Arena

Theatre

Premiere. Ronald Eyre reviews what's going on in the theatre, Kenneth Tynan talks to Laurence Olivi...

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 Ken...

Art and Design

Cartoonist Mel Caiman on the New Yorker magazine and its artists, Richard Hamilton at the Serpentin...

Theatre

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

Art and Design

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

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 Vi...

Theatre

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

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 Tyna...

Art and Design

Filmmaker Roger Graef and journalist Simon Jenkins discuss the destruction of historical buildings,...

Theatre

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

Art and Design

Theatre

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

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 Ourse...

Art and Design

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

Theatre

Claire Bloom and Kenneth Tynan discuss extracts from Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days', George Bernard...

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' an...

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 pe...

Art and Design

Liverpool poet and painter Adrian Henry visits 'The Face of Merseyside'; Boyd and Evans use photogr...

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, T...

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 2

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

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 3

Writer Germaine Greer and her god-daughter Ruby take a look at a child's Edinburgh Festival and som...

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...

Art and Design: After Samuel Palmer

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

Frank Westmore

Gavin Millar talks with Frank Westmore, whose family has dominated the make-up departments of Ameri...

Theatre

Peter Shaffer, writer of 'Equus', talks about his plays, his life and the theatre with an excerpt f...

Cinema: Eric Rohmer

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

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 proje...

Cinema: Don Siegel

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

Theatre: The Cultural Common Market

A look at Theatre National Populaire, one of France's leading theaters, and Patrice Chéreau's 'La D...

Cinema

In light of the low proportion of British films in the 20th London Film Festival, Gavin Millar look...

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; Ja...

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...

Cinema: Christmas Special

A look at the Disney exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum; an interview with 'The Ritz' direct...

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...

Cinema

Gavin Miller talks to director Martin Ritt, writer Walter Bernstein, and actors Woody Allen and Zer...

Theatre: Spokesong/At Home with Mole

An interview with Stewart Parker about his new musical 'Spokesong' with excerpt; a profile of 81 ye...

Cinema

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

Art and Design: Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman illustrates a children's anti-war story, caricatures at his local pub, and speaks ab...

Cinema

Gavin Miller discusses 'Network' with director Sidney Lumet and Robert Kee; Alberto Cavalcanti talk...

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...

Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to New Yorker critic Pauline Kael about Costa-Gavras' 'Z' and 'Section Speciale'...

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 p...

Cinema

On the occasion of the release of the third film version of 'A Star is Born', James Mason talks abo...

Theatre: A Night Out

Arena visits three theatres - the Mercury Theater in Colchester, the Humberside Theatre in Hull, an...

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...

Cinema

In a special edition from Rome, Gavin Millar interviews Bernardo Bertolucci, director of 'Last Tang...

Theatre: The Prospect Before Us

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

Cinema

Gavin Millar talks to director Bernardo Berolucci in Rome about '1900', his new five and a half hou...

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 re...

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...

Theatre: Playwrights of the 70's

In the last ten years an astonishing number of new writers have emerged. Plays by Barrie Keeffe, Jo...

Edinburgh Festival

Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimenta...

Cinema

with Gavin Millar returns for a new season after a visit to Hollywood, which despite rumours of slu...

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...

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 Britai...

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 pers...

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...

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...

Cinema: Joseph Conrad

A British film The Duellists starring Keith Carradine , Harvey Keitel and Albert Finney won the Spe...

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 m...

Vanessa Redgrave

'She is a creature of fire and light, her voice a golden gate opening on lapis lazuli hinges, her b...

Arena: Cinema

Hooray for Hollywood? Gavin Millar talks to: Christopher Isherwood has been a Hollywood immigrant f...

Arena: Cinema

A new British film has its Royal Premiere tomorrow. It is an English period film and vividly demons...

Arena: Cinema

This year's London Film Festival contained five entries from India. It's a reminder that we hardly...

Arena: The Museum of Drawers

Arena takes you on a guided tour of the smallest museum in the world - its 'curator', Swiss artist...

On Photography

Featuring two of the greatest photographers of the 20th century Jacques Henri Lartigue began taking...

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...

Who is Poly Styrene?

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

Athol Fugard: A Lesson from Aloes

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

Arena: Cinema

Assault on Precinct 13 and Dark Star were two of the ' sleepers ' of the last two years - small-bud...

Maler's Requiem - Words and Images

Fibreglass carcasses, a flaming typewriter, and a troop of girl guides - each has been a -key ingre...

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...

Arena: Cinema

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

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, adolescen...

Arena: Cinema

Isabelle Huppert is 23 - ' a stunning actress ', says Claude Chabrol ; 'Best Actress ' at Cannes in...

Ubu

The television premiere of GEOFF DUNBAR'S brilliant animation film. Based on ALFRED JARRY's notorio...

My Way

Q. What do the following have in common? Frank Sinatra, Sid Vicious, Dorothy Squires, Barry John, P...

Arena: Cinema

Twenty-three years ago Don Siegel made his famous horrorpic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Now the...

La Dame aux Gladiolas

Arena presents The Agony and the Ecstasy of Edna Everage In this, the first-ever exclusive Arts Doc...

'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 photographe...

Arena: Cinema

with Gavin Millar. Everybody knows about Kung Fu, Run Run Shaw and Bruce Lee. They probably know le...

