Limandy

1. Theatre

1975-10-01

Premiere. Ronald Eyre reviews what's going on in the theatre, Kenneth Tynan talks to Laurence Olivier about Lilian Baylis and The Old Vic, and a film about David Hockney's sets fo…

2. Art and Design

1975-10-08

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

3. Theatre

1975-10-15

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

4. Art and Design

1975-10-22

Cartoonist Mel Caiman on the New Yorker magazine and its artists, Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine Gallery, and a new documentary exhibition from Jarrow.

5. Theatre

1975-10-29

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

6. Art and Design

1975-11-05

Features Observer critic William Feaver on Painting the End of the World, Bill Brandt's selection of landscape photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the best of scien…

7. Theatre

1975-11-12

Extract from a contemporary play and Kenneth Tynan opines.

8. Art and Design

1975-11-19

Shirley Conran is the guest columnist; fashion photographer Barry Lategan is filmed working; and Victorian painter Edward Burne-Jones' London exhibition.

9. Theatre

1975-11-26

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

10. Art and Design

1975-12-03

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

11. Theatre

1975-12-10

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

12. Art and Design

1975-12-17

Filmmaker Roger Graef and journalist Simon Jenkins discuss the destruction of historical buildings, in light of a recent SAVE campaign report and the conclusion of the European Ar…

13. Theatre

1976-01-07

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

14. Art and Design

1976-01-14

No overview.

15. Theatre

1976-01-21

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

16. Art and Design

1976-01-28

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

17. Theatre

1976-02-04

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

18. Art and Design

1976-02-11

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

19. Theatre

1976-02-18

Claire Bloom and Kenneth Tynan discuss extracts from Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days', George Bernard Shaw's 'Too True to be Good', and Tennessee Williams' 'Sweet Bird of Youth'.

20. Art and Design

1976-02-25

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

21. Theatre

1976-03-03

Arena brings extracts from Paris' contemporary theatre season, including Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' and Marguerite Duras' 'Days in the Tree', and an interview with Delphine Seyrig.

22. Art and Design

1976-03-10

Arena presents the work of British and American video artists.

23. Theatre

1976-03-17

Barbara Jefford, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Kenneth Tynan Billie Whitelaw and many of the people behind the scenes say goodbye to the Old Vic building.

24. Art and Design

1976-03-24

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

25. Theatre: Happy Birthday Royal Court

1976-03-31

Alumni of the Royal Court celebrate its 20th anniversary.

26. Art and Design: Art for Money's Sake?

1976-04-07

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

27. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 1

1976-08-25

Features Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Galina Visnevskaya in the Scottish Opera's production of Macbeth, The Kantor Theatre Company from Poland, and Fenella Fielding in a late-night revu…

28. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 2

1976-09-01

Features the La Mama Theatre Company from New York; Bunraku, traditional Japanese Puppet Theatre; a recital by Frederica Von Stade; and Judith Blegen as Susanna in 'The Marriage o…

29. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 3

1976-09-08

Writer Germaine Greer and her god-daughter Ruby take a look at a child's Edinburgh Festival and some of the fringe activities, including Gruppo Teatro Libero from Rome and Quentin…

30. Theatre: A Dream Come True

1976-09-15

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

31. Robert Altman

1976-09-22

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

32. Art and Design: After Samuel Palmer

1976-09-29

David Gould, the expert who discovered Tom Keating's Samuel Palmer imitations, shows the process of identifying and analyzing suspected pictures.

33. Frank Westmore

1976-10-06

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

34. Theatre

1976-10-13

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

35. Cinema: Eric Rohmer

1976-10-20

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

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

1976-10-27

British illustrators Mick Brownfield and Allan Manham are documented working on their current projects; Artist Chris Orr probes the dreadful truth behind the net curtains of subur…

37. Cinema: Don Siegel

1976-11-03

Don Siegel, director of 'The Shootist', 'Charley Varrick', 'Coogan's Bluff', 'Dirty Harry' and many other violent thrillers talks about the problems of the director who is typecas…

38. Theatre: The Cultural Common Market

1976-11-10

A look at Theatre National Populaire, one of France's leading theaters, and Patrice Chéreau's 'La Dispute' by Marivaux and Roger Planchon's 'Tartuffe', as well as scene's from Pla…

39. Cinema

1976-11-17

In light of the low proportion of British films in the 20th London Film Festival, Gavin Millar looks at what's wrong with the British film industry and distribution system.

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

1976-11-24

Sculpture for the Blind - a special Tate Gallery exhibition; Linda Benedict-Jones, photographer; James Boswell - a revival of his war pictures.

41. Cinema

1976-12-01

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

42. Theatre: Brecht in Newcastle

1976-12-08

20th anniversary tribute to Bertolt Brecht at Newcastle's University Theatre with scenes from 'The Good Woman of Setzuan' and prose, poetry and music.

43. Cinema: Christmas Special

1976-12-15

A look at the Disney exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum; an interview with 'The Ritz' director Dick Lester and actress Rita Moreno; an excerpt from Buster Keaton's 'Spite M…

44. Cinema

1977-01-05

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

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

1977-01-12

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

46. Cinema

1977-01-19

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

47. Theatre: Spokesong/At Home with Mole

1977-01-26

An interview with Stewart Parker about his new musical 'Spokesong' with excerpt; a profile of 81 year old actor Richard Goolden with scenes from 'Toad of Toad Hall' and Tom Stoppa…

48. Cinema

1977-02-02

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

49. Art and Design: Ralph Steadman

1977-02-09

Ralph Steadman illustrates a children's anti-war story, caricatures at his local pub, and speaks about his drawing techniques and his work, including Alice, and impressions of the…

50. Cinema

1977-02-16

Gavin Miller discusses 'Network' with director Sidney Lumet and Robert Kee; Alberto Cavalcanti talks about his film career on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

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

1977-02-23

Peter Stein, director of Die Schaubuhne theatre co-operative, comes to London with his Shakespeare Project. Includes extracts from 'Summerfolk' and 'Shakespeare's Memory'.

52. Cinema

1977-03-02

Gavin Millar talks to New Yorker critic Pauline Kael about Costa-Gavras' 'Z' and 'Section Speciale', along with her passion for the movies and how she wields her power.

