Art is child's play.

Following an exhibition organised by the charity Kids Company, in which children made cardboard box representations of an imaginary bedroom, this documentary goes on to explore the connection between childhood play and adult art production. Psychoanalyst Adam Philips and writer Michael Rosen question how much artists revert to a somewhat childlike state in order to create. Is the spontaneous free play of children naturally akin to the sort of play that an artist does in their studio? Contemporary artists reflect on how their early creative experiences have shaped their later work. Grayson Perry speaks eloquently about his rather isolated childhood and how this has led him to adopt a female persona, Claire. Tracey Emin describes how the creation of something unexpected in her artwork makes it feel, to her, successful as well as being like play for a child. Marc Quinn believes that a 'dreamy side' is what creates the work but that, as an adult, an artist needs a further side, a critical faculty which allows the artist to assess their own work. Polly Morgan's work involves taxidermy, she feels this is tied strongly to her childhood in the countryside. Mat Collishaw relates his childhood as an outsider to many of the cultural passtimes of his peers to his somewhat voyeuristic adult artworks. Paul Fryer's childhood love of sci-fi has continued into his adult life to inspire his artwork. David Bailey describes how the bombed buildings of the Second World War were one of his earliest artistic inspirations. Gavin Turk explains how his work takes everyday objects and changes our perception of them in the same way a child has a flexible sense of what is around them.