Tell Us the Truth

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

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 50...

Their Lips are Sealed

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

Steel Pulse

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

Ring Around the Moon

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

Pictures of the Mind

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

Six Days in September

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

Building for Change

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

Athol Fugard A Lesson from Aloes

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

Lene Lovich Sleeping Beauty

Formerly a professional screamer in horror films, a belly-dancer in the Middle East, Lene Lovich ha...

Mentioned in Dispatches

Arena presents the extraordinary story of Tim Page, war photographer and Vietnam legend-a tale firs...

Isaac Singer's Nightmare and Mrs Pupko's Beard

Arena presents a hilarious and touching portrait of the great Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer,...

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

This week Arena features two highly-individual women artists. Peggy Taub has always wanted to sculp...

Bring Me Back a Song

Irish folk music is one of the oldest unbroken cultural traditions in Europe. As the Sense of Irela...

' I talk about me - I am Africa'

The growth of black consciousness through the 1970s has produced an explosion of original new theat...

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 sto...

Working At It

A profile of Liverpool playwright Alan Bleasdale With two new productions packing them in, in the N...

Victoria Wood and Andrea Dunbar

As prizewinning writer/performer Victoria Wood opens in her latest play, Good Fun, Arena looks at h...

Climb Every Mountain or Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

"Failure can be fun' is the motto of self-confessed failures David McGillivray and Stephen Pile (ab...

Double Vision

The story of an unusual collaboration between rock musician Brian Eno and artist illustrator Russel...

Dedicated Followers of Fashion

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

Luck and Flaw

One after another mighty politicians have fallen victim to the savage caricatures of Peter Fluck an...

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...

Making 'The Shining'

Stanley Kubrick's long-awaited film The Shining opens in London this week and throughout the countr...

Dire Straits

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

Chelsea Hotel

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

Hazell Meets His Makers

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

Getting Away from Sidney

' Uncle Sidney' is the kindly old soul in charge of an institute for the disabled: he tucks them up...

Private Worlds

This week two genuinely, original English artists introduce you to their work: Sam Smith , whose im...

Today Carshalton Beaches ... Tomorrow Croydon

Arena investigates the grass-roots of rock today with John Peel and John Walters ' When the punk th...

Edward Hopper

Arena marks a major retrospective exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery with a film about the grea...

Stages

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

The Smallest Theatre

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

Huston's Hobby

There were these five guys round the table: the Lightweight Boxing Champion of California; an exper...

A Walk with Amos Oz

' Marching the streets of Jerusalem in 67, carrying a sub-machine-gun, I was in an absurd way actin...

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.....

Did You Miss Me ...?

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

The Return of Lupino Lane

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

The Comic Strip Hero

This week Arena patrols the skies above Metropolis in search of the legend that is SUPERMAN ... Mee...

Arena on Clair

Clair thought of himself as a screenwriter as well as a director. He put his stamp on French screen...

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

As a child, trapped in a crazy Jewish household in a poor Chicago tenement, the American artist Rob...

If the Music Had to Stop

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

Curtains? The Future of the National Youth Theatre

Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Martin Jarvis, playwrights Peter Terson and Barrie Keefe - all products...

The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda

For 25 years the Polish film director ADRZEJ WAJDA has been making some of the most exciting and bo...

'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...

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-glas...

Let Them Know We're Here

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

A Pretty British Affair

Only a short while ago Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were forgotten names in cinema history...

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...

A Tall Story: How Salman Rushdie Pickled All India

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

Brixton to Barbados

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

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 b...

What Makes Rabbit Run?

John Updike 's new book, Rabbit is Rich, is the third in the Rabbit series from the author of Rabbi...

Here They Kill People for It

Osip Mandelstam, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, died in a prison camp somewhere in...

True to Life?

In a month of continuing controversy about the aims and methods of the ' documentary', Arena presen...

Desert Island Discs

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

Listen to Britain AND Housing Problems

Presents two classic films from the early days of documentary. Featured in last month's True to Lif...

The Orson Welles Story: Part One

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

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...

Mike Leigh Making Plays

Mike Leigh is a dramatist in a tradition of his own, a fiercely original talent whose work and work...

A Genius Like Us

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

A Play for Bridport

One of the most spectacular and unlikely theatre events of last year took place a long way from the...

Upon Westminster Bridge

It is commonly thought that poets are university-trained intellectuals who occasionally produce sli...

Three Steps to Heaven

Classics like ' Summertime blues , 'C'mon everybody' and Three steps to heaven' made Eddie Cochran...

Angus McBean

For nearly 50 years everybody who was anybody in the British theatre passed before the lens of Angu...

Happy Days (Samuel Beckett Season)

by Samuel Beckett Starring Billie Whitelaw With Leonard Fenton Arena presents the first programme i...

Eh Joe (Samuel Beckett Season)

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

Rockaby (Samuel Beckett Season)

Arena continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a unique record of his new play Rockaby which has ju...

Not I (Samuel Beckett Season)

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season. In one of the most extraordinary pieces of modern drama Billie...

Quad (Samuel Beckett Season)

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a premiere. A play without words. Quad has a musical struc...

Krapp's Last Tape (Samuel Beckett Season)

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

Guernica: The Long Exile

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

Classically Cuban: Alicia Alonso and the Cuban National Ballet

Today, in post-revolutionary Cuba, under the benign patronage of Fidel Castro, classical ballet thr...

