In the summer of 2002, Alan had his first Network TV Series Painting the Stars, on ITV 1. The series featured top celebrities from the world of show business, politics and the movie industry. Famous sitters included Dame Thora Hird, Ricky Tomlinson Richard Whiteley, Jilly Cooper, Barabara Dickson, Richard Todd and Kay Mellor.

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Jilly Cooper	Ricky Tomlinson	Barbara Dickson	Dame Thora Hird

The series had a unique format, which featured Alan not only painting portraits of the celebrities, but he also managed to interview his famous sitters in depth, often eliciting suprising confessions from them!

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Lord Harewood	Lord Healey	Kay Mellor	Sir Edward Heath

Over the past four years, Alan has painted celebrities from the whole gambit of show business, including most of the cast of Coronation Street and rock stars such as Rick Wakeman and Robert Palmer. He has also painted top churchmen such as the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Ripon, and leading politicians such as former Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Healey. Throughout the course of his work, he has become close friends with a number of his sitters, including the writer Jilly Cooper and the playwright Kay Mellor. "Painting portraits is a great challenge because the most important thing is to bring out the character of the sitter. To interview a famous person with a television crew filming your every move makes it even more difficult!"

Alan Hydes is a prominent and very well established portrait artist, with work archived in the National Portrait Gallery. His work hangs in public and private collections around the world and many of his portraits take pride of place in the homes of the sitters, Sir Edward Heath, Lord Healey, Jilly Cooper, Barbara Dickson, Lord Harewood, Dame Thora Hird, The Archbishop of York (In Bishopthorpe Palace), Rick Wakeman, Robert Palmer, Ricky Tomlinson, William Roach, Liz Dawn, Kay Mellor and countless other celebrities.

The television series, fully networked across the UK on ITV 1, featured Alan`s work in progress as he interviewed the sitters. He established a new form of Television interview/Arts programmes and set a ball rolling that was taken up by other television broadcasters.