Portrait Artist of the Year confirmed to return to Sky Arts on 21 January 2020

Celebrity sitters include: Tinie Tempah, Len Goodman, Adrian Dunbar,
Dame Harriet Walter, Asa Butterfield, Russell Tovey,
Elaine Paige OBE and Lemn Sissay

Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell return in 2020 to Sky Arts, the UK’s only TV channel dedicated to arts, music and culture, with a brand-new series of Portrait Artist of the Year on Tuesday 21 January at 8pm.

For the sixth year running, the series will see aspiring artists compete to see who has what it takes to be crowned Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. Throughout the series we will see 24 celebrity sitters from the worlds of stage, screen, sport and music become the subject for our painters.

Sitting this year (in order of TX) are: Anjili Mohindra (Bodyguard), Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), Mickey Flanagan (Comedian); Trevor Nelson (Radio DJ), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood/Adulthood), Ashley Roberts (TV Personality); Tinie Tempah (Musician), Len Goodman (Strictly), Dame Harriet Walter (The Crown/Succession); Asim Choudhry (Comedian), Russell Tovey (The Good Liar/Years & Years), Doreen Mantle (One Foot In the Grave); Fearne Cotton (TV presenter), John Cooper Clarke (Performance Poet), Haydn Gwynne (Beauty & the Beast); Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat), Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty), Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs); Lydia Leonard (The 39 Steps), Ken Stott (Rebus) and Mike Leigh (Writer/Director); Omid Djalili (Comedian), Deborah Findlay (The Lady In The Van/The Split), Wunmi Mosaku (Temple/Luther).

The eight winners from each heat, all filmed at Battersea Arts Centre, will then go on to paint celebrated singer and actress Elaine Paige OBE in the semi-final, followed by Lemn Sissay, author of Sunday Times Best Seller ‘My Name Is Why’, who will sit for our finalists at London’s prestigious National Portrait Gallery where our winner will be crowned.  The 2020 Portrait Artist of the Year will receive a £10,000 prize pot from Sky Arts, a wide selection of art materials from Cass Arts and, very excitingly, have their winning portrait hung at London’s very own Royal Albert Hall.

Portrait Artist of the Year was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content, Sky UK and Ireland and Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Entertainment. The series was produced by Storyvault and the commissioning editor for Sky is Bill Hobbins.  The executive producers for Storyvault are Danielle Graham, Stuart Prebble and Samantha Richards.

For more information please contact:
calum.mcgarry@premiercomms.com  / jenny.carroll@premiercomms.com 

About Sky
With 24 million customers across seven countries, Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 31,000 employees help connect our customers with the very best of Sports, News, the arts and to our own local, original content. Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, Patrick Melrose, Das Boot and Gomorrah we launched Sky Studios and now plan to more than double our investment in original drama and comedy over the next five years.

Our technology allows customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and as we connect millions of families to content they love, it is our responsibility to do it safely – that’s why we offer services like Sky Broadband Buddy and the Sky Kids app. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. Our Sky Ocean Rescue campaign has reached millions across Europe, we’re on track to be free of single-use plastic by 2020, we’re investing £25million over five years in ocean-saving tech and we’re a proud employer – recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our approach to inclusivity.
 
About Sky Arts
Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated channel for the arts. It offers something for everyone, whatever their passion, with entertaining programmes showcasing the best of classical and popular music, theatre, opera, dance and the visual arts, as well as original drama and comedy. Sky Arts is broadcast 24 hours a day and has over 1,000 hours available on catch-up TV, including flagship programmes such as Portrait Artist of The Year, Landscape Artist of the Year and The South Bank Show.

The channel is committed to supporting the arts by investing in the best talent, both on and off screen, as well as through exclusive partnerships with major UK and European cultural institutions, including National Theatre Live, Tate and The British Library.

About NOW TV
NOW TV is a pick and mix TV streaming service that lets you choose from a range of passes contract free.

Available anytime, anywhere in the UK, you can watch through a NOW TV Box or NOW TV Smart Stick, or on the web. The NOW TV app is also available on over 60 devices.

Whether you’re into big dramas, blockbuster movies, live sports or even just some extra TV for the kids, NOW TV offers four passes which include the latest and best TV and movies: Entertainment, Sky Cinema, Kids and Sky Sports.  

This includes Sky Atlantic, over 300 Box Sets on demand, all 10 Sky Sports channels and over 1,000 movies – all available with no contract.

For more information:
•    Visit nowtv.com
•    Follow us at facebook.com/NOWTV  
•    Join the conversation on twitter @NOWTV  
•    Visit us at Youtube.com/nowtvofficial

About Storyvault Films
Storyvault Films is an independent TV production company making a wide range of high-quality factual and factual-entertainment programmes for all the major TV channels in the UK and for international distribution.  Formed in 2009, the company brings together a group of award-winning producers and directors, alongside highly experienced production management and expertise in casting and live and pre-recorded programming.

Our current and recent credits include five series of “Portrait Artist of the Year” and four series of “Landscape Artist of the year” for Sky Arts. Also for Sky Arts our team produced eight series of The Book Show as well as live coverage of Antony Gormley’s “One and Other” (The Fourth Plinth) and a range of other single documentaries.   Our recent shows include “Transformation Street” for ITV1, “My Mediterranean with Adrian Chiles”, “Melvyn Bragg: from Wigton to Westminster”, a number of well-reviewed episodes of “Imagine”, and “Vive La Revolution” for the BBC.  For Channel 4 we recently made ‘The Football Club’ which featured  Landscape Artist of The Year judge Tai Shan Schierenberg spending a season at West Bromwich Albion Football club and making art about the players, managers and fans. The programme won ‘Best Specialist Factual programme’ at this year’s Broadcast Awards and has been nominated for ‘Best Arts documentary’ at this year’s Grierson Documentary Awards. 

We have also recently completed a feature-length documentary for Showtime and BBC Films - “If You Don’t Know Me By Now - The Story of Teddy Pendergrass.” Most of our productions are available for international distribution.