Hair

Tonight Arena takes you on a tour of contemporary British heads, from the exotic to the mundane, fr...

Boulez Now

Pierre Boulez, leading composer of the post-war generation, later a powerful and innovative conduct...

Jazz Juke Box

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

Burroughs

Widely regarded as one of the greatest literary figures of the century, William Burroughs has perfe...

The Catherine Wheel

Tonight Arena presents one of the most ambitious dance projects ever seen on television. The Cather...

Kurt Vonnegut

Writing about his experiences as a war prisoner in Dresden in the novel Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonn...

It's All True

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

Luis Bunuel

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

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 po...

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 formi...

The Ghost Writer

Starring Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker from the novel by Philip Roth with Mark Linn Baker, Paulette S...

Jazz Juke-Box II

Following the success of Jazz Juke-Box I, George Melly presents another selection of jazz shorts an...

Roman Vishniac

Roman Vishniac is a Russian Jew born in St Petersburg in 1897. His striking images of life in the J...

Classic British Documentaries

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

The GPO Story

The GPO Film Unit-50 years old this year-went where no Hollywood film studio would dare to go in 19...

The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert

An Arena special Last September at the Royal Albert Hall Don and Phil Everly performed together for...

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 ni...

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...

George Orwell 3: Homage to Catalonia

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

George Orwell 4: The Lion and the Unicorn

For a brief period after the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was a revolutionary socialist, violently opp...

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 tra...

Say Amen Someone

Tonight's Arena Special tells the extraordinary story of two of the legendary figures of American '...

Four Rooms

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

The Theatre of Dario Fo

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

Sunset People

Tonight Arena takes a journey down one of the best known streets in the world. Sunset Boulevard str...

The Caravaggio Conspiracy

On 29 June 1982 a man called John Blake appeared mysteriously bidding in the major auction houses o...

Between Dreaming and Waking

David Inshaw belongs to a great tradition of English Romantic Painting - the tradition of Stanley S...

Ken Russell 's Elgar

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

Jerry Lee Lewis

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

True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist

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

My Dinner with Louis

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

Milan Kundera- Laughter and Forgetting

From the vantage point of his Paris flat, the Czech writer Milan Kundera still obsessively contempl...

A Tribute to Joseph Losey

American-born writer and director Joseph Losey died last month in London. He made his home in Engla...

Beat This! A Hip Hop History

Tonight Arena presents a musical entertainment set in the streets of New York City, an epic rap whi...

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 mus...

Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day

Tonight Arena presents the first film portrait of the greatest of all the jazz singers. Billie Holi...

Eubie Blake

The legendary Eubie Blake 's career as a ragtime pianist and composer began in 1883. Sadly last yea...

Francis Bacon

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

We Don't Like Your House Either!

This week: a portrait of one of the most individual architectural talents America has produced. Bru...

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...

After the Rehearsal

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

What's Cuba Playing At?

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

Music of the other Americas

Every November musicians from all over Latin America come to take part in the international music f...

Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden

For many Luciano Pavarotti is the world's greatest tenor - certainly his place is assured among the...

My Son the Novelist

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

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

The artists Julian Schnabel , Markus Lupertz , Sandro Chia , Francesco Clemente and Georg Baselitz...

Marcel Carne

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

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...

How Glorious is the Garden?

Tonight Arena and Newsnight join forces to mount a major studio debate between the embattled factio...

Old Kent Road

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

Ligmalion

A Musical for the 80s starring Tim Curry, Sting, Alexei Sayle, Gary Glitter and introducing Jason C...

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 fro...

Marc Chagall

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

Watch Me Move...

'America gave to the world two original art forms: one was jazz, the other was full character anima...

Hugh Masekela: The African Ambassador

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

The Theatre of Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson is one of the most revered and controversial talents in contemporary theatre. He firs...

Blues Night: Introduction

Tonight Arena presents a cornucopia of the blues from the raw sounds of the Mississippi Delta to th...

Blues Night: Sonny Boy Williamson Sings

Blues Night presents rare footage of the harmonica blues player Sonny Boy Williamson, who gave B.B....

Blues Night: B.B. King Speaks

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

Blues Night: Chicago Blues

Harley Cokliss’ classic blues documentary includes performances by Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and B...

Blues Night: Blind John Davis

The great Chicago broadcaster and journalist Studs Terkel and pianist Blind John Davis meet in a do...

Blues Night: Blues Medley

This medley of the blues features Fred McDowell, Thomas 'Georgia Tom' Dorsey, Sonny Terry and Brown...

Blues Night: Big Bill Blues

Hard blues meets film noir as Big Bill Broonzy sings and plays in a Belgian nightclub back in the 1...

Buddy Holly

An Arena Special. Lubbock is a small town lost in the great plains of west Texas. Her most famous s...

Saint Genet

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

The Accordion Strikes Back

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

The Cinema of Francesco Rosi

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

The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was one of the outstanding writers of his generation. Nominated three times for the N...

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 A...

The Apollo Story: part 2

Harlem's Apollo Theater has been the ultimate testing ground for every black American performer fro...

Tosca's Kiss

Casa Verdi is a rambling mansion in the city of Milan, inhabited by an extraordinary and captivatin...

