've been following have ended up having entirely different outcomes. Both artworks have been taken off the houses they were painted on – a complex, expensive operation that uses specialist equipment – so they can be sold. But while the Banksy in Margate is now on the verge of selling for well over £1m, with a sizeable chunk set to go to a domestic violence charity, and with the piece remaining in the town for the foreseeable future, the Banksy up the coast in Lowestoft languishes in a climate-controlled warehouse, costing its owners £3,000 per month. It has cost Gert and her partner Gary around £450,000 so far to preserve the piece and although there are buyers sniffing around, nobody has bought it yet. Speaking about the situation, Gary told me: "I'm so angry at what's going on." Not everyone approves of people trying to sell Banksy's street art. Steph Warren – who starred in the first series of The Banksy Story as the only person ever to work for Banksy without signing his non-disclosure agreement – suggests that worried homeowners should simply "get busy with five litres of white emulsion and paint it out". Owner of street-art gallery Stelladore in St Leonards, Warren is a purist, who feels that art made for the street should remain there, no matter it's value. "With Banksy, where he puts the art is fundamental," she says. "Remove the work from the precise place on the streets that he put it, and the work instantly loses its power. Context is everything." But Banksy has elevated graffiti into a new art form, now monetised – street art. Banksy's signed prints can sell for six-figure sums. Graffiti, or street art, has not just come of age, it is now an asset class. Given this, how can any homeowner feel okay about scrubbing away a Banksy without feeling as if they have smashed a Ming vase? One thing I know for sure: if you wake up with a Banksy on your wall, you'll have to make a series of clever decisions to come out of it unscathed. As Sam says, after two years of dealing with the Banksy circus, "going back to normal life now is going to be terribly boring". The new season of The Banksy Story is available on BBC Sounds Home of Banksy's early graffiti is sold for £650,000 Two in court charged with stealing £95,000 Banksy print Banksy piranhas to find new home in London Museum
BBC News
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
What to do if you wake up with a Banksy on your wall
Sam was lying in bed one morning when her tenant in a house she owned in Margate sent her a photo of a piece of graffiti that had appeared on the wall it looked like a Banksy. It would turn out to be perhaps the graffiti artist's most interesting new artwork of recent years, Valentine's Day Mascara (pictured above), which was revealed in Margate on Valentine's Day, Sam googled: what do you do when you wake up with a Banksy on your wall?"What did Google say about that?" I asked her."Nothing! And I was like, I need to contact the council, I need to find an art gallery who can advise me."Sam called Julian Usher at Red Eight Gallery. Julian's team, conscious that new Banksy's are under immediate threat from street cleaners, the weather, rival graffiti artists and other art dealers, promised he'd be in Margate within the hour: "We knew we had to get the piece covered," say there was another reason Julian got to Margate double-quick: if Banksy chooses your wall for one of his drawings, you could be seriously in the the second season of my BBC Radio 4 podcast The Banksy Story, which is called When Banksy Comes To Town, I've been following the very different fates of two sets of homeowners who wake up one day to find a Banksy on their wall. The season shows just how important his graffiti becomes for a local community – and why people disagree so vehemently about what should happen after it's discovered. Sam became the custodian of Valentine's Day Mascara, which speaks to the theme of domestic violence, incidents of which usually spike each Valentine's Day. It's a complicated bit of work. A peppy 50s housewife with a black eye has bludgeoned her partner. A real pan with flecks of red is at her feet, and his painted legs are upended into the real fridge-freezer that Banksy left by the wall. A broken plastic chair testifies to the fight they have on the day it appeared, refuse collectors arrived to spirit away the fridge-freezer. This precipitated a free-for-all, with the public helping themselves to the remnants. It was mayhem. A media scrum, a wrong-footed local council, millions of global onlookers. Exactly, one suspects, what Banksy wanted. And this time, just for laughs, he left behind oil painter Peter Brown, commissioned to capture the scenes he would miss. I spoke to Pete "The Street" Brown for my series. "The whole reason I was employed was because Banksy was questioning what was the art about," Pete explained. "Is it about the graffiti? Or is it about the reaction afterwards, and what happens to it?"As luck