Arena

Theatre

Premiere. Ronald Eyre reviews what's going on in the theatre, Kenneth Tynan talks to Laurence Olivier about Lilian Bayli

Art and Design

George Melly looks at how they sold the 70's and a report on the opening of the Space Studios.

Theatre

An interview with Howard Barker, author of 'Stripwell', and an extract from same; commentary by Kenneth Tynan; and an in

Art and Design

Cartoonist Mel Caiman on the New Yorker magazine and its artists, Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine Gallery, and a new

Theatre

Peter Hall talks about the history and new South Band location of the National Theater, where he is artistic director.

Art and Design

Features Observer critic William Feaver on Painting the End of the World, Bill Brandt's selection of landscape photograp

Theatre

Extract from a contemporary play and Kenneth Tynan opines.

Art and Design

Shirley Conran is the guest columnist; fashion photographer Barry Lategan is filmed working; and Victorian painter Edwar

Theatre

Deborah Norton reviews British stage events, a play extract, and Kenneth Tynan opines about the theatre.

Art and Design

Guest columnist Terry Measham; a look into the work of painter and poet Charles Tomlinson.

Theatre

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova rehearse for a BBC New Year Gala Performance; Kenneth Tynan draws a portrait of

Art and Design

Filmmaker Roger Graef and journalist Simon Jenkins discuss the destruction of historical buildings, in light of a recent

Theatre

Deborah Norton returns with reports, interviews and extracts from what is liveliest and best in the British theatrical s

Art and Design

Theatre

Jonathan Miller introduces this week's look at what is most stimulating and enjoyable on the theatrical scene.

Art and Design

A look at American photographer Paul Strand and recent trends in British photography.

Theatre

Arena goes to Scarborough for the British premiere of a new Alan Ayckbourn play "Just Between Ourselves".

Art and Design

Arena looks at aspects of community art and the work of painter Keith Grant, artist-in-residence at the New Charing Cros

Theatre

Claire Bloom and Kenneth Tynan discuss extracts from Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days', George Bernard Shaw's 'Too True to b

Art and Design

Arena talks with Robert Janz and Dante Leonelli about incorporating time into sculpture.

Theatre

Arena brings extracts from Paris' contemporary theatre season, including Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' and Marguerite Duras' '

Art and Design

Arena presents the work of British and American video artists.

Theatre

Barbara Jefford, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Kenneth Tynan Billie Whitelaw and many of the people behind the scene

Art and Design

Liverpool poet and painter Adrian Henry visits 'The Face of Merseyside'; Boyd and Evans use photographs as the basis of

Theatre: Happy Birthday Royal Court

Alumni of the Royal Court celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Art and Design: Art for Money's Sake?

Barrie Penrose investigates a multi-national art empire and the artists and methods that created it.

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 1

Features Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Galina Visnevskaya in the Scottish Opera's production of Macbeth, The Kantor Theatre Com

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 2

Features the La Mama Theatre Company from New York; Bunraku, traditional Japanese Puppet Theatre; a recital by Frederica

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 3

Writer Germaine Greer and her god-daughter Ruby take a look at a child's Edinburgh Festival and some of the fringe activ

Theatre: A Dream Come True

A look at the opening of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Robert Altman

Gavin Miller interviews the director Robert Altman on "M*A*S*H", "Nashville", "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" and more.

Art and Design: After Samuel Palmer

David Gould, the expert who discovered Tom Keating's Samuel Palmer imitations, shows the process of identifying and anal

Frank Westmore

Gavin Millar talks with Frank Westmore, whose family has dominated the make-up departments of American cinema for decade

Theatre

Peter Shaffer, writer of 'Equus', talks about his plays, his life and the theatre with an excerpt from the 1976 stage pr

Cinema: Eric Rohmer

Gavin Millar interviews director Eric Rohmer about 'Die Marquise von O', 'Claire's Knee' and 'Love in the Afternoon'.

Art and Design: The Illustrators: The Work of Mick Brownfield and Allan Manha

British illustrators Mick Brownfield and Allan Manham are documented working on their current projects; Artist Chris Orr

Cinema: Don Siegel

Don Siegel, director of 'The Shootist', 'Charley Varrick', 'Coogan's Bluff', 'Dirty Harry' and many other violent thrill

Theatre: The Cultural Common Market

A look at Theatre National Populaire, one of France's leading theaters, and Patrice Chéreau's 'La Dispute' by Marivaux

Cinema

In light of the low proportion of British films in the 20th London Film Festival, Gavin Millar looks at what's wrong wit

Art and Design: Sculpture for the Blind/Linda Benedict-Jones/James Boswell

Sculpture for the Blind - a special Tate Gallery exhibition; Linda Benedict-Jones, photographer; James Boswell - a reviv

Cinema

Arena speaks with Spanish directors at the Madrid premiere of 'The Long Vacation of 36'.

Theatre: Brecht in Newcastle

20th anniversary tribute to Bertolt Brecht at Newcastle's University Theatre with scenes from 'The Good Woman of Setzuan

Cinema: Christmas Special

A look at the Disney exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum; an interview with 'The Ritz' director Dick Lester and ac

Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to Mel Brooks just before the London release of 'Silent Movie'.

Art and Design: Sam Smith: Genuine England/Arena Review

An introduction to the magical world of wood-sculptor Sam Smith, plus a look at one of this month's major exhibitions.

Cinema

Gavin Miller talks to director Martin Ritt, writer Walter Bernstein, and actors Woody Allen and Zero Mostel about 'The F

Theatre: Spokesong/At Home with Mole

An interview with Stewart Parker about his new musical 'Spokesong' with excerpt; a profile of 81 year old actor Richard

Cinema

A fortnightly look at the big screen at home and abroad. News, views and interviews presented by Gavin Millar.

Art and Design: Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman illustrates a children's anti-war story, caricatures at his local pub, and speaks about his drawing techn

Cinema

Gavin Miller discusses 'Network' with director Sidney Lumet and Robert Kee; Alberto Cavalcanti talks about his film care

Theatre: The Cultural Common Market: Peter Stein and the Schaubuhne

Peter Stein, director of Die Schaubuhne theatre co-operative, comes to London with his Shakespeare Project. Includes ext

Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to New Yorker critic Pauline Kael about Costa-Gavras' 'Z' and 'Section Speciale', along with her pass

Art and Design: What Is a Hologram?/Kit Williams - Ring Around the Moon

Arena investigates holograms and their potential in the arts; artist Kit Williams' vivid folklore paintings.

Cinema

On the occasion of the release of the third film version of 'A Star is Born', James Mason talks about the curious busine

Theatre: A Night Out

Arena visits three theatres - the Mercury Theater in Colchester, the Humberside Theatre in Hull, and the Duke's Playhous

Cinema

A look at Ealing Studios, including excerpts of many of their popular films.

Art and Design: Family Pieces/Both Sides of the Line/The Divine and the Fantastic

Portrait painter Philip Sutton; Helmut Weissenborn, a German WWI soldier who illustrated with wood engravings the war di

Cinema

In a special edition from Rome, Gavin Millar interviews Bernardo Bertolucci, director of 'Last Tango in Paris' and '1900

Theatre: The Prospect Before Us

Prospect Theatre Company reopens the Old Vic. Includes rehearsal footage from 'St Joan', 'Hamlet', 'Antony and Cleopatra

Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to director Bernardo Berolucci in Rome about '1900', his new five and a half hour film, as well as hi

Art and Design: The Continuous Diary/Dine's Drawings

The artist Ian Breakwall gave up painting for the art of a daily diary; Jim Dine explains why he returned from pop art t

Cinema

Arena looks at erotic films, including 'Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus', 'Hardcore', and 'Come Play With Me'.

Cinema

An interview with Sophia Loren on the occasion of the opening of 'The Cassandra Crossing'.

Cinema

Mr Universe, the Crazy Horse Girls de Paris, Yum Yum Shaw, superstars with police escorts, topless bathing beauties-the

Theatre: Playwrights of the 70's

In the last ten years an astonishing number of new writers have emerged. Plays by Barrie Keeffe, John McGrath, David Har

Edinburgh Festival

Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimental shows, Film Festiva

Cinema

with Gavin Millar returns for a new season after a visit to Hollywood, which despite rumours of slump and panic is still

Cinema

Art and Design

Cinema

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen talk about the filming of 'Annie Hall' and their long friendship.

Theatre

Cinema: Greece

Art and Design: Richard Seifert

Cinema

Theatre: Hands Off the Classics

In the 17th century Troilus and Cressida was censored and in the 18th century Tate gave King Lear a happy ending. The pr

Cinema: 21st London Film Festival

Art and Design: The Family/Wrapping up the Reichstag

Cinema: 21st London Film Festival - Part 2

Theatre: Leonard Rossiter

Cinema: The Deep

Cinema: The Force is with us?

Star Wars - the biggest and fastest money-maker in the history of the movies - has opened in Britain at last. What on ea

Art and Design: 'The Journey' or The Memoirs of a Self-Confessed Surrealist

George Melly explores his lifelong relationship with surrealism in all its forms and prominent personalities; Henry Moor

Cinema: The Force is with us? - Part 2/Howard Hawks

The Force is with us? Star Wars - the biggest and fastest money-maker in the history of the movies - has opened in Brit

Theatre: ' But please, this is a farce! ' The story of The Cherry Orchard

But please, this is a farce! ' The story of The Cherry Orchard CHEKHOV: '... It hasn't turned out a drama but as a come

Cinema: Joseph Conrad

A British film The Duellists starring Keith Carradine , Harvey Keitel and Albert Finney won the Special Jury Award at Ca

Art and Design: Carrington

Cinema: Claude Renoir

Theatre: Hey Kids! Let's Do the Show Right Here ...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Art and Design: Carl Andre

Cinema: Dancing Years

Theatre: Taking Our Time

Art and Design: Way Out West

Theatre: Children of the Gods

Television: When Is A Play Not A Play?

A tribute to the British filmmaker Alan Clarke (1935-1990).

Art and Design: George Melly

Theatre: Arnold Wesker

Rock: Tubes on Tour

Episode 99

Last Saturday in the Francois Truffaut Season now running on BBC2, "L'Enfant Sauvage", one of his masterpieces, was show

Vanessa Redgrave

'She is a creature of fire and light, her voice a golden gate opening on lapis lazuli hinges, her body a supple reed rip

Arena: Cinema

Hooray for Hollywood? Gavin Millar talks to: Christopher Isherwood has been a Hollywood immigrant for 40 years and love

Arena: Cinema

A new British film has its Royal Premiere tomorrow. It is an English period film and vividly demonstrates the high produ

Arena: Cinema

This year's London Film Festival contained five entries from India. It's a reminder that we hardly see any of the output

Arena: The Museum of Drawers

Arena takes you on a guided tour of the smallest museum in the world - its 'curator', Swiss artist Herbert Distel, has t

On Photography

Featuring two of the greatest photographers of the 20th century Jacques Henri Lartigue began taking photographs at the a

Arena: Cinema

Gavin Millar presents another edition in his regular series about the cinema today.