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

1977-03-09

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

54. Cinema

1977-03-16

On the occasion of the release of the third film version of 'A Star is Born', James Mason talks about the curious business of stardom and how it has changed.

55. Theatre: A Night Out

1977-03-23

Arena visits three theatres - the Mercury Theater in Colchester, the Humberside Theatre in Hull, and the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster - to find out what they are doing, how they …

56. Cinema

1977-03-30

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

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

1977-04-06

Portrait painter Philip Sutton; Helmut Weissenborn, a German WWI soldier who illustrated with wood engravings the war diary of Edward Thomas, an English poet who died in WWI; and …

58. Cinema

1977-04-13

In a special edition from Rome, Gavin Millar interviews Bernardo Bertolucci, director of 'Last Tango in Paris' and '1900', and Gore Vidal on Hollywood and 'Cinecitta'.

59. Theatre: The Prospect Before Us

1977-04-20

Prospect Theatre Company reopens the Old Vic. Includes rehearsal footage from 'St Joan', 'Hamlet', 'Antony and Cleopatra', and 'War Music', a new musical adaptation of 'The Iliad'…

60. Cinema

1977-04-27

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

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

1977-05-04

The artist Ian Breakwall gave up painting for the art of a daily diary; Jim Dine explains why he returned from pop art to drawing the human figure.

62. Cinema

1977-05-11

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

63. Cinema

1977-05-25

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

64. Cinema

1977-06-08

Mr Universe, the Crazy Horse Girls de Paris, Yum Yum Shaw, superstars with police escorts, topless bathing beauties-the Cannes Film Festival still sometimes seems more like a circ…

65. Theatre: Playwrights of the 70's

1977-06-15

In the last ten years an astonishing number of new writers have emerged. Plays by Barrie Keeffe, John McGrath, David Hare, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Trevor Griffiths and Step…

66. Edinburgh Festival

1977-09-07

Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimental shows, Film Festival, Television Festival, and art galleries.

67. Cinema

1977-09-14

with Gavin Millar returns for a new season after a visit to Hollywood, which despite rumours of slump and panic is still the unquestioned capital of the cinema world. We talked to…

68. Cinema

1977-09-21

No overview.

69. Art and Design

1977-09-28

No overview.

70. Cinema

1977-10-05

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

71. Theatre

1977-10-12

No overview.

72. Cinema: Greece

1977-10-19

No overview.

73. Art and Design: Richard Seifert

1977-10-26

No overview.

74. Cinema

1977-11-02

No overview.

75. Theatre: Hands Off the Classics

1977-11-09

In the 17th century Troilus and Cressida was censored and in the 18th century Tate gave King Lear a happy ending. The programme debates the line between interpretation and vandali…

76. Cinema: 21st London Film Festival

1977-11-16

No overview.

77. Art and Design: The Family/Wrapping up the Reichstag

1977-11-23

No overview.

78. Cinema: 21st London Film Festival - Part 2

1977-11-30

No overview.

79. Theatre: Leonard Rossiter

1977-12-07

No overview.

80. Cinema: The Deep

1977-12-14

No overview.

81. Cinema: The Force is with us?

1978-01-11

Star Wars - the biggest and fastest money-maker in the history of the movies - has opened in Britain at last. What on earth - or in heaven - has caused the phenomenal success of t…

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

1978-01-18

George Melly explores his lifelong relationship with surrealism in all its forms and prominent personalities; Henry Moore discusses Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings.

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

1978-01-25

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 earth - or in heaven - has caused the …

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

1978-02-01

But please, this is a farce! ' The story of The Cherry Orchard CHEKHOV: '... It hasn't turned out a drama but as a comedy, in places even a farce.' STANISLAVSKY: ' ... I wept li…

85. Cinema: Joseph Conrad

1978-02-08

A British film The Duellists starring Keith Carradine , Harvey Keitel and Albert Finney won the Special Jury Award at Cannes last year and it opened in London last week. It is a f…

86. Art and Design: Carrington

1978-02-15

No overview.

87. Cinema: Claude Renoir

1978-02-22

No overview.

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

1978-03-01

No overview.

89. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

1978-03-08

No overview.

90. Art and Design: Carl Andre

1978-03-15

No overview.

91. Cinema: Dancing Years

1978-03-22

No overview.

92. Theatre: Taking Our Time

1978-03-29

No overview.

93. Art and Design: Way Out West

1978-04-05

No overview.

94. Theatre: Children of the Gods

1978-04-12

No overview.

95. Television: When Is A Play Not A Play?

1978-04-17

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

96. Art and Design: George Melly

1978-05-03

No overview.

97. Theatre: Arnold Wesker

1978-05-10

No overview.

98. Rock: Tubes on Tour

1978-05-24

No overview.

99. Episode 99

1978-10-11

Last Saturday in the Francois Truffaut Season now running on BBC2, "L'Enfant Sauvage", one of his masterpieces, was shown. Set in 18th-century France it is about the attempts of a…

100. Vanessa Redgrave

1978-10-18

'She is a creature of fire and light, her voice a golden gate opening on lapis lazuli hinges, her body a supple reed rippling in the breeze of her love. This is not acting at all …

101. Arena: Cinema

1978-10-25

Hooray for Hollywood? Gavin Millar talks to: Christopher Isherwood has been a Hollywood immigrant for 40 years and loved every minute of bis screenwriting career there. 'Thank go…

102. Arena: Cinema

1978-11-22

A new British film has its Royal Premiere tomorrow. It is an English period film and vividly demonstrates the high production values, quality and talent available in this country …

103. Arena: Cinema

1978-12-06

This year's London Film Festival contained five entries from India. It's a reminder that we hardly see any of the output of the biggest film industry in the world. Gavin Millar r…

104. Arena: The Museum of Drawers

1979-01-08

Arena takes you on a guided tour of the smallest museum in the world - its 'curator', Swiss artist Herbert Distel, has transformed a small chest-of-drawers into a miniature museum…

105. On Photography

1979-01-15

Featuring two of the greatest photographers of the 20th century Jacques Henri Lartigue began taking photographs at the age of seven in 1902. His celebrated Diary of a Century is a…

106. Arena: Cinema

1979-01-17

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

107. Arena: Cinema

1979-01-21

Gavin Millar talks to Robert Alt man about his new film A Wedding; plus Karel Reisz 's Dog Soldiers and other turn-of-the-year news. (Postponed from 20 December)

