Five has commissioned three new art and architecture programmes as a key part of the channel’s new Autumn schedule, it was announced today.

Five’s face of property and architecture, Charlie Luxton, will present Behind Closed Doors, in which he tracks the opening of exceptional buildings to the public as part of the Open House events taking place in September.

In this week-long, seven-part, half-hour series, transmitting on the 8th September, Charlie will give the viewer an access-all-areas tour of some incredible buildings the public never usually gets to see. In each show Charlie offers his personal preview of five selected buildings which viewers can go and see as part of an Open House event happening in their area.

As well as breaking into the Bank of England, Lloyd’s of London and The Treasury, Behind Closed Doors will also go underground to a rarely opened World War II bunker in Neasden, where Churchill held a secret cabinet war meeting in 1940. The series will also power up the James Watt steam engines at the Victorian Crossness Pumping Station, see the giant fans working at the George’s Dock Ventilation Tower and get up close and personal to the Liver Birds at the Liver Building in Liverpool.

The main focus of Behind Closed Doors is the Open House event in London, but the series will also feature buildings from across the country as part of Heritage Open Days, England and Open Doors, Wales.

In The Bigger Picture, a five-part, half-hour series for the channel, conservation architect and watercolour enthusiast Ptolemy Dean will paint the views of buildings that he thinks are national treasures, but which are sadly under threat from developers, general neglect and the ravages of time.

In Picture Perfect Homes, a ten-part, ten minute series for the channel, Ptolemy Dean will go in search of Britain’s finest period homes and explore the settings in which they sit. Ptolemy will be exploring ten different period buildings representing ten different architectural styles, from fine Georgian squares to delightful Victorian semis. At all times on his journey he’ll be taking his sketchbook to record the details of materials, the setting of the landscape and the intricacies of the homes. Ptolemy will be meeting the owners of these homes and discovering what makes them so special to live in.