Arena: Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to Robert Alt man about his new film A Wedding; plus Karel Reisz 's Dog Soldiers and other turn-of-th

Who is Poly Styrene?

wo years ago Marion Elliott , a 20-year-old from Brixton, gave up working in Woolworths and became punk singer Poly Styr

Athol Fugard: A Lesson from Aloes

Aloe: a genus of plant indigenous to South Africa, noted for its ability to survive under the most adverse conditions.

Arena: Cinema

Assault on Precinct 13 and Dark Star were two of the ' sleepers ' of the last two years - small-budget films from the US

Maler's Requiem - Words and Images

Fibreglass carcasses, a flaming typewriter, and a troop of girl guides - each has been a -key ingredient in a work of ar

Piaf AND What Did You Do in 'The Warp' Daddy?

The sell-out success of this year's Royal Shakespeare season at Stratford is the musical play, Piaf. Jane Lapotaire, tel

Arena: Cinema

John Barry (designer Star Wars and Superman) is now directing Saturn 3. Ridley Scott (The Duellists) is shooting The Ali

Other Writers Will Tell You Different and The Moving Picture Mime Show

Other Writers Will Tell You Different.... Lifers in prison cages, comedians in Hollywood, adolescents in the East End a

Arena: Cinema

Isabelle Huppert is 23 - ' a stunning actress ', says Claude Chabrol ; 'Best Actress ' at Cannes in 1978 for Violette No

Ubu

The television premiere of GEOFF DUNBAR'S brilliant animation film. Based on ALFRED JARRY's notorious surrealist hero, P

My Way

Q. What do the following have in common? Frank Sinatra, Sid Vicious, Dorothy Squires, Barry John, Paul Anka, Lord Georg

Arena: Cinema

Twenty-three years ago Don Siegel made his famous horrorpic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Now there is a new Invasion,

La Dame aux Gladiolas

Arena presents The Agony and the Ecstasy of Edna Everage In this, the first-ever exclusive Arts Documentary about a liv

'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men ': Alabama 40 Years On

At the height of the American depression in the summer of 1936, t writer JAMES AGEE and photographer WALKER EVANS travel

Arena: Cinema

with Gavin Millar. Everybody knows about Kung Fu, Run Run Shaw and Bruce Lee. They probably know less about the young f

Tell Us the Truth

Rock band Sham 69 have a large and loyal following of working-class kids, who call themselves 'The Sham Army'. They have

The King and I AND Journey to the Surface of the Earth

The King and I For David Oxtoby, Elvis is king. He's been painting rock 'n' roll stars since the 50s, much to the bemus

Their Lips are Sealed

Arena presents a film about the strange art of ventriloquism with Tattersall and his amazing life-size doll.

Steel Pulse

A film about the popular reggae band Steel Pulse, Whose highly successful debut album ' Handsworth Revolution' launched

Ring Around the Moon

The Paintings of Kit Williams Inspired by the landscape, the wildlife and by his village neighbours, artist Kit William

Pictures of the Mind

One in six people in Britain will spend some time in a mental hospital. For 50 years, painting or drawing have provided

Six Days in September

John Hoyland is reckoned by many both here and abroad to be this country's finest abstract painter. A key figure for you

Building for Change

Arena presents a profile of Richard Rogers, one of the most original and controversial talents in architecture today. I

Athol Fugard A Lesson from Aloes

Athol Fugard is the author of such celebrated plays as The Blood-knot, The Island and Sizwe Bansi is Dead. He is known t

Lene Lovich Sleeping Beauty

Formerly a professional screamer in horror films, a belly-dancer in the Middle East, Lene Lovich has now emerged as one

Mentioned in Dispatches

Arena presents the extraordinary story of Tim Page, war photographer and Vietnam legend-a tale first told in MICHAEL HER

Isaac Singer's Nightmare and Mrs Pupko's Beard

Arena presents a hilarious and touching portrait of the great Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, filmed on location i

Peggy Taub, the Learned Goat and Other People ...

This week Arena features two highly-individual women artists. Peggy Taub has always wanted to sculpt like the classic G

Bring Me Back a Song

Irish folk music is one of the oldest unbroken cultural traditions in Europe. As the Sense of Ireland festival of arts c

' I talk about me - I am Africa'

The growth of black consciousness through the 1970s has produced an explosion of original new theatre in black South Afr

Rudies Come Back or The Rise and Rise of 2-Tone

Adrian Thrills investigates a new and exhilarating musical blend which is taking the country by storm. 2-tone is a uniq

Working At It

A profile of Liverpool playwright Alan Bleasdale With two new productions packing them in, in the North of England, ALA

Victoria Wood and Andrea Dunbar

As prizewinning writer/performer Victoria Wood opens in her latest play, Good Fun, Arena looks at her talent to amuse th

Climb Every Mountain or Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

"Failure can be fun' is the motto of self-confessed failures David McGillivray and Stephen Pile (above-if RADIO TIMES ha

Double Vision

The story of an unusual collaboration between rock musician Brian Eno and artist illustrator Russell Mills. The 65 works

Dedicated Followers of Fashion

featuring "Where Did You Get That Hat?" The outrageous hats of designer David Shilling, modelled by his mother Gertrude

Luck and Flaw

One after another mighty politicians have fallen victim to the savage caricatures of Peter Fluck and Roger Law , better

In Their Own Image AND Facing Up to Myself

In Their Own Image Two women photographers turn the camera on themselves ... Time Release For over a year Linda Benedi

Making 'The Shining'

Stanley Kubrick's long-awaited film The Shining opens in London this week and throughout the country from tomorrow. To m

Dire Straits

Not so long ago they were playing in London pubs. This week - 16 platinum discs, 21 gold and a triumphant world tour lat

Chelsea Hotel

It was in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, that Bob Dylan wrote 'Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands', Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea

Hazell Meets His Makers

Arena eavesdrops on the writing of a new adventure for James Hazell , popular cockney private eye. He is the creation of

Getting Away from Sidney

' Uncle Sidney' is the kindly old soul in charge of an institute for the disabled: he tucks them up at night and keeps t

Private Worlds

This week two genuinely, original English artists introduce you to their work: Sam Smith , whose impeccably carved and p

Today Carshalton Beaches ... Tomorrow Croydon

Arena investigates the grass-roots of rock today with John Peel and John Walters ' When the punk thing started, the who

Edward Hopper

Arena marks a major retrospective exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery with a film about the great American realist pa

Stages

For the past ten years Peter Brook and his unique company of actors have travelled the world with a series of extraordin

The Smallest Theatre

Tonight, from a converted cowshed in the wilds of Scotland, Arena presents The Smallest Theatre in Great Britain. Immor

Huston's Hobby

There were these five guys round the table: the Lightweight Boxing Champion of California; an expert on Pre-Columbian ar

A Walk with Amos Oz

' Marching the streets of Jerusalem in 67, carrying a sub-machine-gun, I was in an absurd way acting out the role reserv

God's Fifth Columnist

"I don't go out much these days, and when I do I find life infinitely dreary compared to my books..." William Gerhardie,

Did You Miss Me ...?

' It suddenly dawned on me that I was absolutely broke, completely and utterly. I didn't have a penny in the world ... t

The Return of Lupino Lane

Lupino Lane , the man who made ' The Lambeth Walk ' famous, was a comic who once rivalled Chaplin and Keaton. With the a

The Comic Strip Hero

This week Arena patrols the skies above Metropolis in search of the legend that is SUPERMAN ... Meet Kirk Alyn , the fi

Arena on Clair

Clair thought of himself as a screenwriter as well as a director. He put his stamp on French screen comedy in the 20s an

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

As a child, trapped in a crazy Jewish household in a poor Chicago tenement, the American artist Robert Natkin had to fin

If the Music Had to Stop

Britain's musical reputation is second to none, and depends ultimately on an exceptional tradition of youth orchestras.

Curtains? The Future of the National Youth Theatre

Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Martin Jarvis, playwrights Peter Terson and Barrie Keefe - all products of the National Yout

The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda

For 25 years the Polish film director ADRZEJ WAJDA has been making some of the most exciting and boldly critical films i

'I Thought I Was Taller' A Short History of Mel Brooks

From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills - the life and times of a great comic film director. Tonight on BBC2 Mel Brooks , creator

Have You Seen the Mona Lisa...?

She is two-and-a-half feet tall and nearly 500 years old. She hangs in The Louvre behind plate-glass - an unsigned, unda

Let Them Know We're Here

When JOINT STOCK began their latest project four months ago, they had a writer but no script, actors but no roles. Borde

A Pretty British Affair

Only a short while ago Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were forgotten names in cinema history. Now, some of the gr

The Art of Radio Times AND The Eye of the 'Eye'

This week, a total contrast in visual style-the art of RADIO TIMES and the jaundiced eye of Private Eye. The Art of Rad

A Tall Story: How Salman Rushdie Pickled All India

Arena profiles one of the most dazzling literary talents of recent years - Saiman Rushdie , a storyteller extraordinary

Brixton to Barbados

Reggae has its roots in Jamaica, and has found a home in Britain. But there are over 60 countries in the Caribbean, each

Private Life of the Ford Cortina

A ski run in Italy, a supermarket manager in Luton, a sandwich bar in London EC2, Arena opens the bonnet of the Ford Cor

What Makes Rabbit Run?

John Updike 's new book, Rabbit is Rich, is the third in the Rabbit series from the author of Rabbit, Run, Couples and

Here They Kill People for It

Osip Mandelstam, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, died in a prison camp somewhere in Siberia in the 1930s:

True to Life?