108. Who is Poly Styrene?

1979-01-22

wo years ago Marion Elliott , a 20-year-old from Brixton, gave up working in Woolworths and became punk singer Poly Styrene. Having created her own plastic image, she formed a ba…

109. Athol Fugard: A Lesson from Aloes

1979-01-29

Aloe: a genus of plant indigenous to South Africa, noted for its ability to survive under the most adverse conditions. Athol Fugard is the author of such celebrated plays as The …

110. Arena: Cinema

1979-01-31

Assault on Precinct 13 and Dark Star were two of the ' sleepers ' of the last two years - small-budget films from the USA that struck a chord right round the world. Their young wr…

111. Maler's Requiem - Words and Images

1979-02-05

Fibreglass carcasses, a flaming typewriter, and a troop of girl guides - each has been a -key ingredient in a work of art by Leopoldo Maler. Deliberately provocative, surprise and…

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

1979-02-12

The sell-out success of this year's Royal Shakespeare season at Stratford is the musical play, Piaf. Jane Lapotaire, television's Marie Curie, has won universal critical acclaim f…

113. Arena: Cinema

1979-02-14

John Barry (designer Star Wars and Superman) is now directing Saturn 3. Ridley Scott (The Duellists) is shooting The Alien. Gavin Millar reports on these two new British SF films.

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

1979-02-26

Other Writers Will Tell You Different.... Lifers in prison cages, comedians in Hollywood, adolescents in the East End and female androids on the edge of the galaxy have all been …

115. Arena: Cinema

1979-02-28

Isabelle Huppert is 23 - ' a stunning actress ', says Claude Chabrol ; 'Best Actress ' at Cannes in 1978 for Violette Noziere , the new Chabrol thriller. We talk to her in Paris. …

116. Ubu

1979-03-05

The television premiere of GEOFF DUNBAR'S brilliant animation film. Based on ALFRED JARRY's notorious surrealist hero, Pere Ubu , it chronicles the rise to power of a kind of punk…

117. My Way

1979-03-12 • ⭐ 7.0

Q. What do the following have in common? Frank Sinatra, Sid Vicious, Dorothy Squires, Barry John, Paul Anka, Lord George-Brown, Elvis Presley, Prof Wilfrid Mellers, Shirley Basse…

118. Arena: Cinema

1979-03-14

Twenty-three years ago Don Siegel made his famous horrorpic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Now there is a new Invasion, even more chilling than the original; make-up effects by t…

119. La Dame aux Gladiolas

1979-03-19

Arena presents The Agony and the Ecstasy of Edna Everage In this, the first-ever exclusive Arts Documentary about a living legend, our cameras probe and etch the enigma which is …

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

1979-03-26

At the height of the American depression in the summer of 1936, t writer JAMES AGEE and photographer WALKER EVANS travelled south to Alabama. There they lived with a family of poo…

121. Arena: Cinema

1979-03-28

with Gavin Millar. Everybody knows about Kung Fu, Run Run Shaw and Bruce Lee. They probably know less about the young film-makers who are trying to get a few of Hong Kong's more …

122. Tell Us the Truth

1979-04-02

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

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

1979-04-09

The King and I For David Oxtoby, Elvis is king. He's been painting rock 'n' roll stars since the 50s, much to the bemusement of the art establishment. Most of the paintings in th…

124. Their Lips are Sealed

1979-04-15

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

125. Steel Pulse

1979-05-21

A film about the popular reggae band Steel Pulse, Whose highly successful debut album ' Handsworth Revolution' launched them last summer on the road to fame. Although their roots…

126. Ring Around the Moon

1979-06-11

The Paintings of Kit Williams Inspired by the landscape, the wildlife and by his village neighbours, artist Kit Williams conjures up in his paintings a vivid folk-lore of his own…

127. Pictures of the Mind

1979-06-14

One in six people in Britain will spend some time in a mental hospital. For 50 years, painting or drawing have provided an important key to the problems of the mentally ill. This…

128. Six Days in September

1979-09-29

John Hoyland is reckoned by many both here and abroad to be this country's finest abstract painter. A key figure for younger artists and critics, he has been both loved and hated …

129. Building for Change

1979-01-16

Arena presents a profile of Richard Rogers, one of the most original and controversial talents in architecture today. It was Rogers, together with his Italian partner RENZO PIANO…

130. Athol Fugard A Lesson from Aloes

1980-01-17

Athol Fugard is the author of such celebrated plays as The Blood-knot, The Island and Sizwe Bansi is Dead. He is known throughout the world for his opposition to apartheid and for…

131. Lene Lovich Sleeping Beauty

1980-01-23

Formerly a professional screamer in horror films, a belly-dancer in the Middle East, Lene Lovich has now emerged as one of the most original performers in rock music -aided and ab…

132. Mentioned in Dispatches

1980-01-30

Arena presents the extraordinary story of Tim Page, war photographer and Vietnam legend-a tale first told in MICHAEL HERR'S celebrated book about Vietnam, Dispatches. 'People mad…

133. Isaac Singer's Nightmare and Mrs Pupko's Beard

1980-02-06

Arena presents a hilarious and touching portrait of the great Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, filmed on location in Brooklyn, New York, and featuring friends, relatives and …

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

1980-02-13

This week Arena features two highly-individual women artists. Peggy Taub has always wanted to sculpt like the classic Greeks. But whenever she leans over the clay bin an animal h…

135. Bring Me Back a Song

1980-02-27

Irish folk music is one of the oldest unbroken cultural traditions in Europe. As the Sense of Ireland festival of arts comes to London, Arena presents some of the finest Irish mus…

136. ' I talk about me - I am Africa'

1980-03-05

The growth of black consciousness through the 1970s has produced an explosion of original new theatre in black South Africa. At a secret performance in the backyard of a Soweto sh…

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

1980-03-12

Adrian Thrills investigates a new and exhilarating musical blend which is taking the country by storm. 2-tone is a unique mix of music, fusing together reggae, rock, soul, ska, b…

138. Working At It

1980-03-19

A profile of Liverpool playwright Alan Bleasdale With two new productions packing them in, in the North of England, ALAN BLEASDALE continues to build on the popular success of hi…

