Arguably the world's most famous work of art, millions of people visit it every year. Until now however nobody has been able to explain exactly what the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is actually trying to tell us. Though important and timely the film (airing as it does to celebrate the 500th birthday of the work) it is also the product of the detective work and obsessive scholarship by art critic Waldemar Januszczak which spans the last 30 years. During this time he has been trying to unlock the secrets of Sistine Chapel's complex pictorial codes and sumptuous iconography.

This major voyage of discovery traverses both centuries and nations, taking Waldemar from Texas to Jerusalem, from Portugal to Bologna, as he solves the vital clues which reveal for the first time the crucial answers to one of the world's most enduring art mysteries. Much of the inspiration for the Sistine Chapel finds its roots in antiquity but interestingly the scripture which inspired its birth, still finds powerful resonances in our recent history. Tracing strong and direct scriptural links between Michelangelo's masterwork and one David Koresh (cult leader of the Branch Davidians) Waldemar shows quite how powerful and pervasive these myths and prophecies remain.

For one important 15th century Italian family these self-same prophecies were to define them and their legacy. The family in question extraordinarily boasted two Popes from subsequent generations. Both Pope Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere) who built the Sistine Chapel and his nephew (Giuliano della Rovere) later Julius II who commissioned the Sistine Ceiling from Michelangelo were astonishing even in the lurid annals of the papacy. Their story on the one hand is one of rampant nepotism and monumental excess, is also a story of an unshakable belief that they were to take a starring role in the fulfilment of scripture foretelling the end of the world. This belief in the prophecy is closely mirrored in Michelangelo's masterwork.

Yet Papal Rome and its colourful history represent only one of the strands of Waldemar's complex and fascinating story. An equally important thread is to be found in Jerusalem. In the Holy Land he follows his line of enquiry into the mythology surrounding the quest for a new messiah.

Yet as well as exploring myths the film also explodes a few. Dispelling some of the notorious and misleading mythology which has grown up about the Ceiling – an obvious example being that Michelangelo lay flat on his back for 4 years while painting the Ceiling – proves to be little more than fantasy. Similarly the notion that Michelangelo had no teachers or influences proves to be little more than a spurious reworking of the truth.

This epic and exhaustive film as well as boasting considerable scholarship also boasts has been granted unprecedented access to the Sistine Chapel itself by the Vatican authorities in order to tell this fascinating but up to now untold story of its startling history.

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