Melvyn Bragg introduces the German painter Gerhard Richter as " the world's most influential and expensive living artist". Born in Dresden in 1932, he started painting at sixteen and studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 1961, just before the Berlin Wall went up, Richter escaped to the West. Since then he has produced a large, diverse body of work, from his blurred photo-based paintings to his gigantuate abstractions. Using a mix of interviews and archival footage as well as showcasing Richter's works, the program offers an in-depth look at Richter's use of photography, his interest in abstraction and his views on art and art-making.