In art, as in life, there are those who hog the limelight, and those who get on with the often thankless backstage graft that makes it all happen. Fittingly, The Art Fund (formerly The National Art Collections Fund) has been unassumingly putting on just such a show for the public since 1903. Founded with the aim of purchasing, on the public's behalf, treasures that otherwise might leave the UK or disappear into private collections, the charity has quietly secured over 850,000 works of art, among them Velazquez's 'Rokeby' Venus and Canova's The Three Graces.

This revealing 10-part series examines a small but representative selection of some of the works of art that the Fund has helped British museums and galleries to buy. The objects covered exemplify the Fund's diverse approach: Roman antiquities mingle with Iron Age treasure and Rodin's The Kiss, while Whistlers, Titians and Gainsboroughs rub shoulders with works by Picasso, Jeff Wall and Lucien Freud. Since the works are housed in galleries throughout the UK, this rare opportunity to see such an enormously rich collection together demonstrates the breadth, variety and sheer number of works that The Art Fund has saved for the nation which just goes to prove the adage that it's the quiet ones you have to watch.

Former Royal Ballet principal dancer; author; journalist; TV presenter and staunch patron of the arts: we thought Deborah Bull was perfectly placed to present Saved for the Nation.

Since her retirement as a principal from The Royal Ballet, Deborah Bull has done anything but put her feet up. She's a governor of the BBC; she's addressed the Oxford Union on the subject of national arts funding and she instigated a Royal Opera House aid scheme for independent companies and artists.

Join her plus a selection of prominent critics and artists including Joan Bakewell; Tate director Nicholas Serota; British Museum director Neil MacGregor; David Attenborough; Dinos Chapman, Tim Marlow and many more as she celebrates a hundred of the greatest treasures that The Art Fund has saved for the nation.

Episode 7: 1964-1974

Jacob Jordaens (1593m 1678)
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child (circa 1620-1625)
Ulster Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1966.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Vauxhall Gardens (circa 1784)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1967.

George Stubbs (1724-1806)
Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians (1764-1765)
Manchester Art Gallery
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1970.

Roman
Fluorspar Drinking Cup (1st Century)
British Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1971.

Unknown
Salamander Pendant (16th Century)
Ulster Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1972.

Titian (circa 1488-1576)
The Death of Actaeon (1559)
National Gallery, London
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1972.

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872-1898)
Collection of 44 drawings (1890-1900)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1972.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Portrait of Alexander Reid (1887)
Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1974.

Chelsea Porcelain Factory
Chinese Musicians (circa 1755)
V&A
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1974.

Flemish (attrib.)
Ewer & basin from the Lomellini silver (1621-1622)
V&A
Acquired with Art Fund help in 1974.