139. Victoria Wood and Andrea Dunbar

1980-03-26

As prizewinning writer/performer Victoria Wood opens in her latest play, Good Fun, Arena looks at her talent to amuse through her witty and engaging songs. And we profile teenage…

140. Climb Every Mountain or Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

1980-04-02

"Failure can be fun' is the motto of self-confessed failures David McGillivray and Stephen Pile (above-if RADIO TIMES had only been able to take a picture of him). McGillivray wa…

141. Double Vision

1980-04-09

The story of an unusual collaboration between rock musician Brian Eno and artist illustrator Russell Mills. The 65 works in Russell Mills' new series of paintings provide a remark…

142. Dedicated Followers of Fashion

1980-04-16

featuring "Where Did You Get That Hat?" The outrageous hats of designer David Shilling, modelled by his mother Gertrude - doyenne of Ascot Day... "One Ascot I wore a Christmas t…

143. Luck and Flaw

1980-05-21

One after another mighty politicians have fallen victim to the savage caricatures of Peter Fluck and Roger Law , better known as Luck and Flaw. Among their most memorable targets …

144. In Their Own Image AND Facing Up to Myself

1980-05-28

In Their Own Image Two women photographers turn the camera on themselves ... Time Release For over a year Linda Benedict -Jones photographed herself, by using the time release o…

145. Making 'The Shining'

1980-10-04

Stanley Kubrick's long-awaited film The Shining opens in London this week and throughout the country from tomorrow. To mark the event Arena offers a unique opportunity to eavesdro…

146. Dire Straits

1980-12-22

Not so long ago they were playing in London pubs. This week - 16 platinum discs, 21 gold and a triumphant world tour later, Dire Straits return to the London stage. Tonight's Aren…

147. Chelsea Hotel

1981-01-03

It was in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, that Bob Dylan wrote 'Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands', Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea Girls and Dylan Thomas drank himself to death. For 100 year…

148. Hazell Meets His Makers

1981-01-10

Arena eavesdrops on the writing of a new adventure for James Hazell , popular cockney private eye. He is the creation of Terry Venables , manager of Queen's Park Rangers, and Gord…

149. Getting Away from Sidney

1981-01-17

' Uncle Sidney' is the kindly old soul in charge of an institute for the disabled: he tucks them up at night and keeps them supplied with back numbers of the Reader's Digest. But,…

150. Private Worlds

1981-01-24

This week two genuinely, original English artists introduce you to their work: Sam Smith , whose impeccably carved and printed wooden models evoke an Edwardian childhood - obsesse…

151. Today Carshalton Beaches ... Tomorrow Croydon

1981-01-31

Arena investigates the grass-roots of rock today with John Peel and John Walters ' When the punk thing started, the whole process of making records, and music as well, was demyst…

152. Edward Hopper

Unknown air date

Arena marks a major retrospective exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery with a film about the great American realist painter EDWARD HOPPER. His subject is the face of America - h…

153. Stages

1981-02-28

For the past ten years Peter Brook and his unique company of actors have travelled the world with a series of extraordinary theatrical ventures. The last stage of their journey wa…

154. The Smallest Theatre

1981-03-07

Tonight, from a converted cowshed in the wilds of Scotland, Arena presents The Smallest Theatre in Great Britain. Immortalised in the Guinness Book of Records, Barrie and Mariann…

155. Huston's Hobby

1981-03-14

There were these five guys round the table: the Lightweight Boxing Champion of California; an expert on Pre-Columbian art; an honorary lieutenant in the Mexican army; an architect…

156. A Walk with Amos Oz

1981-03-21

' Marching the streets of Jerusalem in 67, carrying a sub-machine-gun, I was in an absurd way acting out the role reserved* for the Arabs in my childhood nightmares. For the life …

157. God's Fifth Columnist

1981-03-28

"I don't go out much these days, and when I do I find life infinitely dreary compared to my books..." William Gerhardie, who died at the age of 82 in 1977, was a legend in the wor…

158. Did You Miss Me ...?

1981-04-04

' It suddenly dawned on me that I was absolutely broke, completely and utterly. I didn't have a penny in the world ... this was where fame was cruel.' (GARY GLITTER) Five years ag…

159. The Return of Lupino Lane

1981-04-15

Lupino Lane , the man who made ' The Lambeth Walk ' famous, was a comic who once rivalled Chaplin and Keaton. With the advent of the talkies, his small studio folded and all the n…

160. The Comic Strip Hero

1981-04-18

This week Arena patrols the skies above Metropolis in search of the legend that is SUPERMAN ... Meet Kirk Alyn , the first celluloid-Superman and Christopher Reeve the latest; Dr…

161. Arena on Clair

1981-05-02

Clair thought of himself as a screenwriter as well as a director. He put his stamp on French screen comedy in the 20s and 30s with such classics as The Italian Straw Hat , Sous le…

162. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

1981-05-09

As a child, trapped in a crazy Jewish household in a poor Chicago tenement, the American artist Robert Natkin had to find a way to change his life. His imagination was engulfed by…

163. If the Music Had to Stop

1981-05-16

Britain's musical reputation is second to none, and depends ultimately on an exceptional tradition of youth orchestras. The educational ideals which underlie this tradition are e…

164. Curtains? The Future of the National Youth Theatre

1981-08-16

Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Martin Jarvis, playwrights Peter Terson and Barrie Keefe - all products of the National Youth theatre, a unique organisation, which every summer brings…

165. The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda

1981-09-06

For 25 years the Polish film director ADRZEJ WAJDA has been making some of the most exciting and boldly critical films in Eastern Europe. He was filmed in Warsaw and Cracow shortl…

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

1981-10-02

From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills - the life and times of a great comic film director. Tonight on BBC2 Mel Brooks , creator of Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein , and The Producers…

167. Have You Seen the Mona Lisa...?

1981-11-03

She is two-and-a-half feet tall and nearly 500 years old. She hangs in The Louvre behind plate-glass - an unsigned, undated portrait of a smiling woman, the most idolised and abus…

168. Let Them Know We're Here

1981-11-10

When JOINT STOCK began their latest project four months ago, they had a writer but no script, actors but no roles. Borderline, by award-winning young play-wright Hanif Kureishi, f…

169. A Pretty British Affair

1981-11-17

Only a short while ago Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were forgotten names in cinema history. Now, some of the greatest film-makers in the world are their ardent fans. Aren…