The New Babylon

Arena presents the first television showing of a rare and extraordinary classic of the silent cinem...

Tango Mio

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

Cinderella

From its origins in ninth-century China to its modern incarnation as a Christmas pantomime, Cindere...

The Journey Man

Behind the quiet, gentlemanly exterior of Norman Lewis lies the acute Perception of one of Britain'...

Go-Go in Washington DC

The home of the White House, the Pentagon and the President is also the home of the most exciting s...

Marguerite Yourcenar

Novelist, poet, essayist and the first woman to be elected to the Academie Francaise, Marguerite Yo...

Louise Brooks

The American film actress Louise Brooks, who died last summer, was one of the most celebrated beaut...

Kurosawa

In 1950 the Grand Prix of the prestigious Venice Film Festival went quite unexpectedly to a Japanes...

Two Painters Amazed

Critical acclaim for a group of recent art school graduates has put Scottish art, and Glasgow in pa...

Home Front

Don McCullin 's powerful pictures of the horrors of war and deprivation have made him one of the wo...

Caribbean Nights: Caribbean Journey

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

Caribbean Nights: Medley

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

Caribbean Nights: Poetry

The celebrated West Indian poet Derek Walcott joins Linton Kwesi Johnson and Guyanese prodigy Fred...

Caribbean Nights: Ska

Out of the archives, a skanking delight from Kingston's Sombrero Club, 1964. Featuring Prince Buste...

Caribbean Nights: The Latin Caribbean

Darcus Howe interviews leading Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes and Trinidadian historian John La Ro...

Caribbean Nights: Maytime on the Mosquito Coast

Despite the dangers and deprivations of war, the people of Bluefields, Nicaragua, still find time t...

Caribbean Nights: Calypso and Carnival

Fuentes, La Rose and Howe are joined in the studio by this year's Calypso King David Rudder who tel...

Caribbean Nights: Whicker's Caribbean World

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

Caribbean Nights: Latin Sound

Filmed on his recent visit to London, Panamanian salsa star and politician Ruben Blades talks to Li...

Caribbean Nights: God's Chillun

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

Caribbean Nights Bob Marley

A portrait of the man who made reggae known and appreciated all over the western world and who refu...

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 f...

Caribbean Nights: Danzon

In an old church in Havana, the Urfe brothers play Danzones, the first popular Cuban music to emerg...

Caribbean Nights: Rasta and the Ball

According to reggae greats Bob Marley and Burning Spear, football and Rastafari are one and the sam...

Caribbean Nights: Arturo Sandoval

Cuban jazz is rarely heard over here. Tonight Arena redresses the balance with a performance by vir...

Caribbean Nights: Kapo

'I dreamt there were 72 angels, 72 trumpets, 72 vases of flowers - all things were 72. And then I s...

Henry Moore

Speaking from Henry Moore's own studio in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, John Read shares his personal...

Salvador Dali

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

The Life and Times of Don Luis Bunuel

Following last night's story of Salvador Dali, Arena continues it's Spanish trilogy with this highl...

The Spirit of Lorca

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

Cambodian Witness

When the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, they forced the entire population i...

Scarfe on Scarfe

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

Night Moves

Fifty years ago Basil Wright and Harry Watts' classic documentary "Night Mail" celebrated the role...

Dylan

Arena presents Bob Dylan, concentrating on his classic songs and backed by Tom Petty and the Heartb...

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...

Night and Day

Night and Day is a 24-hour journey through the streets of London spent in the company of two differ...

Dennis Potter

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

Martin Chambi and the Heirs of the Incas

Tonight Arena tells the story of one of the most extraordinary photographers of the 20th century. M...

The Confessions of Robert Crumb

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

Ruth, Roses and Revolver

David Lynch , director of some of the strangest films in today's cinema, including Eraserhead and E...

A Brother with Perfect Timing

Abdullah Ibrahim formerly Dollar Brand, pianist, composer, arranger, was bom in Cape Town, South Af...

Tarkovsky's Cinema

In 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky 's remarkable career in the cinema received the accolade of the Jury Prize...

Putting Ourselves in the Picture

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

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...

Bayan Ko Pilipinas

(Lino Brocka 's Philippines) Lino Brocka is the most influential film director in the Philippines,...

Talk is Cheap

What is a chat show - a forum for stimulating conversation and the exchange of ideas or just an eco...

The Waugh Trilogy: Bright Young Thing

Twenty-one years after his death Evelyn Waugh looms larger than ever over the English literary scen...

The Waugh Trilogy: Mayfair and the Jungle

The second of three programmes looks at Evelyn Waugh 's most productive period as a novelist, journ...

The Waugh Trilogy: An Englishman's Home

Last of three programmes. When Waugh died on Easter Sunday 21 years ago his friend Graham Greene fe...

German Festival: Joseph Beuys

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

ScreenPlay: Cariani and the Courtesans

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

Revolutionary with a Paintbox

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

Invisible Ink

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

Of Cats and Mice

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

Woody Guthrie

he legend of Woody Guthrie - the rambling guitar player who discovered America from the roof of a f...

The Dandy-Beano Story

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

Broadway - The Great White Way

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

Ryszard Kapuscinski: Your Man Who is There

The first of two programmes featuring the work of a major figure in contemporary literature and jou...

The Emperor

Arena presents JONATHAN MILLER 'S acclaimed production for the Royal Court Theatre of RYSZARD KAPUS...