In a month of continuing controversy about the aims and methods of the ' documentary', Arena presents a classic film by

Desert Island Discs

' I love its homeliness. It conjures up the best in traditional British pleasure, like the great British breakfast. It's

Listen to Britain AND Housing Problems

Presents two classic films from the early days of documentary. Featured in last month's True to Life? edition, they're s

The Orson Welles Story: Part One

Arena presents an exclusive film profile in two parts of one of the great legends of the cinema. With unprecedented fran

The Orson Welles Story: Part Two

'I should never have stayed in movies. But it's a mistake I can't regret because it's like saying I shouldn't have staye

Mike Leigh Making Plays

Mike Leigh is a dramatist in a tradition of his own, a fiercely original talent whose work and working methods have alwa

A Genius Like Us

In April 1967 at the peak of his career as a dramatist, Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell... Arena

A Play for Bridport

One of the most spectacular and unlikely theatre events of last year took place a long way from the West End of London i

Upon Westminster Bridge

It is commonly thought that poets are university-trained intellectuals who occasionally produce slim volumes about their

Three Steps to Heaven

Classics like ' Summertime blues , 'C'mon everybody' and Three steps to heaven' made Eddie Cochran one of the all-time

Angus McBean

For nearly 50 years everybody who was anybody in the British theatre passed before the lens of Angus McBean - Gielgud, O

Happy Days (Samuel Beckett Season)

by Samuel Beckett Starring Billie Whitelaw With Leonard Fenton Arena presents the first programme in a Samuel Beckett

Eh Joe (Samuel Beckett Season)

Continues the Samuel Beckett season. Starring Jack MacGowran A rare opportunity to see an early television premiere. R

Rockaby (Samuel Beckett Season)

Arena continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a unique record of his new play Rockaby which has just opened at the Nati

Not I (Samuel Beckett Season)

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season. In one of the most extraordinary pieces of modern drama Billie Whitelaw, Beckett's

Quad (Samuel Beckett Season)

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a premiere. A play without words. Quad has a musical structure. It is a kind o

Krapp's Last Tape (Samuel Beckett Season)

Concludes the Samuel Beckett Season. One of the best-known Beckett monologues starring its creator, the late Patrick Ma

Guernica: The Long Exile

Last year a £13-million painting travelled in top secret from America to Spain. Next day it was headline news that Pica

Classically Cuban: Alicia Alonso and the Cuban National Ballet

Today, in post-revolutionary Cuba, under the benign patronage of Fidel Castro, classical ballet thrives. This unlikely s

Hair

Tonight Arena takes you on a tour of contemporary British heads, from the exotic to the mundane, from hot wax to Brylcre

Boulez Now

Pierre Boulez, leading composer of the post-war generation, later a powerful and innovative conductor, is now the head o

Jazz Juke Box

George Melly presents films of the greatest names of swing jazz - but with a difference. Some were made for visual juke

Burroughs

Widely regarded as one of the greatest literary figures of the century, William Burroughs has perfected a unique and ter

The Catherine Wheel

Tonight Arena presents one of the most ambitious dance projects ever seen on television. The Catherine Wheel combines t

Kurt Vonnegut

Writing about his experiences as a war prisoner in Dresden in the novel Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut achieved a uniqu

It's All True

Tonight Arena takes an extraordinary journey through the video age. Video pirates, video trials, video weddings, video g

Luis Bunuel

The great Luis Bunuel died last month. Born in 1900, he was undisputably one of the outstanding creative figures of the

Bette Davis - The Benevolent Volcano

Dear boy, you are out of your mind, this woman will annihilate you, she will grind you to a fine powder and blow you awa

Anthony Powell - An Invitation to the Dance

Anthony Powell's 12-volume epic, A Dance to the Music of Time, is widely regarded as the most formidable single work of

The Ghost Writer

Starring Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker from the novel by Philip Roth with Mark Linn Baker, Paulette Smit 'You're not so

Jazz Juke-Box II

Following the success of Jazz Juke-Box I, George Melly presents another selection of jazz shorts and ' soundies ' - the

Roman Vishniac

Roman Vishniac is a Russian Jew born in St Petersburg in 1897. His striking images of life in the Jewish ghettos - taken

Classic British Documentaries

Arena shows three film classics from the early years of British documentary, which began 50 years ago.

The GPO Story

The GPO Film Unit-50 years old this year-went where no Hollywood film studio would dare to go in 1933. Down the mines, a

The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert

An Arena special Last September at the Royal Albert Hall Don and Phil Everly performed together for the first time in t

George Orwell 1: Such Such Were the Joys

George Orwell is one of the greatest writers England has produced. Tonight and for the next four nights Arena presents a

George Orwell 2: The Road to Wigan Pier

Tonight's episode of the five-part Arena biography tells the story of Orwell's marriage to Eileen O'Shaughnessy , his gr

George Orwell 3: Homage to Catalonia

Orwell, like many of his generation, enlisted to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Filmed in Barcel

George Orwell 4: The Lion and the Unicorn

For a brief period after the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was a revolutionary socialist, violently opposed to the coming wa

George Orwell 4: Nineteen Eighty-four

The last in this series of Arena films about the life and work of George Orwell begins with the tragic death of his wife

Say Amen Someone

Tonight's Arena Special tells the extraordinary story of two of the legendary figures of American 'gospel' -the music wh

Four Rooms

ANTHONY CARO: 'I wanted to play games with our sense of space ... you experience this room with the eyes and the body to

The Theatre of Dario Fo

Dario Fo is unique in world theatre. Playwright, actor, clown, teacher and philosopher, he is an international celebrity

Sunset People

Tonight Arena takes a journey down one of the best known streets in the world. Sunset Boulevard stretches 27 miles from

The Caravaggio Conspiracy

On 29 June 1982 a man called John Blake appeared mysteriously bidding in the major auction houses of London and New York

Between Dreaming and Waking

David Inshaw belongs to a great tradition of English Romantic Painting - the tradition of Stanley Spencer, Samuel Palmer

Ken Russell 's Elgar

Tonight, in the anniversary year of Edward Elgar 's death, Arena plays host to KEN RUSSELL 'S classic music documentary.

Jerry Lee Lewis

For the first time on British television, Arena presents a concert by this great legend of rock n roll. Jerry Lee Lewis

True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist

Breyten Breytenbach writes about being an Afrikaner. His poetry was taught in schools and his paintings greatly admired.

My Dinner with Louis

Tonight Arena profiles the French film director Louis Malle. Malle is a director who has never let himself be tied down

Milan Kundera- Laughter and Forgetting

From the vantage point of his Paris flat, the Czech writer Milan Kundera still obsessively contemplates Prague, the city

A Tribute to Joseph Losey

American-born writer and director Joseph Losey died last month in London. He made his home in England in 1952 when he wa

Beat This! A Hip Hop History

Tonight Arena presents a musical entertainment set in the streets of New York City, an epic rap which will tap the roots

The Everly Brothers: Songs of Innocence and Experience

Taught to sing from their earliest years, the brothers were raised in a unique cross-current of musical influences, from

Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day

Tonight Arena presents the first film portrait of the greatest of all the jazz singers. Billie Holiday's tragic story, f

Eubie Blake

The legendary Eubie Blake 's career as a ragtime pianist and composer began in 1883. Sadly last year, five days after hi

Francis Bacon

To mark his 75th birthday, Arena presents this exclusive film portrait of the great British painter, Francis Bacon. Des

We Don't Like Your House Either!

This week: a portrait of one of the most individual architectural talents America has produced. Bruce Goff discovered hi

Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense: The Music of Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is the most popular and controversial musician ever to come out of Africa. Born in Nigeria 47 years

After the Rehearsal

Arena presents the British premiere of Ingmar Bergman 's new film After the Rehearsal. Written and directed by Bergman l

What's Cuba Playing At?

In the 25th anniversary year of the Revolution, Arena traces the Afro-Spanish roots of Cuba's rich musical history. If,

Music of the other Americas

Every November musicians from all over Latin America come to take part in the international music festival at Varadero i

Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden

For many Luciano Pavarotti is the world's greatest tenor - certainly his place is assured among the legends of Grand Ope

My Son the Novelist

Howard Jacobson the eldest son of MAX JACOBSON the Manchester conjuror, made a late but successful start in the world of

Painting for Pleasure ... and Profit: Five Artists of the 80s

The artists Julian Schnabel , Markus Lupertz , Sandro Chia , Francesco Clemente and Georg Baselitz command some of the

Marcel Carne

Arena this week presents a profile of the man many would consider the greatest living French film director. It introduce

From an Immigrant's Notebook: Karen Blixen in Africa

Karen Blixen's voyage to Africa in 1913 was a journey away from the 20th century. Kenya was then a semi-feudal society,

How Glorious is the Garden?

Tonight Arena and Newsnight join forces to mount a major studio debate between the embattled factions of the arts world.

Old Kent Road

From Chaucer's pilgrims to inter-continental juggernauts, generations of travellers have taken this historical route fro

Ligmalion

A Musical for the 80s starring Tim Curry, Sting, Alexei Sayle, Gary Glitter and introducing Jason Carter To lig. verb.

Them and Uz: A film about Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison is the son of a baker, and his poetry relishes, and mourns for the class he comes from. His subjects are s

Marc Chagall

One of the greatest masters of 20th-century painting died last month at the age of 97. This filmed tribute contains the

Watch Me Move...

'America gave to the world two original art forms: one was jazz, the other was full character animation' (Chuck Jones)

Hugh Masekela: The African Ambassador

Hugh Masekela 's career as a musician has been dominated by his determination to take the music of black South Africans

The Theatre of Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson is one of the most revered and controversial talents in contemporary theatre. He first came to prominence

Blues Night: Introduction

Tonight Arena presents a cornucopia of the blues from the raw sounds of the Mississippi Delta to the jazz and rock 'n' r

Blues Night: Sonny Boy Williamson Sings

Blues Night presents rare footage of the harmonica blues player Sonny Boy Williamson, who gave B.B. King his big break i

Blues Night: B.B. King Speaks

John Walters talks to B.B. King - aided by his guitar Lucille - about his extraordinary life, from a childhood picking c

Blues Night: Chicago Blues

Harley Cokliss’ classic blues documentary includes performances by Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, and shows

Blues Night: Blind John Davis

The great Chicago broadcaster and journalist Studs Terkel and pianist Blind John Davis meet in a downtown bar to discuss

Blues Night: Blues Medley

This medley of the blues features Fred McDowell, Thomas 'Georgia Tom' Dorsey, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Huddie Le

Blues Night: Big Bill Blues

Hard blues meets film noir as Big Bill Broonzy sings and plays in a Belgian nightclub back in the 1950s.

