In 1988 the Scottish painter John Bellany needed a liver transplant: he was ailing badly and even his paintings had become pale and wan. For our Easter Sunday programme in 1989, BBC 1's Heart of the Matter told the story of his courageous recovery: John painted his way through the whole episode, taking paper and paints wherever he went; his hospital room was festooned with paintings – he painted the nurses, his surgeon Sir Roy Calne, and mostly his own pain-stricken face. He told me the painting so absorbed him, the pain was kept at bay. The works are known as the Addenbrooke's series, from the Cambridge hospital. After the transplant his paintings blazed with colour once again. And his love of music shifted: "I think I have the liver of someone who loved Rachmaninov."
• John Bellany, watercolour: Sir Roy Yorke Calne; John Bellany, 1992, National Portrait Gallery