My Name Is Celia Cruz

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

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 Br...

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...

Kerouac

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

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...

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...

Robert Mapplethorpe

This month the National Portrait Gallery opens its doors to the controversial photographer Robert M...

The English Thoroughbred

The English Thoroughbred In the late 17th century the fastest, most elegant racing machine known to...

Byrne About Byrne

Each season Arena invites a distinguished figure in the arts to direct a film. This year's guest di...

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 pl...

Ten Green Bottles

Arena's new season begins with a special anniversary edition and a chance to see again some classic...

Clint Eastwood: The Man with No Name.

Dirty Harry and the other characters in the Eastwood repertory have dominated the box office for ov...

Moving Across the World on Horses

Born in Sri Lanka in 1943, educated in Dulwich and now living in Canada, Michael Ondaatje has criss...

History Boys on the Rampage

From Dundalk to Dungannon, Ballycastle to Belfast, Field Day, Ireland's foremost touring theatre co...

The Unforgettable Nat King Cole

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

Tales from Barcelona

Award-winning director Jana Bokova presents a typically idiosyncratic portrait of Europe's most fas...

Blackpool

With more visitors than the whole of Greece and more holiday beds than Portugal, Blackpool is Europ...

The Tip of the Iceberg

Breasts/bosoms/bust/boobs/bristols/knockers... we live in a breast-obsessed society and 'tits' are...

Laurens van der Post and Albert Sample

Arena presents two films by award-winning director Georg Troller , made for West German television'...

New York - The Secret African City

eyond the familiar world of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, there is another New York, whose roots...

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...

John Cassavetes

Actor and director, John Cassavetes, who died earlier this month was one of the few truly independe...

Power in the Blood

Ten years ago, Vernon Oxford turned his back on the bright lights of Nashville and a life as a popu...

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 Wurlit...

Juke Box Jury

Arena continues its centenary celebration of the jukebox with a special edition of one of the origi...

Berthold Lubetkin

Born in Georgia in 1901, Berthold Lubetkin is one of the most outstanding and influential architect...

Heavy Metal

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

The Other Graham Greene

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

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....

Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 2: How High the Moon

In 1938 jazz legend and international star Slim Gaillard went to Hollywood to appear in Hellzapoppi...

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 l...

Animal Night: Smashing Pigs

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

Animal Night: Sacred Elephant

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

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 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....

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 ordinar...

Animal Night: Animals on Trial

Novelist Julian Bames, philosopher Nicholas Humphrey and French historian Dr Michel Rousseau help t...

Animal Night: The Animal Night Debate

Speciesism, vivisection, vegetarianism, farming, sport, zoos, circuses and pets will be some of the...

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...

Numbers

So says Gregory Chaitin, one of the world's three leading mathematicians, addressing the camera fro...

Oblomov

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

Jerry Lee Lewis

This is the story of 'the Killer', the ultimate wild man of rock, from his phenomenal success at th...

Roberto Rossellini

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

Next Time Dear God Please Choose Someone Else

Traditional Jewish humour flourished in adversity. Religious persecution and life in the ghetto nur...

Salif Keita

Salif Keita - the golden voice of Mali - is one of the first African world superstars. He can tra...

Fred Zinnemann: A Director's Life

Fred Zinnemann, best known for the classic western High Noon, has had a career in movies spanning 6...

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...

Peggy and Her Playwrights

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

The English Rose

The term 'English rose' conjures up a variety of images which fall somewhere between the delicate p...

Paris Is Burning

They call themselves the 'Children'. By day they are cycle-messengers, assistants in department sto...

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

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

Havana

Cuba's legendary capital, once a playground for the rich, has an extraordinary faded beauty with it...

The Princess

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

The Ten Commandments of Krzysztof Kieslowski

Krzysztof Kieslowski is the foremost director to have emerged in Poland since Andrzej Wadja. His tw...

Le Paris Black

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

Kino Perestroika

Tonight's programme looks at the Soviet cinema since perestroika and examines the work of some of i...

The Daily Worker Story

When Lenin told the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain that its survival depended on hav...

Oooh Er, Missus! - The Frankie Howerd Story

Considered by many to be our greatest living stand-up comedian, the incomparable Francis Alick Howe...

Agatha Christie - Unfinished Portrait

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

The Fever

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

Food Night: Introduction

Tonight Arena brings you an evening of short films and a debate devoted to that most universal of s...

Food Night: Modern Food

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

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 n...

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 unde...

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 separat...

Food Night: The Last Supper

Louisiana State Penitentiary recently released a list of the last meals ordered by prisoners about...

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,...

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...

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 nou...

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, nutritio...

Lifepulse - a Natural Thriller

A spectacular musical celebration of life, capturing evolution in all its glorious diversity, and t...

Miller Meets Mandela

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

Derek Jarman - a Portrait

Derek Jarman is a uniquely British outsider: a painter, film-maker and a self-appointed enfant terr...

Anselm Kiefer : Operation Sealion

Kiefer is Germany's most controversial and reclusive artist. He is also its most successful. The mi...

The Strange Story of Joe Meek

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

The Other Roci

Rocky is the name of American artist Robert Rauschenberg's pet turtle. It is also the name of an ep...