Buddy Holly

An Arena Special. Lubbock is a small town lost in the great plains of west Texas. Her most famous son, Buddy Holly , ch

Saint Genet

Tonight Arena presents a unique interview with one of the great figures of 20th-century literature, Jean Genet. His fir

The Accordion Strikes Back

What do Charles Dickens , Count Leo Tolstoy , Barry Manilow and James Anderton , Chief Constable of Manchester, have in

The Cinema of Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi is one of the foremost figures in post-war Italian cinema. His films have an epic sweep covering Mafia cr

The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was one of the outstanding writers of his generation. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize, he was th

The Apollo Story: part 1

The list of artists who have performed at Harlem's Apollo Theater reads like a Who's Who of black American entertainment

The Apollo Story: part 2

Harlem's Apollo Theater has been the ultimate testing ground for every black American performer from Duke Ellington to

Tosca's Kiss

Casa Verdi is a rambling mansion in the city of Milan, inhabited by an extraordinary and captivating group of people. On

The New Babylon

Arena presents the first television showing of a rare and extraordinary classic of the silent cinema, with an original m

Tango Mio

That most erotic and mysterious of dances, the tango, came to life in the suburbs and backstreets of Buenos Aires. This

Cinderella

From its origins in ninth-century China to its modern incarnation as a Christmas pantomime, Cinderella has endured as on

The Journey Man

Behind the quiet, gentlemanly exterior of Norman Lewis lies the acute Perception of one of Britain's foremost travel wri

Go-Go in Washington DC

The home of the White House, the Pentagon and the President is also the home of the most exciting soul scene of the 1980

Marguerite Yourcenar

Novelist, poet, essayist and the first woman to be elected to the Academie Francaise, Marguerite Youreenar lives and wri

Louise Brooks

The American film actress Louise Brooks, who died last summer, was one of the most celebrated beauties in the history of

Kurosawa

In 1950 the Grand Prix of the prestigious Venice Film Festival went quite unexpectedly to a Japanese film. It was called

Two Painters Amazed

Critical acclaim for a group of recent art school graduates has put Scottish art, and Glasgow in particular, firmly on t

Home Front

Don McCullin 's powerful pictures of the horrors of war and deprivation have made him one of the world's most celebrated

Caribbean Nights: Caribbean Journey

Linton Kwesi Johnson takes a trip home to Jamaica and files a personal report on the long-standing relationship between

Caribbean Nights: Medley

Calypso from Trinidad's Mighty Bomber, dancing from Nicaragua, Jamaican Bob Marley's 'Could you be loved', Grenadian poe

Caribbean Nights: Poetry

The celebrated West Indian poet Derek Walcott joins Linton Kwesi Johnson and Guyanese prodigy Fred D'Aguiar to debate th

Caribbean Nights: Ska

Out of the archives, a skanking delight from Kingston's Sombrero Club, 1964. Featuring Prince Buster, Toots and the Mayt

Caribbean Nights: The Latin Caribbean

Darcus Howe interviews leading Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes and Trinidadian historian John La Rose on the exotic and

Caribbean Nights: Maytime on the Mosquito Coast

Despite the dangers and deprivations of war, the people of Bluefields, Nicaragua, still find time to do the Lambeth Walk

Caribbean Nights: Calypso and Carnival

Fuentes, La Rose and Howe are joined in the studio by this year's Calypso King David Rudder who tells the true story of

Caribbean Nights: Whicker's Caribbean World

From the BBC treasure chest, Alan Whicker explores the forgotten comers of the Caribbean, where he meets the Pocomaniacs

Caribbean Nights: Latin Sound

Filmed on his recent visit to London, Panamanian salsa star and politician Ruben Blades talks to Linton Kwesi Johnson ab

Caribbean Nights: God's Chillun

A bedtime treat from 1936: the GPO Film Unit present the Caribbean through the words of W.H. Auden and the music of Benj

Caribbean Nights Bob Marley

A portrait of the man who made reggae known and appreciated all over the western world and who refused to abandon a mess

Caribbean Nights: C.L.R. James's First Cricket XI

Born in Trinidad in 1901, C.L.R. James came to England in the 1930s and was cricket correspondent for the Manchester Gua

Caribbean Nights: Danzon

In an old church in Havana, the Urfe brothers play Danzones, the first popular Cuban music to emerge from the blend of A

Caribbean Nights: Rasta and the Ball

According to reggae greats Bob Marley and Burning Spear, football and Rastafari are one and the same thing. In the last

Caribbean Nights: Arturo Sandoval

Cuban jazz is rarely heard over here. Tonight Arena redresses the balance with a performance by virtuoso trumpeter, Artu

Caribbean Nights: Kapo

'I dreamt there were 72 angels, 72 trumpets, 72 vases of flowers - all things were 72. And then I saw directly the face

Henry Moore

Speaking from Henry Moore's own studio in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, John Read shares his personal memories of the arti

Salvador Dali

'The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad.' So says Salvador Dali one of the most famous painte

The Life and Times of Don Luis Bunuel

Following last night's story of Salvador Dali, Arena continues it's Spanish trilogy with this highly-acclaimed profile o

The Spirit of Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca, perhaps the best-known and loved Spanish poet and dramatist of this century, was brutally execute

Cambodian Witness

When the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, they forced the entire population into the countryside w

Scarfe on Scarfe

In this week's Arena Gerald Scarfe takes a long, hard look at himself. In his paintings and drawings he mercilessly pill

Night Moves

Fifty years ago Basil Wright and Harry Watts' classic documentary "Night Mail" celebrated the role of the railways as th

Dylan

Arena presents Bob Dylan, concentrating on his classic songs and backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in his first

Stand by Your Dream: Tammy Wynette

Tonight Arena presents the moving story of the first lady of country music. At the age of 44 she's had 35 number one rec

Night and Day

Night and Day is a 24-hour journey through the streets of London spent in the company of two different and unusual write

Dennis Potter

'You can open your veins on television more easily than anywhere. It's the last stronghold for the individualist-writer.

Martin Chambi and the Heirs of the Incas

Tonight Arena tells the story of one of the most extraordinary photographers of the 20th century. Martin Chambi , an In

The Confessions of Robert Crumb

After Robert Crumb , comics could never be the same again. He came to fame in the mid 60s with characters such as Fritz

Ruth, Roses and Revolver

David Lynch , director of some of the strangest films in today's cinema, including Eraserhead and Elephant Man, guides u

A Brother with Perfect Timing

Abdullah Ibrahim formerly Dollar Brand, pianist, composer, arranger, was bom in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1934. When D

Tarkovsky's Cinema

In 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky 's remarkable career in the cinema received the accolade of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film F

Putting Ourselves in the Picture

Jo Spence 's photography defies definition - her work appears in community spaces as well as grand galleries. It deals w

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

What do the following have in common? Maria von Trapp, whose story became "The Sound of Music"; Bob Guccione, the editor

Bayan Ko Pilipinas

(Lino Brocka 's Philippines) Lino Brocka is the most influential film director in the Philippines, and a leading figure

Talk is Cheap

What is a chat show - a forum for stimulating conversation and the exchange of ideas or just an economical way of fillin

The Waugh Trilogy: Bright Young Thing

Twenty-one years after his death Evelyn Waugh looms larger than ever over the English literary scene. In the course of t

The Waugh Trilogy: Mayfair and the Jungle

The second of three programmes looks at Evelyn Waugh 's most productive period as a novelist, journalist, travel-writer

The Waugh Trilogy: An Englishman's Home

Last of three programmes. When Waugh died on Easter Sunday 21 years ago his friend Graham Greene felt 'as if one's comm

German Festival: Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was one of the most prominent and controversial German artists of the past 30 years. Sculptor, performance

ScreenPlay: Cariani and the Courtesans

by Leslie Megahey A story of intrigue and romance in 16th-century Venice. Starring Paul McGann, Simon Callow, Michael

Revolutionary with a Paintbox

The Arena season opens with a profile of Diego Rivera , considered to be the most famous painter in the history of Latin

Invisible Ink

For 200 years British writers have achieved great success with their accounts of life on the Indian subcontinent. Less w

Of Cats and Mice

Art Spiegelman is one of America's leading comic-strip artists. Earlier this year he created a stir with Maus, a novel i

Woody Guthrie

he legend of Woody Guthrie - the rambling guitar player who discovered America from the roof of a freight train - was an

The Dandy-Beano Story

Tonight Arena presents, on the occasion of their 50th anniversaries, a tribute to those great British institutions, the

Broadway - The Great White Way

Broadway is one of the most famous streets in the world. Legendary for bright lights, musical comedy, and the dreams of

Ryszard Kapuscinski: Your Man Who is There

The first of two programmes featuring the work of a major figure in contemporary literature and journalism. In three dec

The Emperor

Arena presents JONATHAN MILLER 'S acclaimed production for the Royal Court Theatre of RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI's play. Adap

My Name Is Celia Cruz

The Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz has been the most adored and dynamic singer in Latin America for more than four decades.

All on a Mardi Gras Day Part One

Today is Shrove Tuesday, in French, Mardi Gras , and tonight is the night before Lent. While the British celebrate with

All on a Mardi Gras Day: Part Two

Continued from BBC2. From the Toulouse Cafe in the heart of downtown New Orleans where the day's t festivities climax w

Kerouac

The novelist and poet Jack Kerouac died in 1969, a chronic alcoholic, at the age of 47. He was already something of a le

An Andalucian Journey: Gypsies and Flamenco 1

The flamenco of southern Spain is more than music and much more than an exhilarating dance for the tourists. It's the so

An Andalucian Journey: Gypsies and Flamenco 2

The flamenco of southern Spain is more than music. It's the soul of a culture and its roots go back to the 15th century,

Robert Mapplethorpe

This month the National Portrait Gallery opens its doors to the controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. As the e

The English Thoroughbred

The English Thoroughbred In the late 17th century the fastest, most elegant racing machine known to man was developed by

Byrne About Byrne

Each season Arena invites a distinguished figure in the arts to direct a film. This year's guest director is John Byrne,

Rhythms of the World: Randy Travis at the Albert Hall

Randy Travis is the hottest new singer on the country music scene today. In June of this year he played his first Britis

Ten Green Bottles

Arena's new season begins with a special anniversary edition and a chance to see again some classic moments from the pas

Clint Eastwood: The Man with No Name.

Dirty Harry and the other characters in the Eastwood repertory have dominated the box office for over 25 years. He has m

Moving Across the World on Horses

Born in Sri Lanka in 1943, educated in Dulwich and now living in Canada, Michael Ondaatje has criss-crossed the world in

History Boys on the Rampage

From Dundalk to Dungannon, Ballycastle to Belfast, Field Day, Ireland's foremost touring theatre company, journeys past

The Unforgettable Nat King Cole

When Nat King Cole died in 1965, the world lost its greatest ballad singer. Last year, 22 years after his death, When I

Tales from Barcelona

Award-winning director Jana Bokova presents a typically idiosyncratic portrait of Europe's most fashionable city. An equ

Blackpool

With more visitors than the whole of Greece and more holiday beds than Portugal, Blackpool is Europe's most successful h

The Tip of the Iceberg

Breasts/bosoms/bust/boobs/bristols/knockers... we live in a breast-obsessed society and 'tits' are by no means the prese

Laurens van der Post and Albert Sample

Arena presents two films by award-winning director Georg Troller , made for West German television's leading arts progra

New York - The Secret African City

eyond the familiar world of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, there is another New York, whose roots lie in West and Centr

Eugene Ionesco : the Joke's on Us

The absurdity of life has been Eugene lonesco's theme and preoccupation since he wrote the first of his 33 plays and, al

John Cassavetes

Actor and director, John Cassavetes, who died earlier this month was one of the few truly independent movie-makers worki

Power in the Blood

Ten years ago, Vernon Oxford turned his back on the bright lights of Nashville and a life as a popular country singer, a

The Old Brass Plate Rattle Test - the Englishman and his Jukebox

Elton John's jukebox sold at Sotheby's for £16,000. It has come a long way since it left the Wurlitzer factory in 1942.