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

1981-11-24

This week, a total contrast in visual style-the art of RADIO TIMES and the jaundiced eye of Private Eye. The Art of Radio Times: Since 1923, the 'official organ' of the BBC has b…

171. A Tall Story: How Salman Rushdie Pickled All India

1981-12-08

Arena profiles one of the most dazzling literary talents of recent years - Saiman Rushdie , a storyteller extraordinary and winner of this year's Booker prize. Midnight's Children…

172. Brixton to Barbados

1981-12-15

Reggae has its roots in Jamaica, and has found a home in Britain. But there are over 60 countries in the Caribbean, each with its own distinctive culture. Arena invited Linton Kwe…

173. Private Life of the Ford Cortina

1982-01-19

A ski run in Italy, a supermarket manager in Luton, a sandwich bar in London EC2, Arena opens the bonnet of the Ford Cortina, Britain's most popular, most stolen, and most misunde…

174. What Makes Rabbit Run?

1982-01-26

John Updike 's new book, Rabbit is Rich, is the third in the Rabbit series from the author of Rabbit, Run, Couples and The Coup. At 50, Updike is at the height of h s powers and…

175. Here They Kill People for It

1982-02-02

Osip Mandelstam, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, died in a prison camp somewhere in Siberia in the 1930s: no one knows precisely how or when. He was imprisoned not …

176. True to Life?

1982-02-09

In a month of continuing controversy about the aims and methods of the ' documentary', Arena presents a classic film by one of the pioneers of the movement-Humphrey Jennings 's Li…

177. Desert Island Discs

1982-02-23

' I love its homeliness. It conjures up the best in traditional British pleasure, like the great British breakfast. It's an honour to be asked ' (PAUL MCCARTNEY ) For the past 40 …

178. Listen to Britain AND Housing Problems

1982-03-09

Presents two classic films from the early days of documentary. Featured in last month's True to Life? edition, they're shown complete for the first time on British television. Lis…

179. The Orson Welles Story: Part One

1982-05-18

Arena presents an exclusive film profile in two parts of one of the great legends of the cinema. With unprecedented frankness and detail. Orson Welles talks about his long and tur…

180. The Orson Welles Story: Part Two

1982-05-21

'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 stayed married to that woman and I did because I loved her. I'm …

181. Mike Leigh Making Plays

1982-09-04

Mike Leigh is a dramatist in a tradition of his own, a fiercely original talent whose work and working methods have always provoked curiosity and contention as well as praise. He …

182. A Genius Like Us

1982-11-09

In April 1967 at the peak of his career as a dramatist, Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell... Arena presents a documentary portrait of the author of Loot and E…

183. A Play for Bridport

1982-11-16

One of the most spectacular and unlikely theatre events of last year took place a long way from the West End of London in the small Dorset town of Bridport. The Poor Man's Friend,…

184. Upon Westminster Bridge

1982-11-23

It is commonly thought that poets are university-trained intellectuals who occasionally produce slim volumes about their personal feelings. This is not so with Michael Smith. Smit…

185. Three Steps to Heaven

1982-11-30

Classics like ' Summertime blues , 'C'mon everybody' and Three steps to heaven' made Eddie Cochran one of the all-time greats of rock 'n' roll. But for his tragic death, many thi…

186. Angus McBean

1982-12-08

For nearly 50 years everybody who was anybody in the British theatre passed before the lens of Angus McBean - Gielgud, Olivier, Thorndike, Coward ... He was known as the photograp…

187. Happy Days (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-11

by Samuel Beckett Starring Billie Whitelaw With Leonard Fenton Arena presents the first programme in a Samuel Beckett Season providing a unique opportunity to see famous interp…

188. Eh Joe (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-13

Continues the Samuel Beckett season. Starring Jack MacGowran A rare opportunity to see an early television premiere. Recorded in 1966, tonight's presentation has only one visibl…

189. Rockaby (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-14

Arena continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a unique record of his new play Rockaby which has just opened at the National Theatre. Premiered in America, it was filmed in rehear…

190. Not I (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-15

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season. In one of the most extraordinary pieces of modern drama Billie Whitelaw, Beckett's foremost interpreter, performs this astonishing tour de fo…

191. Quad (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-16

Continues the Samuel Beckett Season with a premiere. A play without words. Quad has a musical structure. It is a kind of canon or catch-a mysterious square-dance. Four hooded fig…

192. Krapp's Last Tape (Samuel Beckett Season)

1982-12-17

Concludes the Samuel Beckett Season. One of the best-known Beckett monologues starring its creator, the late Patrick Magee. Krapp, an old man, is alone with his memories and the…

193. Guernica: The Long Exile

1982-12-28

Last year a £13-million painting travelled in top secret from America to Spain. Next day it was headline news that Picasso's masterpiece ' Guernica ' had come home at last, after …

194. Classically Cuban: Alicia Alonso and the Cuban National Ballet

1983-01-18

Today, in post-revolutionary Cuba, under the benign patronage of Fidel Castro, classical ballet thrives. This unlikely success story is mainly due to the legendary figure of Alici…

195. Hair

1983-02-01

Tonight Arena takes you on a tour of contemporary British heads, from the exotic to the mundane, from hot wax to Brylcreem. Blue rinse, quiff, mohican, short back and sides, dread…

196. Boulez Now

1983-02-08

Pierre Boulez, leading composer of the post-war generation, later a powerful and innovative conductor, is now the head of an extraordinary experimental studio in Paris. This huge …

197. Jazz Juke Box

1983-02-15

George Melly presents films of the greatest names of swing jazz - but with a difference. Some were made for visual juke boxes which flourished in the early 40s, others are promoti…

198. Burroughs

1983-02-22

Widely regarded as one of the greatest literary figures of the century, William Burroughs has perfected a unique and terrifying vision of the world. He is, most notably, a savage …

199. The Catherine Wheel

1983-03-01

Tonight Arena presents one of the most ambitious dance projects ever seen on television. The Catherine Wheel combines the talents of Twyla Tharp , one of America's most imaginati…

200. Kurt Vonnegut

1983-03-08

Writing about his experiences as a war prisoner in Dresden in the novel Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut achieved a unique blend of dead-pan humour and shrewd observation of human …

201. It's All True

1983-05-09

Tonight Arena takes an extraordinary journey through the video age. Video pirates, video trials, video weddings, video graves.... Fifty years ago it was just the dream of a scien…

