Watching: Perspectives: Emeli Sande In Search of Frida Kahlo (ITV, 10pm)

Perspectives:Emeli Sande in Search of Frida Kahlo can be watched for a limited time at https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/ 

Frida Kahlo

I probably wouldn't have watched television last night if it had not been for this programme catching my eye. Not only was it to feature Frida Kahlo - one of the greatest twentieth century artists and a personal favourite of mine - but it was to document the pilgrimage of Emeli Sande, an exciting new singer/songwriter who was seen and heard by the world at the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics. Why would she be going in search of Frida Kahlo?

Emeli Sande

Turns out there are some similarities between the two. Both wanted to be doctors, both were mixed-race and both followed highly competitive careers where success would change their lives. But the main reason for Emeli producing this programme is that she found in Frida the mixture of personal courage, fortitude and artistic integrity that Emeli needed to swop the safety of a career in medicine with the uncertainties of the music industry. She makes sure Kahlo is with her every step of the way, though, by having her inside forearm tattooed with a detail from the iconic painting "Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" (left). 

The programme covers the health struggles experienced by Frida from polio as a child to the fateful bus crash as an 18-year-old, and the subsequent harrowing treatments and operations that followed.  As if that wasn't enough, she sustained so much internal damage that carrying a child was impossible and she suffered at least three miscarriages during her marriage(s) to  Diego Rivera.    Yet Frida Kahlo had an indomitable spirit and it is this courage to embrace life and express her pain and suffering through her art that gives Emeli Sande the validation she needs to choose life as an artist and to do the soul-searching she feels will result in more authentic work. Honesty, for Frida and for Emeli, is definitely the best policy.

This programme is a good watch as an introduction to the background of both these artists, and is an interesting glimpse into Emeli's matamorphosis from shy student to  major star in the music industry in a short period.