Juke Box Jury

Arena continues its centenary celebration of the jukebox with a special edition of one of the original pop music program

Berthold Lubetkin

Born in Georgia in 1901, Berthold Lubetkin is one of the most outstanding and influential architects in Britain. His lif

Heavy Metal

Ever since its noisy birth out of the primitive fuzzboxes of the 1960s, heavy metal music has been maligned and misunder

The Other Graham Greene

For some 25 years the author Graham Greene found himself the victim of a bizarre masquerade. A man calling himself Graha

Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 1: A Traveller's Tale

'Look at the clocks - it doesn't matter if they're wrong. Somewhere in the world the time is right.' A typical line from

Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 2: How High the Moon

In 1938 jazz legend and international star Slim Gaillard went to Hollywood to appear in Hellzapoppin: and then war broke

Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 3: My Dinner with Dizzy

This week Slim Gaillard cooks dinner for his old friend Dizzy Gillespie. They discuss the English language and their con

Animal Night: Smashing Pigs

Some people see the pig as representing dirt, sloth and obesity; others view it with affection. In this film we see them

Animal Night: Sacred Elephant

A film version of Heathcote Williams 's epic poem, an impassioned hymn of praise to one of nature's most magnificent cre

Animal Night: Great Wildlife Presenters Through the Ages

The animals in wildlife films have always been vying for attention with that eccentric breed - the animal presenter. Thi

Animal Night: John Daniel the First

In the 1920s a middle-aged spinster went to buy a yard of ribbon and came out with a baby gorilla. He was the first gori

Animal Night: A Day in the Life of Sam the Dog

What does Sam get up to when he's left on his own all day? This verite portrait looks at an ordinary day in the mysterio

Animal Night: Animals on Trial

Novelist Julian Bames, philosopher Nicholas Humphrey and French historian Dr Michel Rousseau help to uncover one of the

Animal Night: The Animal Night Debate

Speciesism, vivisection, vegetarianism, farming, sport, zoos, circuses and pets will be some of the topics discussed in

25 x 5: the Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones

The phenomenal career of the Rolling Stones has taken them from being the bad boys of rock 'n' roll to becoming proteges

Numbers

So says Gregory Chaitin, one of the world's three leading mathematicians, addressing the camera from the deep recesses o

Oblomov

Oblomov is a slob. Even Gorbachev is said to have denounced him from the podium: 'We must stamp out the Oblomovs from ou

Jerry Lee Lewis

This is the story of 'the Killer', the ultimate wild man of rock, from his phenomenal success at the age of 20 with Whol

Roberto Rossellini

The great Italian film director, who died in 1977, was the founder of 'neo-realism'. Following the international succes

Next Time Dear God Please Choose Someone Else

Traditional Jewish humour flourished in adversity. Religious persecution and life in the ghetto nurtured its own kind o

Salif Keita

Salif Keita - the golden voice of Mali - is one of the first African world superstars. He can trace his lineage dire

Fred Zinnemann: A Director's Life

Fred Zinnemann, best known for the classic western High Noon, has had a career in movies spanning 65 years. In an exclus

Spike and Company - Do It a Cappella

Actor and director Spike Lee joins actress Debbie Allen on a journey in search of the perfect vocal performance. They tr

Peggy and Her Playwrights

Now in her 80s, Peggy Ramsay is the most powerful and unconventional play agent in Britain. She started her agency in th

The English Rose

The term 'English rose' conjures up a variety of images which fall somewhere between the delicate pink roses of high sum

Paris Is Burning

They call themselves the 'Children'. By day they are cycle-messengers, assistants in department stores, prostitutes or u

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

On 4 July 1967, Private Raymond Griffiths was killed in Vietnam. He was 19 years old - the average age of US combat troo

Havana

Cuba's legendary capital, once a playground for the rich, has an extraordinary faded beauty with its grand colonial pala

The Princess

Niccolo Machiavelli 's infamous The Prince is a short book about power - how to get it and how to hang on to it. But if

The Ten Commandments of Krzysztof Kieslowski

Krzysztof Kieslowski is the foremost director to have emerged in Poland since Andrzej Wadja. His two most recent feature

Le Paris Black

Paris's love affair with the black world stretches from the Cubists' discovery of African sculpture at the beginning of

Kino Perestroika

Tonight's programme looks at the Soviet cinema since perestroika and examines the work of some of its most important fil

The Daily Worker Story

When Lenin told the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain that its survival depended on having a daily paper, he

Oooh Er, Missus! - The Frankie Howerd Story

Considered by many to be our greatest living stand-up comedian, the incomparable Francis Alick Howerd holds a special pl

Agatha Christie - Unfinished Portrait

This Arena Special celebrates the centenary of Dame Agatha Christie's birth with the first film biography of the world's

The Fever

A new musical, Township Fever, is about to open on Broadway. Written by Mbongeni Ngema , the co-author of Woza Albert ,

Food Night: Introduction

Tonight Arena brings you an evening of short films and a debate devoted to that most universal of subjects, food. Spitti

Food Night: Modern Food

Today's hypermarket is an Aladdin's cave compared to the grocery store of 30 years ago. Food Night looks at the ever-inc

Food Night: Great Moments in Food History

A salute to four great thinkers. If Rossini had not preferred food to music there would have been no Tornados Rossini.

Food Night: The Story of Food in 27 Minutes and 43 Seconds

Food has had a part to play in religion, politics, science and war, and throughout history has underlined the social div

Food Night: Good Manners

Some lessons in manners from the silver screen - Five Easy Pieces, Tampopo, Oliver Twist and more.

Food Night: What's Kosher?

This film explores the application of kosher dietary laws which have helped to preserve the separate identity of the Jew

Food Night: The Last Supper

Louisiana State Penitentiary recently released a list of the last meals ordered by prisoners about to be executed. One m

Food Night: The Complete History of the Potato

With the help of potato experts from all over the world Food Night pays homage to this nutritious, delicious, maligned a

Food Night: I Just Happen to Have One Here I Made Earlier

A chance to sample some favourites from the kitchens of such legends as Fanny Cradock, Zena Skinner and Delia Smith. Dir

Food Night: Movable Feast - the Politics of Disgust

Mealworms served in a cherry tomato, grasshoppers rolled in bacon - these are just a few of the nourishing dishes served

Food Night: Eating for One

Left to your own devices, what do you eat, when do you eat it and how much of it do you eat?

Food Night: Fasting and Abstinence

As Christmas approaches, time to contemplate self-denial.

Food Night: Debate

As the evening's climax, Arena assembles a forum of distinguished politicians, economists, nutritionists, moralists and

Lifepulse - a Natural Thriller

A spectacular musical celebration of life, capturing evolution in all its glorious diversity, and the rhythms of nature

Miller Meets Mandela

Nelson Mandela, since his release, has become one of the most famous people in the world. Everyone has heard of the lead

Derek Jarman - a Portrait

Derek Jarman is a uniquely British outsider: a painter, film-maker and a self-appointed enfant terrible with a paradoxic

Anselm Kiefer : Operation Sealion

Kiefer is Germany's most controversial and reclusive artist. He is also its most successful. The millions his work comma

The Strange Story of Joe Meek

On 3 February 1967, Joe Meek, composer of Telstar and pioneer independent producer, shot his landlady and then himself.

The Other Roci

Rocky is the name of American artist Robert Rauschenberg's pet turtle. It is also the name of an epic and visionary proj

Caroline 199 - A Pirate's Tale

December 1990: a rusty ship drifts silently in the North Sea. As the Government and its Broadcasting Bill close in for t

Staring at the Ceiling

This profile of Keith Waterhouse follows him through his hectic diary. As a columnist for the Daily Mail he reports from

Three Irish Writers

It has been said that the English hoard words like misers and the Irish spend them like sailors. Tonight's Arena present

One Irish Rover

For more than two decades, Van Morrison has been fusing different musical influences, creating a style of his own. In th

The Importance of Being Oscar

This one-man show based on the life of Oscar Wilde was the jewel in the crown for Irish actor Michael MacLiammoir 's ca

The Other

Roci Rocky is the name of American artist Robert Rauschenberg 's pet turtle. It is also the name of an epic and visionar

Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon

When Kenneth Anger first published his classic expose of Hollywood's best-kept secrets and scandals, it was immediately

Elmore Leonard 's Criminal Records

Top US crime writer Elmore Leonard 's street-wise characters range from violent hoodlums in and around Detroit to low-li

The Human Face

In the last of the current series of Arena, musical performance artist Laurie Anderson presents an examination of mankin

Texas Saturday Night

A show as big as the Lone Star State this is an epic voyage through the wildest state in the union - from the honkytonks

The Grass Arena

Brutalised at home and school, John Healy drinks a promising boxing career into the "grass arena" - the savage community

Billy, How Did You Do It? 1

The first of a special three-part presentation in which American film director Billy Wilder discusses his career with Ge

Billy, How Did You Do It? 2

Second of three in-depth conversations with the film director and writer Billy Wilder. He recalls his memories of the gr

Billy, How Did You Do It? 3

Last of a special three-part presentation in which American director Billy Wilder discusses his career. He remembers wo

Masters of the Canvas

When pop artist Peter Blake confessed in a magazine article that his fantasy was to be the mysterious masked wrestler Ke

Oliver Stone

A portrait of the controversial American film director, Oliver Stone, whose work often arouses the fiercest passions in

Fatwa

On 14 February 1989 Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Tonight, on the third anniversary o

Six Degrees of Separation: a New York Tale

In 1983, David Hampton was arrested for pretending to be the son of actor Sidney Poitier and conning his way into the ho

The Incredible Case of Comrade

Rockstar Dean Read was the biggest rock star the communist world had ever seen. Virtually unknown in his native America,

Croatia - the Artists' War

This film asks how the culture of a country survives amid gunfire. Ivan Rabuzin , the 71-year-old Croatian artist, says

Otto Dix : a Tale of Two Germanies

"I'll either be famous or infamous," declared the controversial German painter who died in 1969. His subjects range from

Chi-Chi the Panda

Refused entry to America from China in 1958 because of the embargo on "communist goods", the giant panda Chi-Chi came to

Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up

Tales of the City first appeared in the 70s as a daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Armistead Maupin's storie

Last Supper - Frank on Frank

A self-portrait of photographer and film maker Robert Frank. Often called the "eyes of the Beats", Frank's work spans 4

A Spanish Odyssey - a Portrait of Javier Mariscal

Javier Mariscal is an artist who cannot be categorised - a designer who thinks a Camel cigarette packet has as much valu

An Argentinian Journey: 1: The Gaucho and the Pampas

Three films which take a journey through the rich musical heritage of Argentina. The story begins just south of Buenos

An Argentinian Journey: 2: Zamba, Chacarera and Chamame

Three films which take a journey through the rich musical heritage of Argentina. In the vast regions from the plains of

An Argentinian Journey: 3: Pacha Mama - Sacred Land

The Calchaquies valleys in the Andes and the Humahuaca canyon form the most underdeveloped and remote region in Argentin

Sportswriter: the Fight, the Match and the Race

Few activities in modern life can rival sport for creating excitement, passion and commitment. Arena takes a look at how

Linda McCartney, behind the Lens

In her first television profile, Linda McCartney talks about her life in photography and, with husband Paul, about the d

The Graham Green Trilogy: England Made Me (1904-39)

Arena's 1993 season opens with this three-part exploration of the life and work of the enigmatic writer. Greene's obsess

The Graham Greene Trilogy: The Dangerous Edge (1940-60)

Disloyalty, secrecy and spying fascinated Greene both in his work and in his private life. Tonight's film charts the hid

The Graham Greene Trilogy: A World of My Own (1961-91)

Last of the biographical films, with extracts read by Sir Alec Guinness. A World of My Own (1961-91) Passionately promo

On the Road with Boggs

In the 1980s American artist J S G Boggs stunned the art world by holding an exhibition of banknotes, drawn by himself.