202. Luis Bunuel

1983-08-19

The great Luis Bunuel died last month. Born in 1900, he was undisputably one of the outstanding creative figures of the 20th century. Tonight Gavin Millar introduces a ten-week se…

203. Bette Davis - The Benevolent Volcano

1983-11-02

Dear boy, you are out of your mind, this woman will annihilate you, she will grind you to a fine powder and blow you away ... Director Joseph Mankiewicz recalls the warning he wa…

204. Anthony Powell - An Invitation to the Dance

1983-11-09

Anthony Powell's 12-volume epic, A Dance to the Music of Time, is widely regarded as the most formidable single work of British fiction since the war. It is also largely entertain…

205. The Ghost Writer

1983-11-12

Starring Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker from the novel by Philip Roth with Mark Linn Baker, Paulette Smit 'You're not so nice and polite in your fiction. You're a different person…

206. Jazz Juke-Box II

1983-11-23

Following the success of Jazz Juke-Box I, George Melly presents another selection of jazz shorts and ' soundies ' - the delightful films made for visual juke-boxes in the early 40…

207. Roman Vishniac

1983-11-30

Roman Vishniac is a Russian Jew born in St Petersburg in 1897. His striking images of life in the Jewish ghettos - taken with a concealed camera just before the last war - are ext…

208. Classic British Documentaries

1983-12-07

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

209. The GPO Story

1983-12-14

The GPO Film Unit-50 years old this year-went where no Hollywood film studio would dare to go in 1933. Down the mines, across the Alps, through the storms of the North Sea ... the…

210. The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert

1983-12-23

An Arena special Last September at the Royal Albert Hall Don and Phil Everly performed together for the first time in ten years. The concert was the popular music event of the ye…

211. George Orwell 1: Such Such Were the Joys

1983-12-29

George Orwell is one of the greatest writers England has produced. Tonight and for the next four nights Arena presents a unique full-scale portrait of this remarkable man, filmed …

212. George Orwell 2: The Road to Wigan Pier

1983-12-30

Tonight's episode of the five-part Arena biography tells the story of Orwell's marriage to Eileen O'Shaughnessy , his growing political awareness and retraces what was to be the m…

213. George Orwell 3: Homage to Catalonia

1984-01-02

Orwell, like many of his generation, enlisted to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Filmed in Barcelona and on the Huesca front, where he fought, tonight's fil…

214. George Orwell 4: The Lion and the Unicorn

1984-01-03

For a brief period after the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was a revolutionary socialist, violently opposed to the coming war with Germany. Tonight's film shows his sudden emergence a…

215. George Orwell 4: Nineteen Eighty-four

1984-01-04

The last in this series of Arena films about the life and work of George Orwell begins with the tragic death of his wife Eileen in March 1945. Overcome with grief at his bereaveme…

216. Say Amen Someone

1984-02-04

Tonight's Arena Special tells the extraordinary story of two of the legendary figures of American 'gospel' -the music whose emotional impact and burning conviction lie at the hear…

217. Four Rooms

1984-02-21

ANTHONY CARO: 'I wanted to play games with our sense of space ... you experience this room with the eyes and the body too.' HOWARD HODGKIN: 'I tried to evoke a sense of romantic …

218. The Theatre of Dario Fo

1984-02-28

Dario Fo is unique in world theatre. Playwright, actor, clown, teacher and philosopher, he is an international celebrity with two West-End smash hits to his credit - Can Pay? Won'…

219. Sunset People

1984-03-03

Tonight Arena takes a journey down one of the best known streets in the world. Sunset Boulevard stretches 27 miles from Los Angeles' Chinatown all the way to the ocean, a ride mad…

220. The Caravaggio Conspiracy

1984-03-06

On 29 June 1982 a man called John Blake appeared mysteriously bidding in the major auction houses of London and New York. He was in reality the Sunday Times journalist, Peter Wats…

221. Between Dreaming and Waking

1984-03-13

David Inshaw belongs to a great tradition of English Romantic Painting - the tradition of Stanley Spencer, Samuel Palmer and the Pre-Raphelites. His most famous painting 'The Badm…

222. Ken Russell 's Elgar

1984-03-20

Tonight, in the anniversary year of Edward Elgar 's death, Arena plays host to KEN RUSSELL 'S classic music documentary. Made in 1962 for the 100th edition of the arts magazine Mo…

223. Jerry Lee Lewis

1984-03-27

For the first time on British television, Arena presents a concert by this great legend of rock n roll. Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't sound like anybody else - the voice, the piano and …

224. True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist

1984-04-03

Breyten Breytenbach writes about being an Afrikaner. His poetry was taught in schools and his paintings greatly admired. But in 1975 Breytenbach, living in self-imposed exile in P…

225. My Dinner with Louis

1984-05-06

Tonight Arena profiles the French film director Louis Malle. Malle is a director who has never let himself be tied down to one style of film making. The Lovers, with Jeanne Moreau…

226. Milan Kundera- Laughter and Forgetting

1984-05-19

From the vantage point of his Paris flat, the Czech writer Milan Kundera still obsessively contemplates Prague, the city he was forced to leave nine years ago when, silenced by th…

227. A Tribute to Joseph Losey

1984-07-07

American-born writer and director Joseph Losey died last month in London. He made his home in England in 1952 when he was hounded out of America after the Communist witch-hunt. T…

228. Beat This! A Hip Hop History

1984-07-12

Tonight Arena presents a musical entertainment set in the streets of New York City, an epic rap which will tap the roots of Hip Hop.... the true story of the most influential popu…

229. The Everly Brothers: Songs of Innocence and Experience

1984-11-02

Taught to sing from their earliest years, the brothers were raised in a unique cross-current of musical influences, from Appalachian harmony duos to black country blues singers. T…

230. Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day

1984-11-09

Tonight Arena presents the first film portrait of the greatest of all the jazz singers. Billie Holiday's tragic story, from her traumatic childhood in Baltimore to her premature d…

231. Eubie Blake

1984-11-10

The legendary Eubie Blake 's career as a ragtime pianist and composer began in 1883. Sadly last year, five days after his 100th birthday he died. This short tribute includes one o…

232. Francis Bacon

1984-11-16

To mark his 75th birthday, Arena presents this exclusive film portrait of the great British painter, Francis Bacon. Despite his world-wide fame, Bacon remains one of the most con…