would have it, Pete was captured on video just as Banksy's team were putting the finishing touches to Valentine's Day Mascara – a video that The Banksy Story managed to obtain. In it we can see that one of Banksy's team let a local kid play with their drone. "They're in the process of putting a large piece on a wall and yet they're taking the time to teach a kid how to fly a drone," says Steph Warren, who used to work with Banksy and who appeared in my first series - about the artist's rise and rise. "Very sweet!"Alongside Sam, I've been following the story of Gert and Gary. They, like Sam, did not want me to use their last name. A 30ft-high seagull appeared one morning on the wall of their buy-to-let in Lowestoft in Suffolk. The bird needed to be massive for Banksy's ambitious visual gag to work. The artist had shoved large yellow insulation strips into a skip that now looked like a fast-food container that the seagull divebombed to steal chips. Banksy had chosen his wall well. Visitors arriving by train were treated to this witty meditation on the scourge of Britain's seaside towns, equal parts warning and celebration. The Lowestoft Seagull was part of Banksy's Great British Staycation, his post-Covid lockdown campaign to cheer us all up at the prospect of a summer holiday spent in the Gert was not cheered-up at all. "It's not a seagull, it's an albatross!" she quipped when I went to interview her."How did you know it was a Banksy?" I asked."There was scaffolding erected on the side of the house. I tried to find out if it was a particular scaffolding firm, but there was no phone number," Gert replied. "On the Monday morning the letting agency informed me that I could possibly have a Banksy. By then the scaffolding had gone and this seagull appeared."This fits with what we know of Banksy's modus operandi. He claims hiding in plain sight is the best way to remain invisible. "If questioned about your legitimacy," he wrote in his book Wall & Piece, "simply complain about the hourly rate." It's a good gag. But how fun is it for the folk on the other end of his spray can?I found that with good hustling skills a Banksied homeowner might see their bank balance expanded, but it's not an easy process. As Gert explains, exasperated, "Lowestoft people commented that it belongs to Lowestoft… But nobody's turned up to say, 'we'll help you protect it'. It doesn't belong to the person filming it, or the person taking pictures with their children. The problem is mine!" Gert had to contend with people putting their children into the skip for photo opportunities, the council trying to charge her for Perspex screens, and the threat of a Preservation Order which might have cost her £40,000 a year. And the two stories I've been following have ended up having entirely different outcomes. Both artworks have been taken off the houses they were painted on – a complex, expensive operation that uses specialist equipment – so they can be sold. But while the Banksy in Margate is now on the verge of selling for well over £1m, with a sizeable chunk set to go to a domestic violence charity, and with the piece remaining in the town for the foreseeable future, the Banksy up the coast in Lowestoft languishes in a climate-controlled warehouse, costing its owners £3,000 per month. It has cost Gert and her partner Gary around £450,000 so far to preserve the piece and although there are buyers sniffing around, nobody has bought it yet. Speaking about the situation, Gary told me: "I'm so angry at what's going on."Not everyone approves of people trying to sell Banksy's street art. Steph Warren – who starred in the first series of The Banksy Story as the only person ever to work for Banksy without signing his non-disclosure agreement – suggests that worried homeowners should simply "get busy with five litres of white emulsion and paint it out". Owner of street-art gallery Stelladore in St Leonards, Warren is a purist, who feels that art made for the street should remain there, no matter it's value. "With Banksy, where he puts the art is fundamental," she says. "Remove the work from the precise place on the streets that he put it, and the work instantly loses its power. Context is everything."But Banksy has elevated graffiti into a new art form, now monetised – street art. Banksy's signed prints can sell for six-figure sums. Graffiti, or street art, has not just come of age, it is now an asset class. Given this, how can any homeowner feel okay about scrubbing away a Banksy without feeling as if they have smashed a Ming vase?One thing I know for sure: if you wake up with a Banksy on your wall, you'll have to make a series of clever decisions to come out of it unscathed. As Sam says, after two years of dealing with the Banksy circus, "going back to normal life now is going to be terribly boring".The new season of The Banksy Story is available on BBC Sounds
BBC News
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
What's new on BBC Sounds?