The Grateful and the Dead

The story of the unlikely and unpublicised relationship between a 60s American rock band and some of Britain's little-kn

A Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie

Elder statesman of jazz and a co-founder of the style that became bebop in the 40s, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie will be

Larry Kramer

One of the world's leading figures in the battle against Aids is not a doctor, scientist or politician, but a writer - L

Edward Said: the Idea of Empire

Palestinian writer, academic and exile, Edward W Said takes a journey into the worlds of history, literature, ideas and

The Last Soviet Citizen

For three decades the Soviet Union's obsession with space stirred the soul of the nation like a secular religion - from

Derek Walcott

An interview with the poet who last December won the Nobel prize for literature, and whose current novel-length poem has

Zhang Yimou

One of China's most successful film directors, Zhang Yimou , talks about his life, his work, and his views on China. The

Philip Roth

To mark his 60th birthday, and the publication of his new book Operation Shylock, Philip Roth breaks his long silence an

Only the Names Have Been Changed

To the innocent reader, the characters in a work of fiction are the author's inventions. To those in the know, it is oft

Weegee

Chronicling New York low and high life, Weegee's photographs have often shocked the world. His wife, Wilma Wilcox , talk

Duchamp's Fountain

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp entered a white porcelain object in a New York exhibition. it was a urinal. Arena unearths the o

Edgar Reitz: Return to Heimat

An Arena special which documents the making of Reitz's second great German epic, The Second Heimat, which begins on BBC2

Tales Of Rock And Roll: Peggy Sue

The arts series returns with four films tracing the origins of classic rock songs. The inspiration behind Buddy Holly's

Not a Bad Girl

Brenda Fassie is South Africa's answer to Madonna. A black singer for black people, she is streetwise, outrageous and ai

Heartbreak Hotel

The second documentary in this Arena series telling the true stories behind classic rock songs is devoted to Elvis Presl

Walk on the Wild Side

All the characters named in the song were real people who frequented Andy Warhol's studio in the late 60s. Trans-sexual

Highway 61 Revisited

Last programme in the Arena series tracing the origins of classic rock songs. This musical journey travels the famous h

Arena: Radio Night: Introduction

Your television and radio are cast as personalities (played by Peter Cook and Josie Lawrence) in this night of themed pr

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio: First: the Infant.

Ian McKellen ruminates on the distinct eras of radio broadcasting, characterised as Shakespeare's seven ages of man, wit

Radio Night: TV Talk, Radio Rabbit What does the voice reveal?

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 2: The Schoolboy.

Radio Night: Heard But Not Seen

Alistair Cooke, whose weekly epistle has been broadcast on radio since 1946, explains why it is the best medium for him.

Radio Night: Back to Square One

The story of early radio's method of broadcasting live football, referring to a numbered grid - published in the Radio T

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 3: The Lover.

Radio Night: Sunday Dinner

Family Sunday meals conjure up for many Family Favourites, Round the Home and The Billy Cotton Band Show.

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 4: The Soldier.

Radio Night: Pirates

On just one estate in east London there are five pirate stations, battling to stay on air.

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 5: The Judge.

Radio Night: TV Theft, Radio Rip-Off

Does TV steal radio's best comedy ideas? Included in the debate are Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Armando Iannucci and the v

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 6: The Old Man.

Radio Night: The Spot FX Man

Harold Listings, a frustrated radio technician, takes revenge.

Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio 7: Senility.

Radio Night: It's Life, Jim

Nasa scientists are using giant radio antennae to pick up communications from ET.

Radio Night: The Time Signal

Dr Carl Dolmetsch finds out why the pips changed pitch.

Radio Night: The Two Voyages of Donald Crowhurst

The tragic story of the lone yachtsman and his radio.

Radio Night: The Shipping Forecast

Live on TV for the first time, Fisher, German Bight, Dogger.

The Next Voice You Hear

Concluding BBC2's Arena Radio Night, a film drama starring James Whitmore, Nancy Davis (later Reagan). Joe and Mary Smi

In Search of Oz

An exploration of the phenomenal popularity of L Frank Baum 's famous children's story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, writt

Who Is Vladimir Pozner?

In the 1980s Vladimir Pozner , once dubbed "Ivan the Telegenic", became the second most celebrated communist in the west

The Dark Side of Black

The new stars of ragga and gangster rap - Shabba Ranks, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Buju Banton - have become as notorious a

The Ring - a South London Tale

For centuries, bare-knuckle boxing has been going on behind closed doors. Nigel Finch's unusual film investigates this i

Glitterbug

During the 1970s and 1980s Derekjarman kept a Super-8 film diary, chronicling the cultural high life and low life of Lon

Theatre without Actors

In 1960 an American film called Primary changed the notion of what a documentary could be, using techniques never before

Kalashnikov

Seventy million Kalashnikov (or AK-47) guns are scattered across the world. It was the Russians' Cold War weapon and is

Trouble Man - the Last Years of Marvin Gaye

On 1 April 1984 former Motown star Marvin Gaye provoked his father once too often, and was shot dead in his bedroom. It

Relics Introduction

The idea that power exists in the remains of heroes and the things they leave behind is the focus of an Arena trilogy br

Relics: Einstein's Brain

"Move Albert Einstein ," declares Japanese professor Kenji Sugimoto at the start of a bizarre journey in search of the g

Relics: Curse of the Firebeetle

A film drama set against civil war in Peru. When Ortiz, a professional graverobber, stumbles across the huge golden disc

Relics: The Grave Case of Charlie Chaplin

In 1978 Charlie Chaplin 's coffin was stolen from his grave in Vevey, Switzerland, and a large ransom was demanded of hi

Philip K Dick - a Day In the Afterlife

The author of the stories behind Blade Runner and Total Recall grew up in California at a time when an agricultural idyl

Voices from the Island

Robben Island is South Africa's Alcatraz. For three decades Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and hundreds of other politic

Cindy Sherman - Nobody's Here but Me

Using herself as the model, American artist Cindy Sherman has produced hundreds of photographs exploring the use of fema

Bahia of all the Saints

Brazil's major slave-trading port for nearly three centuries, Bahia has a black population of over 80 per cent which mai

Sandra Bernhard - Confession of a Pretty Lady

Sandra Bernhard 's outrageous one-woman show deals with many normally taboo subjects and controversy runs through her pe

Louise Bourgeois

This Arena special profiles sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who has suddenly become fashionable at the age of 84, and has bee

The Peter Sellers Story 1

Arena returns with a three-part special, presenting a film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors, incorporat

The Peter Sellers Story: 2: Jack to Jacques

The second of a three-part film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors.

The Peter Sellers Story: 3: I Am Not a Funny Man

The last of a three-part film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors. Tonight's film begins in 1964, with Se

Punk and the Pistols

In August 1975, the face of British rock music was fundamentally changed: the Sex Pistols were formed. A host of colourf

The Burger and the King

The passion fans had for his music was matched only by the passion Elvis Presley had for his food. This documentary reco

Stories My Country Told Me

What is a nation? From Corsica to Kashmir, from Quebec to Bosnia, violent separatist movements are fighting to form thei

Tony Bennett's New York

At 70 years of age, singer Tony Bennett has been dubbed the King of Cool by the MTV-watching generation. Arena reveals t

Caesar's Writers

The legendary Sid Caesar was one of America's favourite TV stars in the fifties. His writing team, which include Mel Bro

There's No Such Thing as a Small Head of State

On 22 October 1995, for the first time, all the world's leaders gathered together in the United Nations in New York to h

Dear Antonioni

A portrait of the Italian film-maker Michelangelo Antonioni , who has directed such films as L'Awentura, which follows i

Busby, Stein and Shankly - the Football Men: Underground

Sports writer Hugh Mcllvanney presents the first of a trilogy of programmes for the Easter weekend about three great foo

Busby, Stein and Shankly - the Football Men: Football is the Faith

Hugh Mcllvanney presents the second in a trilogy of programmes about three great football managers; Matt Busby , Jock St

Busby, Stein and Shankly - the Football Men: The Price of Glory

Concluding the three-part series presented by sports writer Hugh Mcllvanney about three great football managers; Matt Bu

The Banana

Tonight's programme considers musa sapientum, the fruit of the wise. The Velvet Underground's John Cale tells the story

Cigars - out of the Humidor

In 1962, before John F Kennedy signed the embargo banning the importation of cigars into America from Cuba, the Presiden

The Noel Coward Trilogy: The Boy Actor

The first of a three-part profile of the writer, composer and actor covers Coward's meteoric rise from suburban south Lo

The Noel Coward Trilogy: Captain Coward

The second of three programmes celebrating the life and career of Noel Coward focuses on the journey through the Far Eas

The Noel Coward Trilogy: Sail Away

Concluding the three-part Easter special with a look at the last 30 years of Noel Coward's life. His post-war eclipse as

Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century

Arena explores the rise of the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra from his early family background to overwhelming showbusi

The Brian Epstein Story: The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow

The first of a two-part documentary telling the story of Brian Epstein. Gay when homosexuality was illegal, a gambler, s

The Brian Epstein Story: Tomorrow Never Knows

Concluding the two-part profile of the pop manager who brought global success to the Beatles. By the mid-sixties, the g

Cuba Night: the 40-Year Face-off

Cuba Night: Eisenhower, Kennedy and Khrushchev: How It All Began

Newsreel footage from 1962, when Fidel Castro's arrangement with then-Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to install nuclea

Cuba Night: A Diamond in the Rough

Cuba's baseball prowess has been long estabished. Fidel Castro himself was once scouted by a US team, and in 1992 Cuba s

Cuba Night: LBJ, Nixon and Brezhnev: the Middle Years

Cuba's place in world politics, from mid-sixties to mid-eighties.