233. We Don't Like Your House Either!

1984-11-23

This week: a portrait of one of the most individual architectural talents America has produced. Bruce Goff discovered his vocation as a child in Tulsa, Oklahoma, drawing cathedral…

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

1984-11-30

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is the most popular and controversial musician ever to come out of Africa. Born in Nigeria 47 years ago, he has dominated the African musical scene since the e…

235. After the Rehearsal

1984-12-07

Arena presents the British premiere of Ingmar Bergman 's new film After the Rehearsal. Written and directed by Bergman last year soon after completing Fanny and Alexander, it cont…

236. What's Cuba Playing At?

1984-12-21

In the 25th anniversary year of the Revolution, Arena traces the Afro-Spanish roots of Cuba's rich musical history. If, for you, the rumba still means Come Dancing, then it's time…

237. Music of the other Americas

1984-12-22

Every November musicians from all over Latin America come to take part in the international music festival at Varadero in Cuba. For five days bands from all the 'other' Americas v…

238. Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden

1984-12-26

For many Luciano Pavarotti is the world's greatest tenor - certainly his place is assured among the legends of Grand Opera. In New York on 16 August, he Performed before 20,000 P…

239. My Son the Novelist

1985-02-18

Howard Jacobson the eldest son of MAX JACOBSON the Manchester conjuror, made a late but successful start in the world of fiction. At the age of 41 he published Coming from Behind …

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

1985-02-25

The artists Julian Schnabel , Markus Lupertz , Sandro Chia , Francesco Clemente and Georg Baselitz command some of the highest prices on today's booming art market. Their paintin…

241. Marcel Carne

1985-02-27

Arena this week presents a profile of the man many would consider the greatest living French film director. It introduces a BBC2 season of five of the masterpieces he made with th…

242. From an Immigrant's Notebook: Karen Blixen in Africa

1985-03-11

Karen Blixen's voyage to Africa in 1913 was a journey away from the 20th century. Kenya was then a semi-feudal society, a land of Masai and Kikuyu, teeming with game. In 1931 she…

243. How Glorious is the Garden?

1985-03-18

Tonight Arena and Newsnight join forces to mount a major studio debate between the embattled factions of the arts world. 'The Glory of the Garden' was the Arts Council's blueprint…

244. Old Kent Road

1985-03-25

From Chaucer's pilgrims to inter-continental juggernauts, generations of travellers have taken this historical route from Dover to the old City of London. It has become part of Lo…

245. Ligmalion

1985-04-08

A Musical for the 80s starring Tim Curry, Sting, Alexei Sayle, Gary Glitter and introducing Jason Carter To lig. verb. To gain something for nothing by wit and ingenuity. Young …

246. Them and Uz: A film about Tony Harrison

1985-04-15

Tony Harrison is the son of a baker, and his poetry relishes, and mourns for the class he comes from. His subjects are sex, love, politics, class warfare, death, all the rituals a…

247. Marc Chagall

1985-04-22

One of the greatest masters of 20th-century painting died last month at the age of 97. This filmed tribute contains the last interview given by Chagall and charts his life and wor…

248. Watch Me Move...

1985-04-29

'America gave to the world two original art forms: one was jazz, the other was full character animation' (Chuck Jones) In 1908, the comic strip artist Winsor McCay brought to lif…

249. Hugh Masekela: The African Ambassador

1985-05-06

Hugh Masekela 's career as a musician has been dominated by his determination to take the music of black South Africans to the rest of the world. His music is a fusion of sophisti…

250. The Theatre of Robert Wilson

1985-07-25

Robert Wilson is one of the most revered and controversial talents in contemporary theatre. He first came to prominence in the New York avant garde of the 60s and 70s with a serie…

251. Blues Night: Introduction

1985-07-27

Tonight Arena presents a cornucopia of the blues from the raw sounds of the Mississippi Delta to the jazz and rock 'n' roll that blues gave birth to. As a crowning delight, the ev…

252. Blues Night: Sonny Boy Williamson Sings

1985-07-27

Blues Night presents rare footage of the harmonica blues player Sonny Boy Williamson, who gave B.B. King his big break in 1948. ‘He was on the radio doing live performances when I…

253. Blues Night: B.B. King Speaks

1985-07-27

John Walters talks to B.B. King - aided by his guitar Lucille - about his extraordinary life, from a childhood picking cotton in Mississippi to worldwide stardom.

254. Blues Night: Chicago Blues

1985-07-27

Harley Cokliss’ classic blues documentary includes performances by Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, and shows how the tough urban music of Chicago developed out of the or…

255. Blues Night: Blind John Davis

1985-07-28

The great Chicago broadcaster and journalist Studs Terkel and pianist Blind John Davis meet in a downtown bar to discuss and play the blues. This interview was shot for "Omnibus: …

256. Blues Night: Blues Medley

1985-07-28

This medley of the blues features Fred McDowell, Thomas 'Georgia Tom' Dorsey, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Huddie Ledbetter - better known as 'Lead Belly' - performs 'Pick a B…

257. Blues Night: Big Bill Blues

1985-07-28

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

258. Buddy Holly

1985-09-12

An Arena Special. Lubbock is a small town lost in the great plains of west Texas. Her most famous son, Buddy Holly , changed the face of popular music. Tonight Holly is remember…

259. Saint Genet

1985-11-12

Tonight Arena presents a unique interview with one of the great figures of 20th-century literature, Jean Genet. His first novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, written in prison, moved…

260. The Accordion Strikes Back

1985-11-19

What do Charles Dickens , Count Leo Tolstoy , Barry Manilow and James Anderton , Chief Constable of Manchester, have in common? A love of the accordion. Tonight Arena investigate…

261. The Cinema of Francesco Rosi

1985-11-26

Francesco Rosi is one of the foremost figures in post-war Italian cinema. His films have an epic sweep covering Mafia crime, political corruption and economic mismanagement in Ita…

262. The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima

1985-12-03

Yukio Mishima was one of the outstanding writers of his generation. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize, he was the author of 40 novels and 18 plays. But his legend rests le…

263. The Apollo Story: part 1

1985-12-10

The list of artists who have performed at Harlem's Apollo Theater reads like a Who's Who of black American entertainment. No black performer, from Sammy Davis Jr to Charlie Parker…

