Kaiser Chiefs’ frontman and former art teacher Ricky Wilson joins Bill Bailey’s family of artists at the easel as BBC Arts’ Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey returns for an emotionally charged fifth series this spring.

The news coincides with a special BBC event in Bradford, celebrating its partnership with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and highlighting the exciting activity and programmes still to come this year. Following a sold-out exhibition in Bradford in 2025, the artworks produced in this new series will again be going on public view, celebrating a new generation of British heroes and their inspiring stories.

Extraordinary Portraits sees musician, comedian and art-lover Bill Bailey matching ordinary people who have extraordinary backstories with some of the country’s most talented portrait artists, shining a light on modern Britain.

This year’s sitters have been chosen by Bill for their exceptionally inspiring stories: from the civil servant who fought off a terrorist using a narwhal tusk to the sisters who made medical history when one gave birth from the other’s womb; the grandmother still competing in Iron Man competitions in her 80s; a survivor of the Post Office scandal who was imprisoned while she was pregnant, and the young brothers with early-onset frontotemporal dementia choosing to live to the fullest.