Cuba Night: The Simpsons: The Trouble with Trillions

Homer swaps jobs with Fidel Castro, who goes to work at the nuclear power plant in Springfield.

Cuba Night: Reagan and Gorbachev: Castro, Cuba and the Fall of Communism

The effects of the demise of the dominant political ethos in the east.

Cuba Night: Who Owns Che? The Importance of Not Being Ernesto

Since his death in 1967, the face of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara has stared down from posters and banners around the

Cuba Night: The Clinton Years: Cuba Today and Tomorrow

Cuba's relations with the United States in recent times.

Salman Rushdie and the Ground beneath His Feet

In Salman Rushdie 's new novel The Ground beneath Her Feet. singer Vina Aspara is caught up in an earthquake on Valentin

Looking for the Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain ran north to south through Europe and divided the world for 50 years. American writer and broadcaster R

Casanova

The legendary 18th-century lover has been immortalised in books, films and on television, but are these fictionalised ac

Blondes - Jayne Mansfield

In 1957, Jayne Mansfield was riding high as the most photographed woman in the world. Yet, ten years later, she was redu

Blondes - Diana Dors

This second blonde-bombshell profile focuses on Britain's home-grown prototype, Diana Dors. The Rada-trained actress eme

Blondes - Anita Ekberg

Perhaps best remembered as the shapely blonde who waded into the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita, fifties sex symbol Ani

The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money

Actor Dennis Hopper plays the eccentric host to this guide to the world of commercial creativity. The programme analyses

The Veil

More and more young Muslim women today are wearing the veil, saying that it frees rather than oppresses them. This one-o

Wisconsin Death Trip

An edition in the occasional arts documentary strand. Wisconsin Death Trip. Inspired by a book of the same name, film-ma

Clint Eastwood: Out of the West

The first of a two-part Christmas special profiling the Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. Eastwood recalls hi

Clint Eastwood: American Film-maker

Concluding the two-part profile of the life and work of Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. The story continue

James Ellroy's Feast of Death

The art strand Arena returns with a new seven-part series. Best known for such novels as LA Confidential, The Black Dah

And the Winner Is ...

There is seemingly no endeavour for which there is not an award, from Preacher of the Year to Streetsweeper of the Year.

Budd Schulberg - a Contender

Eighty-six-year-old novelist Budd Schulberg talks to old friend Hugh McIlvanney about his life and his long and varied c

The Source

Tonight's film dramatises the story behind the leading artists who personified the Beat Generation, which saw its roots

Salgado - the Spectre of Hope

During the past 30 years the photographic work of Brazilian-born Sebastiao Salgado has helped to bring conditions of fam

Stalin - the Red God

Joseph Stalin is seen outside his native land as one of history's most deplorable tyrants, but throughout the former Sov

According to Beryl

A one-off film in which author Beryl Bainbridge chronicles the extraordinary relationship during the 18th century betwee

Night of Entertainers: Sykes and a Day

Writer, performer and director, the late Eric Sykes was the renaissance man of British comedy. This episode of Arena ope

Night of Entertainers: Drake's Progress

Charlie Drake is perhaps best known as the "little man" taking on the world in such films as 'The Cracksman' and televis

Night of Entertainers: The 1812 Overture in E Flat Major Opus 49

The sketch, first shown in 1967, that took the Golden Rose at Montreux. Drake plays the conductor and all of the musicia

Night of Entertainers: Max Bygraves - I Wanna Tell You a Story

Since a 1951 breakthrough appearance on the long-running radio series 'Educating Archie', Bygraves has proved a hit with

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 1

In 1986, Dirk Bogarde burnt most of his personal papers at his home in southern France. However, 12 cans of home movies,

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 2

The second of Arena's two-part film about Bogarde plots his progress to the forefront of European cinema in films such a

Estonia Dreams of Eurovision

As the 2001 winner, the Baltic state of Estonia, prepares to host this year's Eurovision Song Contest, this documentary

Kurosawa: Part One

First in a two-part profile of Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa, looking at his childhood, early career and emergence

Kurosawa: Part Two

Concluding the profile of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. International acclaim followed masterpieces like the influe

The Peter Sellers Story: As He Filmed It

Arena revisits its 1995 BAFTA-nominated Sellers trilogy, this time using only film shot by the late comic, who died in J

Harold Pinter: 1: The Room

This edition chronicles Pinter's East End childhood, his work as an actor, the critical appraisal of his work, and his p

Harold Pinter: 2: Celebration

This programme focuses on the relationship between the public and private aspects of Pinter's life and work. The film in

One for the Road

Harold Pinter takes the lead role in the Gate Theatre, Dublin's production of his play, produced by Michael Colgan and d

Politics and Pinter

A 70th birthday tribute to Harold Pinter in three parts. The first section acknowledges Pinter's involvement in highligh

The Room

An anxious recluse deals with the pressures of the outside world. A play by Harold Pinter, filmed in New York's Almeida

Radio Ha! Meet the Dead Ringers

In a world of mimicry and satire, do the Dead Ringers team know who they really are? Meet Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Mark

Radio Ha! It's Time for Just a Minute

Not many can talk for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation - but, for 35 years, Just a Minute panellists

I Am from Nowhere

The story of Mikova, the remote Slovakian village where the family of icon Andy Warhol came from.

The Real Jane Austen

Gillian Kearney plays the author in an Arena docudrama. With Anna Chancellor.

The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough: Part One

As he becomes an octogenarian, a two-part Arena special celebrates the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's

The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough: Part Two

The conclusion to this two-part profile, which accompanies the Attenborough at 80 season of films this week, looks at At

Imagine Imagine

The huge and enduring popularity of John Lennon 's song, Imagine, is examined in this documentary. Yoko Ono , who is no

Dylan Thomas - from Grave to Cradle

In the 50th year since his tragic death, author and broadcaster Nigel Williams examines the work and legend of one of th

Buffalo Bill's Wild West: How the Myth Was Made

Buffalo Bill was instrumental in transforming the Wild West into the caricatured setting portrayed in countless films an

Alec Guinness, a Secret Man

The acting career of Alec Guinness spanned more than five decades. Although readily identifiable in character, the real

Pavarotti - the Last Tenor

For 40 years, Luciano Pavarotti has been hailed as one of the greatest tenors of all time, an artist fit to rank alongsi

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Country singer Jim White takes a road trip through the rural white American South in in an Arena documentary. Driving t

Shadowing the Third Man

Examining the battles between the film's producers, and the demands of star Orson Welles.

Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

A documentary chronicling the series of Amnesty International fundraising concerts, which brought together a wealth of c

Painting the Clouds - a Portrait of Dennis Potter

The Potter at the BBC strand marking the 10th anniversary of his death starts with this feature-length profile. It chart

Dennis Potter: It's In the Songs! It's In the Songs!

How the playwright used popular songs as a powerful dramatic device and to express the depth of his characters in Pennie

Potter on Television

A portrait of the late playwright, featuring extracts from his work - read by Keith Barron - and interviews with Potter

Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues

From Elvis to Norah Jones , Hank Williams 's songs have been recorded more often than those of any other country music w

Calling Hedy Lamarr

Cited as being the most beautiful star in the Hollywood firmament during the 1930s and 40s, Hedy Lamarr's talents as an

Francis Bacon's Arena

Haunting and ferocious, Francis Bacon's paintings made an indelible impression on art history. His life - as outrageous

Arena at 30

Bob Dylan, Jean Genet, Orson Welles and Francis Bacon are among the subjects in a look back at memorable editions of the

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 1

Director Martin Scorsese enlists the help of Dylan himself, Joan Baez , film-maker DA Pennebaker , Greenwich Village fol

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 2

Martin Scorsese delicately balances Dylan's internal world with signpost images from the external as he follows the news

Dylan in the Madhouse

Surprisingly, Bob Dylan first came to the attention of the British public through his role in a 1963 BBC TV play, The Ma

The Princess and Panorama

An incredible 22.8 million viewers were agog as Diana, Princess of Wales spoke candidly of her marriage into the royal f

Routemasters! The Double Decker Bus Conductors

Documentary celebrating one of London's great characters, the bus conductor. The film tells the stories of five extraord

Galton and Simpson

Hancock's Half-Hour and Steptoe and Son - two persuasive reasons for making Ray Galton and Alan Simpson pre-eminent amon

Pete Doherty

A one-off documentary following six months in the life of Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty - the musici

Saints

The phenomenon of sanctity is examined in a documentary asking what makes a saint, comparing the Catholic Church's well-

The Archers

Marking its 56th year on the air, Arena examines the enduring appeal of Radio 4's rural soap, which began in 1951 as a p

The Underground

Documentary about the Tube, the world's oldest underground system, with its own unwritten rules of behaviour and protoco

Bob Marley - Exodus 77

The year 1977 was a crucial one in the life of reggae superstar Bob Marley. After an attempt on his life in his home tha

Encountering Bergman

Examining the life and work of film director Ingmar Bergman , through people who know and have spoken to him, including

Bergman and Faro Island

In his remote home at the seashore on Sweden's Faro Island, Ingmar Bergman talks about the childhood that shaped him.

Bergman and the Cinema

Ingmar Bergman examines his cinema career, which began when his first script was filmed in 1944. He is also joined by jo

Flames of Passion: the Other Side of British Cinema

Britain's postwar cinema was not well looked upon by many critics. The melodramas, crime films and horror shockers were

The Original Archers

The earliest surviving episode in the BBC archives of The Archers, originally broadcast 11th March 1952, is repeated her

Tribute Bands - into the Limelight

Affectionate documentary that goes behind the scenes of the Limelight Club in Crewe, where for ten years tribute acts to

Tribute Bands - Live at the Limelight

Live performances by tribute bands such as Limehouse Lizzy, Are You Experienced, The Jamm and ABCD, at Crewe's Limelight

Dylan's Folk - the Pure, the Bad and the Holy

A look at the Newport folk festival and the American folk revival of the 60s, which encompassed old time mountain music,

The Other Side of the Mirror - Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival

Murray Lerner's documentary features Bob Dylan's performances at the Newport folk festival between 1963 and 1965 - the t

Dylan in the Madhouse

Arena goes in search of the Bob Dylan starring 1962 BBC drama Madhouse on Castle Street, wiped in 1968.