Spring is in full swing and BBC Sounds is packed full of great content for April that we think you'll love. Scroll down for links to all these shows as just a taster of what's on BBC Sounds this month. What's new on BBC Sounds? 6 Music Festival Live Live sets from 6 Music Festival: Global premieres of brand new live shows, new music debuts, unique collaborations and surprise guests. Listen to 6 Music Festival Live on BBC Sounds What's Up Doc? In this BBC Radio 4 podcast, Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken are on a mission to help us take better care of ourselves. When it comes to looking after our own health, it can be confusing. With new statistics and treatments coming out every week, it feels impossible to decide what works best for us. So each episode, Chris and Xand are joined by an expert guest to examine the latest science, insights and data, to help you navigate the overwhelming amount of information and advice out there. From willpower to hunger, from dodgy knees to bad breath, they'll sort fact from fiction and tussle over their understanding of it all. Listen to What's Up Docs? on BBC Sounds The History Podcast: Invisible Hands This is the story of a hidden force that changed Britain forever — free market capitalism — and the invisible hands that shaped it. David Dimbleby traces the history of an idea that charts his lifespan. It started in a fighter plane in the Battle of Britain, gained traction in shadowy post-war London backrooms and rose to heights of excess in the new champagne bars of the City. Now it's 2025 and it has come to define every aspect of life in Britain. An idea that transformed the economy, politics and, ultimately, society itself. But how did it happen? Who are the little known people behind it? What did they want? And - as Donald Trump threatens to overturn the global economic system - is the free market here to stay? Or are we entering a new era? Listen to The History Podcast: Invisible Hands on BBC Sounds When Banksy Comes To Town Monday 7 April What happens when you wake up with a Banksy daubed on the wall of your house? Surely this is the best thing that could ever happen to you, right? New series of Radio 4's The Banksy Story hears first-hand accounts from residents who have woken up to a surprise installation on their property. Listen to When Banksy Comes to Town on BBC Sounds from Monday 7 April Listen to series one of The Banksy Story on BBC Sounds Match of the Day Top 10 Match of the Day and football legends Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards return for a new Champions League-themed series of Match of the Day Top 10. With the Champions League quarter finals on the horizon, the much-loved trio look back at the players, teams and managers that have gone down in history for their involvement in the most iconic European club competition. Listen to Match of the Day: Top 10 on BBC Sounds The Will Power Detectives The popular BBC Radio 4 podcast series Shadow World: The Willpower Detectives is back with a bonus episode. Sue Mitchell investigates how abuse of power of attorney can leave vulnerable people separated from friends and family and place them at risk of financial abuse. The programme exposes the difficulties involved when assessing mental capacity and especially when it comes to deciding who has financial control and who will inherit what's often seen as 'family money'. Listen to Will Power Detectives on BBC Sounds Pace Setter Romesh Ranganathan provides the perfect playlist of motivational music - and plenty of do's and don'ts - to get you marathon ready. From sweet potato eating to selfie taking, Rom's got sage advice for whatever you're tackling: a 20 minute run, a half marathon or the full monty. Featuring music from A Tribe Called Quest, New Order, Little Simz, Elton John, The Prodigy and so much more. Listen for over four hours of tunes to accompany your next run. Listen to Run with Rom and his epic Marathon Mix! on BBC Sounds Pop Top 10 Pop Top 10 is back for Series 2! Scott Mills and Rylan join forces to unofficially rank iconic music and pop culture moments. Expect nostalgia, heated debate, special guests, and stacks of pop passion! In each episode Scott & Rylan are joined by a special guest and in the latest episode it's Anastacia. Listen to Popstar Reinventions, with Anastacia on BBC Sounds Call Jonathan Pie Angry news reporter Jonathan Pie is back with a new series of his hit podcast Call Jonathan Pie, commissioned by BBC Radio 4 – and sees him in dire straits as he struggles to deal with the unexpected success of his radio phone-in show. Two years after the launch of Pie's radio phone-in show, the cracks are beginning to show as he and his colleagues struggle to find any enthusiasm in their respective jobs. Pie wants out – or at least the occasional duvet day. His producer Jules feels as unappreciated as ever and is 'mulling her options'. Senior editor Roger is eyeing retirement and easy-going sound engineer Sam has started taking dating tips from Andrew Tate. All of them are desperate for change and with the future of the planet, peace in Europe and more importantly the BBC licence fee no longer certain, could this be the end of the line for Call Jonathan Pie? Listen to Call Jonathan Pie on BBC Sounds Titanic: Ship of Dreams Monday 8 April On the 113th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, explore life and death aboard the most famous vessel in history in a brand new 13-part podcast series. Actors and brothers Paul McGann (Withnail and I, Doctor Who) and Stephen McGann (Call the Midwife) tell the remarkable survival story of their great uncle Jimmy, a coal-trimmer on the Titanic. Featuring expert interviews, archive audio from survivors, original music, and sound design for a unique immersive audio experience. Listen to Titanic: Ship of Dreams on BBC Sounds from the Tuesday 8 April Michael Spicer No Room Wednesday 30 April Unique satire with topical and character-filled sketches which brilliantly capture everything that provokes us; culture, politics, work... and other people. Listen to the new series from Wednesday 30 April on BBC Sounds Listen to the previous series on BBC Sounds