Caroline 199 - A Pirate's Tale

December 1990: a rusty ship drifts silently in the North Sea. As the Government and its Broadcastin...

Staring at the Ceiling

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

Three Irish Writers

It has been said that the English hoard words like misers and the Irish spend them like sailors. To...

One Irish Rover

For more than two decades, Van Morrison has been fusing different musical influences, creating a st...

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 Micha...

The Other

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

Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon

When Kenneth Anger first published his classic expose of Hollywood's best-kept secrets and scandals...

Elmore Leonard 's Criminal Records

Top US crime writer Elmore Leonard 's street-wise characters range from violent hoodlums in and aro...

The Human Face

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

Texas Saturday Night

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

The Grass Arena

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

Billy, How Did You Do It? 1

The first of a special three-part presentation in which American film director Billy Wilder discuss...

Billy, How Did You Do It? 2

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

Billy, How Did You Do It? 3

Last of a special three-part presentation in which American director Billy Wilder discusses his car...

Masters of the Canvas

When pop artist Peter Blake confessed in a magazine article that his fantasy was to be the mysterio...

Oliver Stone

A portrait of the controversial American film director, Oliver Stone, whose work often arouses the...

Fatwa

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

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 connin...

The Incredible Case of Comrade

Rockstar Dean Read was the biggest rock star the communist world had ever seen. Virtually unknown i...

Croatia - the Artists' War

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

Otto Dix : a Tale of Two Germanies

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

Chi-Chi the Panda

Refused entry to America from China in 1958 because of the embargo on "communist goods", the giant...

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. Armis...

Last Supper - Frank on Frank

A self-portrait of photographer and film maker Robert Frank. Often called the "eyes of the Beats",...

A Spanish Odyssey - a Portrait of Javier Mariscal

Javier Mariscal is an artist who cannot be categorised - a designer who thinks a Camel cigarette pa...

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 j...

An Argentinian Journey: 2: Zamba, Chacarera and Chamame

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

An Argentinian Journey: 3: Pacha Mama - Sacred Land

The Calchaquies valleys in the Andes and the Humahuaca canyon form the most underdeveloped and remo...

Sportswriter: the Fight, the Match and the Race

Few activities in modern life can rival sport for creating excitement, passion and commitment. Aren...

Linda McCartney, behind the Lens

In her first television profile, Linda McCartney talks about her life in photography and, with husb...

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 wr...

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'...

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...

On the Road with Boggs

In the 1980s American artist J S G Boggs stunned the art world by holding an exhibition of banknote...

The Grateful and the Dead

The story of the unlikely and unpublicised relationship between a 60s American rock band and some o...

A Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie

Elder statesman of jazz and a co-founder of the style that became bebop in the 40s, John Birks "Diz...

Larry Kramer

One of the world's leading figures in the battle against Aids is not a doctor, scientist or politic...

Edward Said: the Idea of Empire

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

The Last Soviet Citizen

For three decades the Soviet Union's obsession with space stirred the soul of the nation like a sec...

Derek Walcott

An interview with the poet who last December won the Nobel prize for literature, and whose current...

Zhang Yimou

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

Philip Roth

To mark his 60th birthday, and the publication of his new book Operation Shylock, Philip Roth break...

Only the Names Have Been Changed

To the innocent reader, the characters in a work of fiction are the author's inventions. To those i...

Weegee

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

Duchamp's Fountain

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

Edgar Reitz: Return to Heimat

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

Tales Of Rock And Roll: Peggy Sue

The arts series returns with four films tracing the origins of classic rock songs. The inspiration...

Not a Bad Girl

Brenda Fassie is South Africa's answer to Madonna. A black singer for black people, she is streetwi...

Heartbreak Hotel

The second documentary in this Arena series telling the true stories behind classic rock songs is d...

Walk on the Wild Side

All the characters named in the song were real people who frequented Andy Warhol's studio in the la...

Highway 61 Revisited

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

Arena: Radio Night: Introduction

Your television and radio are cast as personalities (played by Peter Cook and Josie Lawrence) in th...

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

Ian McKellen ruminates on the distinct eras of radio broadcasting, characterised as Shakespeare's s...

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...

Radio Night: Back to Square One

The story of early radio's method of broadcasting live football, referring to a numbered grid - pub...

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...

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, Arman...

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 Reaga...

In Search of Oz

An exploration of the phenomenal popularity of L Frank Baum 's famous children's story The Wonderfu...

Who Is Vladimir Pozner?

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

The Dark Side of Black

The new stars of ragga and gangster rap - Shabba Ranks, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Buju Banton - have...

The Ring - a South London Tale

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

Glitterbug

During the 1970s and 1980s Derekjarman kept a Super-8 film diary, chronicling the cultural high lif...

Theatre without Actors

In 1960 an American film called Primary changed the notion of what a documentary could be, using te...

Kalashnikov

Seventy million Kalashnikov (or AK-47) guns are scattered across the world. It was the Russians' Co...

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 dea...

Relics Introduction

The idea that power exists in the remains of heroes and the things they leave behind is the focus o...

Relics: Einstein's Brain

"Move Albert Einstein ," declares Japanese professor Kenji Sugimoto at the start of a bizarre journ...

Relics: Curse of the Firebeetle

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

Relics: The Grave Case of Charlie Chaplin

In 1978 Charlie Chaplin 's coffin was stolen from his grave in Vevey, Switzerland, and a large rans...