Ken Dodd's Happiness

A tribute to the Liverpudlian comedian, who turned 80 last month. Here, he discusses his 50-year career and the influenc

The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul

Profile of the Nobel Prize-winning British writer, VS Naipaul. Filmed in Wiltshire, India and his native Trinidad, he re

Cab Driver

Documentary which gets to the heart of that much-maligned and stereotyped character, the London cabbie, using archive fo

The Hunt for Moby-Dick

Writer Philip Hoare embarks on an epic journey to investigate humankind's ongoing fascination with the whale. He travels

Whale Night: The Whale in the Museum

BBC4's Whale Night begins with an insight into the the construction of the Blue Whale exhibit at the Natural History Mus

Whale Night: Philip Hoare's Guide to Whales: Episode 1: Baleen

Author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of baleen whales, the largest animals ever to have lived a

Whale Night: Philip Hoare's Guide to Whales: Episode 2: Toothed

Author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of toothed whales, from the plight of the captive killer w

Whale Night: Philip Hoare's Guide to Whales: Episode 3: Arctic

Philip Hoare follows the historical trail of the whale hunters to the frozen seas of the North Pole, where he finds the

The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector

Legendary, reclusive and controversial, Phil Spector changed the face of pop with his reverbladen "wall of sound" produc

Paul Scofield

A host of theatrical greats pay tribute to the accomplished actor, who died in March this year aged 86. Featuring extrac

Tony Bennett: the Music Never Ends

Crooner Tony Bennett reflects on his life with his friend and jazz enthusiast Clint Eastwood. Bennett traces his musical

Cool

Archive film shows how American jazz culture spread across the world in the 1940s and 50s, representing a movement that

TS Eliot

The Poetry Season continues with this in-depth look at the life of one of the 20th century's most important literary fig

Harold Pinter Night: The Birthday Party

A performance of his critically acclaimed 1958 play about a man tormented by two mysterious strangers.

Brian Eno - Another Green World

Brian Eno, former Roxy Music keyboardist and a pioneer in ambient music, engages with fellow minds in conversations on s

Harold Pinter - A Celebration

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harol

Johnny Mercer - The Dream's on Me

Documentary telling the story and examining the legacy of Johnny Mercer, one of America's greatest songwriters and a man

Dave Brubeck - In His Own Sweet Way

Profile of the influential jazz pianist Dave Brubeck as he approaches his 90th birthday, who had one of the biggest popu

Rolf Harris Paints His Dream

Arena enlists supermodels Lily Cole and Lizzy Jagger and actresses Dervla Kirwan and Emer Kenny to help Rolf Harris achi

Produced by George Martin

Profile of record producer Sir George Martin, with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Michael

George Harrison: Living in the Material World: Part 1

Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison, which traces his life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a worl

George Harrison: Living in the Material World: Part 2

Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison looks at his post-Beatles days as a member of the Travelling Wilburys and

Dickens on Film

An exploration of Charles Dickens's contribution to the history of film and television, using archive footage of classic

Sonny Rollins: Beyond the Notes

Documentary about the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins, built around his 80th birthday concert, where he is joined by the

Sonny Rollins '74: Rescued!

Newly-discovered film footage of tenor sax legend Sonny Rollins at Ronnie Scott's in 1974, with a band featuring guitari

The Dreams of William Golding

An insight into the private obsessions and insecurities of the author of Lord of the Flies. With contributions from his

Jonathan Miller

Documentary exploring the life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE, theatre and opera director, humorist and television presenter

Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle

Documentary telling the story of the day Amy Winehouse recorded a stunning acoustic performance in a church in the small

The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour: Episode 1: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited

The making of The Beatles' controversial 1967 film, featuring previously unseen archive footage.

The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour: Episode 2: 'The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour

Fully restored and with a remixed soundtrack, 'The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour comes out of the shadows and onto the s

Screen Goddesses

Documentary about the early female movie stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe - immortal

Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel

Documentary telling the personal story of Sister Wendy Beckett, who travelled the world telling the story of Christian a

aka Norman Parkinson

To mark the centenary of his birth, Arena examines the glamorous life and exceptionally long career of pioneering photog

Arena: The National Theatre: Part One - The Dream

First of two documentaries celebrating the National Theatre's 50th anniversary, with contributions from artistic directo

Arena: The National Theatre: Part Two - War and Peace

Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner talk about running the new National Theatre from its opening i

Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with contributions from carica

The National Theatre: Learning Zone

Made specially for schools, this version of Arena examines the history and purpose of the National Theatre as it celebra

The 50 Year Argument - The New York Review of Books

Martin Scorsese's documentary film charting literary, political and cultural history as per the New York Review of Books

Nicolas Roeg - It's About Time

Profile of Nicolas Roeg, examining his personal vision of cinema as evidenced in his films, including Don't Look Now, Pe

Night and Day

To celebrate Arena's 40th anniversary, a new film made entirely from its own archive, evoking the one experience common

Loretta Lynn - Still a Mountain Girl

With contributions from her family and fellow musicians, now in her early eighties and still going strong, country music

All the World's a Screen - Shakespeare on Film

Documentary exploring the rich, global history of Shakespeare in the cinema, with a treasure trove of film extracts and

1966 - 50 Years Ago Today

Documentary marking the year pop music and popular culture ripped up the rule book, as restless experimentation and the

The Roundhouse - The People's Palace

The tragicomic rollercoaster story of a unique venue, the Roundhouse in north London, which has hosted virtually every b

Alone with Chrissie Hynde

Arena spends the summer with supercool self-confessed rock chick, Chrissie Hynde. Featuring a glorious live performance

American Epic: Episode 1: The Big Bang

Series telling the stories of the pioneers of American roots music. The 1920s saw record companies travel rural America

American Epic: Episode 2: Blood and Soil

Series telling the stories of the pioneers of American roots music. The second episode explores gospel, the songs of the

Kirsty Young: 75 Years of Desert Island Discs

As Desert Island Discs reaches 75, today's custodian of the island, Kirsty Young, introduces the 1982 Bafta-winning Aren

American Epic: Episode 3: Out of the Many, the One

The story of the pioneers of American roots music explores Hawaiian music, Cajun music and Mississippi John Hurt's blues

American Epic: Episode 4: The Sessions

Today's music superstars use a lovingly reassembled old machine to record in the same way that their early predecessors

Stanley and his Daughters

Exploring the relationship of artist Stanley Spencer's daughters, Unity and Shirin, as they try to understand and reclai

Bob Dylan – Trouble No More

A Bob Dylan performance of songs expressing his new-found Christianity in the late 70s, enhanced by a series of sermons

Nothing Like a Dame

A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy sparkling conversation sp

Make Me Up!

Multimedia artist Rachel Maclean takes a satirical look at the contradictory pressures faced by women today.

Unstoppable: Sean Scully and the Art of Everything

A year in the life of abstract artist Sean Scully, one of the world's wealthiest painters. Little known at home but a su

That Summer

A long-lost film of the creative community formed by Peter Beard, Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee Radziwill and her relative

Cindy Sherman #untitled

A rare insight into the work of Cindy Sherman, one of the world's leading, and most elusive, contemporary artists.

Kusama: Infinity

Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visited Infinity Mirror R

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a f

Bergman: A Year in the Life

Documentary that exposes a darker, less well-known side of film director Ingmar Bergman, focusing on the landmark year o

The $50 Million Art Swindle

This feature-length documentary for Arena by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the remarkable story of a charlatan

A British Guide to the End of the World

Haunting film about Britain and the nuclear age, from the first bomb tests to our potentially futile preparations for at

Everything Is Connected - George Eliot's Life

Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot in an experimental film mad

Seamus Heaney and the Music of What Happens

Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner

Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall

Made across six months in the run-up to publication of 'The Mirror and the Light', the final book in Hilary Mantel’s B

The Changin’ Times of Ike White

In 1974, Ike White recorded an album while serving life for murder. The album became his ticket to freedom. But, just as

I Am Not Your Negro

Through the words of James Baldwin, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King J

Keith Haring: Street Art Boy

The definitive story of international art sensation Keith Haring, told using previously unheard interviews. Haring blaze

Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat

xclusive testimony reveals the multifaceted man behind the maverick performer Fela Kuti, who created a sound for a conti

My Father and Me

For decades among the foremost names in documentary, Nick Broomfield has often implicated himself in the film-making pro

Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes

Docudrama portrait of Delia Derbyshire, the electronic sound pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme tune, exploring the ide

African Apocalypse

British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander travels to West Africa to discover the modern-day impact on its people

Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture

An exploration – from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Grace Jones – of how black artists use the sci-fi genre to examine bla

Painted with My Hair

How a US lifer survived long-term solitary confinement through a remarkable pen-pal friendship and the making of beautif

B. Catling: Where Does It All Come From?

An investigation into the extraordinary life and work of B. Catling, an eye-popping insight into the late-flourishing ca

The Vasulka Effect

An Arena documentary about the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka, which reveals the profound

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

Documentary that follows Björn Andrésen, the boy catapulted to fame when Luchino Visconti chose him to play Tadzio in

River

River takes its audience on a journey through space and time spanning six continents, showing rivers on a scale and from

James Joyce’s Ulysses

A hundred years after its publication, this film reveals the tawdry, shocking, poetic, uplifting and gloriously kaleidos

T.S. Eliot: Into the Waste Land

2022 marks the centenary of one of the defining poems of the 20th century, 'The Waste Land'. TS Eliot's groundbreaking w

Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters

A visually arresting feature documentary, set in the present but which tells the rich story of Haiti’s past, that foll

Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll

he life and career of the pioneering musician, a black artist who grew up in the segregated American South and broke dow

The Mysterious Mr Lagerfeld

With unique access to Karl Lagerfeld’s inner circle - many having never spoken publicly before - and his beloved cat,

The Stones and Brian Jones

A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative mu

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

A profile of artist and activist Nan Goldin, using slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage to tell the stor

Coco Chanel Unbuttoned

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel transformed women's fashion, a truly revolutionary designer whose influence is still evident tod

Being Kae Tempest

Poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest is one of the most viscerally exciting artists working in Brit

Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy

A celebration of the unique life and talent of Caroline Aherne, featuring unseen photographs and contributions from a ca

Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story

The story of Noel Coward, the most prolific writer, director and entertainer of the 20th century, told in his own words.

Maria Callas: The Final Act

In this new film from Arena, a cast of musical experts and admirers uncover the truth about the Maria Callas myth and th

Alan Bennett 90 Years On

In May 2024, Alan Bennett turned 90. This film celebrates the life and long career of one of Britain's best-loved playwr

Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem

Launched 30 years ago, Loaded magazine epitomised the 90s in its irreverence and appetite for hedonism. But how did it s

From Roger Moore with Love

Friends, family and co-stars take part in this revealing and entertaining look at British icon Roger Moore and his rise

Steven McRae: Dancing Back to the Light

At the peak of his career, acclaimed ballet dancer Steven McRae severely damages his Achilles tendon. This is the story

My Brain: After the Rupture

The incredible story of broadcaster, journalist, musician and author Clemency Burton-Hill's recovery following a devasta

McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass

The disappearance of McCartney’s original Höfner bass over 50 years ago is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great mysteri