I'm Daniel Farson. Tonight, on Hungry Eye, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Britain's greatest living painter, Francis Bacon.

Good evening.

Francis Bacon, your work is known internationally as some of the most challenging and powerful of the post war years, you've resisted the abstract movements which have dominated those years and have championed the importance of the figure in modern art. Why is the figure so important to you?

Well, its difficult to describe really. One can only talk about one's instincts and avoid the rest.

[cut to Bacon's studio] [on the TV]

I do it with a chance. Brush stroke, which locks the magic in place.