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...

Voices from the Island

Robben Island is South Africa's Alcatraz. For three decades Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and hund...

Cindy Sherman - Nobody's Here but Me

Using herself as the model, American artist Cindy Sherman has produced hundreds of photographs expl...

Bahia of all the Saints

Brazil's major slave-trading port for nearly three centuries, Bahia has a black population of over...

Sandra Bernhard - Confession of a Pretty Lady

Sandra Bernhard 's outrageous one-woman show deals with many normally taboo subjects and controvers...

Louise Bourgeois

This Arena special profiles sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who has suddenly become fashionable at the a...

The Peter Sellers Story 1

Arena returns with a three-part special, presenting a film portrait of one of the world's great com...

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 beg...

Punk and the Pistols

In August 1975, the face of British rock music was fundamentally changed: the Sex Pistols were form...

The Burger and the King

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

Stories My Country Told Me

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

Tony Bennett's New York

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

Caesar's Writers

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

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 Nat...

Dear Antonioni

A portrait of the Italian film-maker Michelangelo Antonioni , who has directed such films as L'Awen...

Busby, Stein and Shankly - the Football Men: Underground

Sports writer Hugh Mcllvanney presents the first of a trilogy of programmes for the Easter weekend...

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;...

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 footb...

The Banana

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

Cigars - out of the Humidor

In 1962, before John F Kennedy signed the embargo banning the importation of cigars into America fr...

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 f...

The Noel Coward Trilogy: Captain Coward

The second of three programmes celebrating the life and career of Noel Coward focuses on the journe...

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. Hi...

Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century

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

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...

The Brian Epstein Story: Tomorrow Never Knows

Concluding the two-part profile of the pop manager who brought global success to the Beatles. By th...

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 Khrushc...

Cuba Night: A Diamond in the Rough

Cuba's baseball prowess has been long estabished. Fidel Castro himself was once scouted by a US tea...

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 a...

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 e...

Looking for the Iron Curtain

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

Casanova

The legendary 18th-century lover has been immortalised in books, films and on television, but are t...

Blondes - Jayne Mansfield

In 1957, Jayne Mansfield was riding high as the most photographed woman in the world. Yet, ten year...

Blondes - Diana Dors

This second blonde-bombshell profile focuses on Britain's home-grown prototype, Diana Dors. The Rad...

Blondes - Anita Ekberg

Perhaps best remembered as the shapely blonde who waded into the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita, f...

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. T...

The Veil

More and more young Muslim women today are wearing the veil, saying that it frees rather than oppre...

Wisconsin Death Trip

An edition in the occasional arts documentary strand. Wisconsin Death Trip. Inspired by a book of t...

Clint Eastwood: Out of the West

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

Clint Eastwood: American Film-maker

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

James Ellroy's Feast of Death

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

And the Winner Is ...

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

Budd Schulberg - a Contender

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

The Source

Tonight's film dramatises the story behind the leading artists who personified the Beat Generation,...

Salgado - the Spectre of Hope

During the past 30 years the photographic work of Brazilian-born Sebastiao Salgado has helped to br...

Stalin - the Red God

Joseph Stalin is seen outside his native land as one of history's most deplorable tyrants, but thro...

According to Beryl

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

Night of Entertainers: Sykes and a Day

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

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 C...

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 a...

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...

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 1

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

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 2

The second of Arena's two-part film about Bogarde plots his progress to the forefront of European c...

Estonia Dreams of Eurovision

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

Kurosawa: Part One

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

Kurosawa: Part Two

Concluding the profile of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. International acclaim followed masterp...

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...

Harold Pinter: 1: The Room

This edition chronicles Pinter's East End childhood, his work as an actor, the critical appraisal o...

Harold Pinter: 2: Celebration

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

One for the Road

Harold Pinter takes the lead role in the Gate Theatre, Dublin's production of his play, produced by...

Politics and Pinter

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

The Room

An anxious recluse deals with the pressures of the outside world. A play by Harold Pinter, filmed i...

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 Culsh...

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, Jus...

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 caree...

The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough: Part Two

The conclusion to this two-part profile, which accompanies the Attenborough at 80 season of films t...

Imagine Imagine

The huge and enduring popularity of John Lennon 's song, Imagine, is examined in this documentary....

Dylan Thomas - from Grave to Cradle

In the 50th year since his tragic death, author and broadcaster Nigel Williams examines the work an...

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

Buffalo Bill was instrumental in transforming the Wild West into the caricatured setting portrayed...

Alec Guinness, a Secret Man

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

Pavarotti - the Last Tenor

For 40 years, Luciano Pavarotti has been hailed as one of the greatest tenors of all time, an artis...

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

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

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 t...

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-len...

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...

Potter on Television

A portrait of the late playwright, featuring extracts from his work - read by Keith Barron - and in...

Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues

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

Calling Hedy Lamarr

Cited as being the most beautiful star in the Hollywood firmament during the 1930s and 40s, Hedy La...

Francis Bacon's Arena

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

Arena at 30

Bob Dylan, Jean Genet, Orson Welles and Francis Bacon are among the subjects in a look back at memo...

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 1

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

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 2

Martin Scorsese delicately balances Dylan's internal world with signpost images from the external a...

