Hollywood Greats

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Launching a new series of three profiles, Hollywood Greats delves into the ultimate story of a life lived in the public eye - Judy Garland.

Way ahead of Hear'Say or any boy bands, she was the personification of a young talent packaged - to the extent of having her burgeoning breasts taped down for "The Wizard of Oz" - for public consumption. She sang her way into America and the world's heart with a smile which captured everyone. Yet, behind the smile, was a modern tragedy of despair and drugs in her few moments of privacy away from the limelight.

Hollywood Greats pieces together her moments of glory with interviews from many of the people closest to her, including her former husband Sid Luft and band leader Artie Shaw, "the man who got away". Also interviewed will be Lauren Bacall, Tony Bennett, Janet Leigh and Mickey Rooney.

Gene Kelly, the film star who revolutionised dance, is profiled in the second of this series of "Hollywood Greats".

Gene Kelly may be best remembered for "Singin' in the Rain" but as that and other clips featured show, he was a pioneer in a variety of ways - using celluloid trickery in tandem with his talent to create amazing dance routines which still look good to modern eyes, well accustomed to digital animation and the like.

What also emerges is a picture of an essentially decent man who worked hard rather than played hard (although he did throw some of the best parties in town), rising from the wrong side of the tracks by virtue of determination and skill - the American dream as it should be.

Contributors also include top dancers as well as close members of his family and friends.

In the last of this current series Jonathan profiles all-round entertainer Sammy Davis Jnr, whose glittering career masked a personal life troubled by drink, drugs and financial difficulties. As roller-coasters go, Davis's life was a white-knuckle ride of epic proportions. With his talent for entertainment, honed on stage from infancy, he shone - whether he was dancing or wise-cracking.

But, being black, Puerto Rican, Jewish and one-eyed, he didn't have to go far to encounter prejudice, even at the peak of his career in the Fifties and Sixties.

Then again, some might say that he courted disaster in his life, losing four fortunes and loving white girls at racially sensitive, if not dangerous, times which scandelised Hollywood society.

But when he died in 1990, Las Vegas still dimmed its lights in tribute to 'Mr Entertainment'.

Hollywood Greats is a Documentary programme.

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• Sammy Davis Jr.com