First he saw the movie, then Mike Laycock travelled to London to see Mr Turner’s paintings.

TIMOTHY Spall’s superb portrayal of J M W Turner in a new film about the last 30 years of the artist’s life has sparked renewed interest in one of Britain’s greatest talents.

Tate Britain has therefore shown great timing with its exhibition about the genius in the last 15 years of his career: Late Turner – Painting Set Free.

I visited the exhibition during a visit to London with my family, just after seeing Mr Turner at York ’s City Screen cinema, and found the film gave the exhibition a great extra dimension.

For example, when I viewed a masterpiece such as Steamer In A Snow Storm, I recalled the scene in which Turner is shown allegedly creating the picture – lashed to a ship’s mast for four hours during a storm.

This, the first exhibition devoted to Turner’s extraordinary work created between 1835 and his death in 1851, brings together spectacular works from the UK and abroad.

The artist had a late creative flowering in these later years when he produced many of his finest works, although at the time, the increasingly abstract works attracted controversy and ridicule, with some suggesting he was going senile.

Paintings on display include watercolours of a fire at the Tower of London in 1841, the spectacular Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons of 1835 and his last exhibited pictures from 1850, depicting the classical lovers Dido and Aeneas.

There’s also the iconic Great Western Railway painting Rain, Steam, and Speed.

We had travelled down to the capital in the comfort of a much more modern train, one of Grand Central’s non-stop express services which got us from York to King’s Cross in just under two hours.

We were taking our daughter to London to celebrate her 21st birthday and on arriving in London, we took a taxi to see the spectacular Christmas lights of a bustling Oxford Street before spending the night at the Holiday Inn King’s Cross Bloomsbury, courtesy of Superbreak Holidays.

The modern hotel, just a 15-minute walk from King’s Cross, boasts a marble-floored lobby and air-conditioned family room, with a Queen-size bed for us and a sofa- bed for our daughter .

A comfortable night there was followed by a hearty English breakfast to set us on our way for a hectic day enjoying the best that London could offer.

First was a visit to Covent Garden, the beautifully restored former fruit and vegetable markets which now feature restaurants, cafés, boutiques and huge numbers of street musicians and performers.

We caught another bus to Victoria to see the Turner exhibition before heading up to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to complete our capital visit by seeing the hit musical Wicked. My daughter absolutely loved this award-winning and spectacular show, which forms a kind of prequel to The Wizard of Oz, telling the other side of the story of the Wicked Witch of the West.


Fact File

• The EY Exhibition: Late Turner – Painting Set Free runs at Tate Britain until January 25 2015. Tickets: Adult £16.50 (without donation £15.00) Concession £14.50 (without donation £13.10). Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian). For further information, call 020 7887 8888 or go to www.tate.org.uk

• To book accommodation at the Holiday Inn King’s Cross Bloomsbury or elsewhere in London, go to www.superbreak.com.

• To book tickets to London with Grand Central, go to www.grandcentralrail.com

The trains have free wi-fi and extra leg room as standard. Tickets can be bought up to 12 weeks in advance and there is no booking fee when booking direct.

• To book tickets for Wicked, go to apollovictoriatheatre.org