Dylan in the Madhouse

Surprisingly, Bob Dylan first came to the attention of the British public through his role in a 196...

The Princess and Panorama

An incredible 22.8 million viewers were agog as Diana, Princess of Wales spoke candidly of her marr...

Routemasters! The Double Decker Bus Conductors

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

Galton and Simpson

Hancock's Half-Hour and Steptoe and Son - two persuasive reasons for making Ray Galton and Alan Sim...

Pete Doherty

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

Saints

The phenomenon of sanctity is examined in a documentary asking what makes a saint, comparing the Ca...

The Archers

Marking its 56th year on the air, Arena examines the enduring appeal of Radio 4's rural soap, which...

The Underground

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

Bob Marley - Exodus 77

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

Encountering Bergman

Examining the life and work of film director Ingmar Bergman , through people who know and have spok...

Bergman and Faro Island

In his remote home at the seashore on Sweden's Faro Island, Ingmar Bergman talks about the childhoo...

Bergman and the Cinema

Ingmar Bergman examines his cinema career, which began when his first script was filmed in 1944. He...

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...

The Original Archers

The earliest surviving episode in the BBC archives of The Archers, originally broadcast 11th March...

Tribute Bands - into the Limelight

Affectionate documentary that goes behind the scenes of the Limelight Club in Crewe, where for ten...

Tribute Bands - Live at the Limelight

Live performances by tribute bands such as Limehouse Lizzy, Are You Experienced, The Jamm and ABCD,...

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...

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...

Dylan in the Madhouse

Arena goes in search of the Bob Dylan starring 1962 BBC drama Madhouse on Castle Street, wiped in 1...

Ken Dodd's Happiness

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

The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul

Profile of the Nobel Prize-winning British writer, VS Naipaul. Filmed in Wiltshire, India and his n...

Cab Driver

Documentary which gets to the heart of that much-maligned and stereotyped character, the London cab...

The Hunt for Moby-Dick

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

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 th...

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...

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...

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...

The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector

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

Paul Scofield

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

Tony Bennett: the Music Never Ends

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

Cool

Archive film shows how American jazz culture spread across the world in the 1940s and 50s, represen...

TS Eliot

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

Harold Pinter Night: The Birthday Party

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

Brian Eno - Another Green World

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

Harold Pinter - A Celebration

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration...

Johnny Mercer - The Dream's on Me

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

Dave Brubeck - In His Own Sweet Way

Profile of the influential jazz pianist Dave Brubeck as he approaches his 90th birthday, who had on...

Rolf Harris Paints His Dream

Arena enlists supermodels Lily Cole and Lizzy Jagger and actresses Dervla Kirwan and Emer Kenny to...

Produced by George Martin

Profile of record producer Sir George Martin, with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ri...

George Harrison: Living in the Material World: Part 1

Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison, which traces his life from his beginnings in Liverpo...

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 Tra...

Dickens on Film

An exploration of Charles Dickens's contribution to the history of film and television, using archi...

Sonny Rollins: Beyond the Notes

Documentary about the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins, built around his 80th birthday concert, wher...

Sonny Rollins '74: Rescued!

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

The Dreams of William Golding

An insight into the private obsessions and insecurities of the author of Lord of the Flies. With co...

Jonathan Miller

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

Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle

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

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 s...

Screen Goddesses

Documentary about the early female movie stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Maril...

Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel

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

aka Norman Parkinson

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

Arena: The National Theatre: Part One - The Dream

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

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

Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner talk about running the new National Theat...

Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with cont...

The National Theatre: Learning Zone

Made specially for schools, this version of Arena examines the history and purpose of the National...

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...

Nicolas Roeg - It's About Time

Profile of Nicolas Roeg, examining his personal vision of cinema as evidenced in his films, includi...

Night and Day

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

Loretta Lynn - Still a Mountain Girl

With contributions from her family and fellow musicians, now in her early eighties and still going...

All the World's a Screen - Shakespeare on Film

Documentary exploring the rich, global history of Shakespeare in the cinema, with a treasure trove...

1966 - 50 Years Ago Today

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

The Roundhouse - The People's Palace

The tragicomic rollercoaster story of a unique venue, the Roundhouse in north London, which has hos...

Alone with Chrissie Hynde

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

American Epic: Episode 1: The Big Bang

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

American Epic: Episode 2: Blood and Soil

Series telling the stories of the pioneers of American roots music. The second episode explores gos...

Kirsty Young: 75 Years of Desert Island Discs

As Desert Island Discs reaches 75, today's custodian of the island, Kirsty Young, introduces the 19...

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 Mississi...

American Epic: Episode 4: The Sessions

Today's music superstars use a lovingly reassembled old machine to record in the same way that thei...

Stanley and his Daughters

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

Bob Dylan – Trouble No More

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

Nothing Like a Dame

A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy spar...

Make Me Up!

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

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 k...

That Summer

A long-lost film of the creative community formed by Peter Beard, Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee Radzi...

Cindy Sherman #untitled

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

Kusama: Infinity

Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visi...

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator W...

Bergman: A Year in the Life

Documentary that exposes a darker, less well-known side of film director Ingmar Bergman, focusing o...

The $50 Million Art Swindle

This feature-length documentary for Arena by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the remarkable...

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 futil...

Everything Is Connected - George Eliot's Life

Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot in an...

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 g...

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 i...