John Martyn is one of Britain's originals; a musician whose distinctive, drawling vocals and virtuoso guitar playing have been an inspiration to household-name musicians for decades.

This intimate documentary follows John Martyn as he emerges from a near-fatal encounter with "a dark cow on a dark night", a "hangman's fracture", infected cysts... At the beginning of filming, he's recording a new album in his front room and facing an operation to have his right leg amputated below the knee. With extraordinary behind-the-scenes access, we spend time with him cooking, drinking, recording, trying on silly hats (and latterly his new prosthetic leg) as he makes the painful progress towards getting back on the road.

Along the way, we dip into the past to learn more about his career - from London's folk clubs in the 1960s, to his best-loved album Solid Air, to his continuing musical experimentation.

The programme includes extracts from the following performance archive:

• May You Never (1973)
• Couldn't Love You More with Danny Thompson (1977)
• Outside In (1973) with Danny Thompson
• Make No Mistake with Danny Thompson (1973)
• Small Hours (1978)
• Sweet Little Mystery with band (Alan Thomson, Danny Cummings & Max Middleton) & Phil Collins on drums (1981)
• Hurt In Your Heart with band (Foster Patterson, Alan Thomson, Jeff Allen, Danny Cummings) from A Little Night Music (1981)
• Johnny Too Bad with band (Foster Patterson, Alan Thomson, Jeff Allen & Danny Cummings) on A Little Night Music in 1981
• Couldn't Love You More on Jock and Roll (1982)
• Gun Money with band (Ronnie Leahy, Alan Thomson, Jeff Allen and Danny Cummings (1982)
• Step it Up with band and backing singers (Emma Heywood, Ernestine Pearce, Jerry Underwood, Alan Thomson, Miles Bould, Spencer Cozens) on Later With Jools (1996)

Unless otherwise indicated the performances are taken from The Old Grey Whistle Test.

BBC Links

On the Cobbles
Review of John Martyn's 2004 album from bbc.co.uk/music