264. The Apollo Story: part 2

1985-12-17

Harlem's Apollo Theater has been the ultimate testing ground for every black American performer from Duke Ellington to Michael Jackson. Tonight Arena continues its celebration o…

265. Tosca's Kiss

1986-01-08

Casa Verdi is a rambling mansion in the city of Milan, inhabited by an extraordinary and captivating group of people. Once it belonged to the composer Giuseppe Verdi : now it has …

266. The New Babylon

1986-01-11

Arena presents the first television showing of a rare and extraordinary classic of the silent cinema, with an original music score by Dimitri Shostakovich. Directors GRIGORI KOZI…

267. Tango Mio

1986-01-18

That most erotic and mysterious of dances, the tango, came to life in the suburbs and backstreets of Buenos Aires. This Arena Special traces its colourful and bizarre life story, …

268. Cinderella

1986-01-21

From its origins in ninth-century China to its modern incarnation as a Christmas pantomime, Cinderella has endured as one of the best-loved fairytales. But what has made this fabl…

269. The Journey Man

1986-01-28

Behind the quiet, gentlemanly exterior of Norman Lewis lies the acute Perception of one of Britain's foremost travel writers and investigative journalists. His fascinating account…

270. Go-Go in Washington DC

1986-02-04

The home of the White House, the Pentagon and the President is also the home of the most exciting soul scene of the 1980s. The raw power of the go-go beat has emerged within a sto…

271. Marguerite Yourcenar

1986-02-11

Novelist, poet, essayist and the first woman to be elected to the Academie Francaise, Marguerite Youreenar lives and writes on her island refuge off the coast of Maine. Her work r…

272. Louise Brooks

1986-02-18

The American film actress Louise Brooks, who died last summer, was one of the most celebrated beauties in the history of the cinema. Her performance as unrepentant pleasure-seeker…

273. Kurosawa

1986-03-04

In 1950 the Grand Prix of the prestigious Venice Film Festival went quite unexpectedly to a Japanese film. It was called Rashomon and the director was Akira Kurosawa. In the years…

274. Two Painters Amazed

1986-03-11

Critical acclaim for a group of recent art school graduates has put Scottish art, and Glasgow in particular, firmly on the international map. Two people at the forefront of this …

275. Home Front

1986-03-25

Don McCullin 's powerful pictures of the horrors of war and deprivation have made him one of the world's most celebrated photographers. Now, after more than 20 years working excl…

276. Caribbean Nights: Caribbean Journey

1986-06-14

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

277. Caribbean Nights: Medley

1986-06-14

Calypso from Trinidad's Mighty Bomber, dancing from Nicaragua, Jamaican Bob Marley's 'Could you be loved', Grenadian poet Abdul Malik, and the original 'Peanut vendor' by Rita Mon…

278. Caribbean Nights: Poetry

1986-06-14

The celebrated West Indian poet Derek Walcott joins Linton Kwesi Johnson and Guyanese prodigy Fred D'Aguiar to debate the range and impact of Caribbean poetry. With filmed readin…

279. Caribbean Nights: Ska

1986-06-14

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

280. Caribbean Nights: The Latin Caribbean

1986-06-14

Darcus Howe interviews leading Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes and Trinidadian historian John La Rose on the exotic and often bloody story of the Caribbean.

281. Caribbean Nights: Maytime on the Mosquito Coast

1986-06-14

Despite the dangers and deprivations of war, the people of Bluefields, Nicaragua, still find time to do the Lambeth Walk and dance Maypole. Bluefields, on Nicaragua's east coast, …

282. Caribbean Nights: Calypso and Carnival

1986-06-15

Fuentes, La Rose and Howe are joined in the studio by this year's Calypso King David Rudder who tells the true story of the 'Trinidad Trinity' - calypso, steel pan music and carni…

283. Caribbean Nights: Whicker's Caribbean World

1986-06-15

From the BBC treasure chest, Alan Whicker explores the forgotten comers of the Caribbean, where he meets the Pocomaniacs of Jamaica, the Redlegs of Barbados, and the last of the C…

284. Caribbean Nights: Latin Sound

1986-06-15

Filmed on his recent visit to London, Panamanian salsa star and politician Ruben Blades talks to Linton Kwesi Johnson about Latin music today, ranging from established stars like …

285. Caribbean Nights: God's Chillun

1986-06-15

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

286. Caribbean Nights Bob Marley

1986-06-15

A portrait of the man who made reggae known and appreciated all over the western world and who refused to abandon a message of personal and political liberation. Tonight's progra…

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

1986-06-16

Born in Trinidad in 1901, C.L.R. James came to England in the 1930s and was cricket correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. In this programme the author of the now classic book…

288. Caribbean Nights: Danzon

1986-06-16

In an old church in Havana, the Urfe brothers play Danzones, the first popular Cuban music to emerge from the blend of African and European traditions at the turn of the century. …

289. Caribbean Nights: Rasta and the Ball

1986-06-17

According to reggae greats Bob Marley and Burning Spear, football and Rastafari are one and the same thing. In the last week of the World Cup Rasta and the Ball takes you to the M…

290. Caribbean Nights: Arturo Sandoval

1986-06-18

Cuban jazz is rarely heard over here. Tonight Arena redresses the balance with a performance by virtuoso trumpeter, Arturo Sandoval. Much admired by Dizzy Gillespie , he returns t…

291. Caribbean Nights: Kapo

1986-06-19

'I dreamt there were 72 angels, 72 trumpets, 72 vases of flowers - all things were 72. And then I saw directly the face of God himself. I was summoned to be an artist.' Bishop of …

292. Henry Moore

1986-09-07

Speaking from Henry Moore's own studio in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, John Read shares his personal memories of the artist he filmed six times over 28 years.

293. Salvador Dali

1986-11-21

'The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad.' So says Salvador Dali one of the most famous painters in the world. Dali now lives as a recluse and has been v…

294. The Life and Times of Don Luis Bunuel

1986-11-22

Following last night's story of Salvador Dali, Arena continues it's Spanish trilogy with this highly-acclaimed profile of the great film-maker Luis Bufiuel. From his collaboration…

295. The Spirit of Lorca

1986-11-28

Federico Garcia Lorca, perhaps the best-known and loved Spanish poet and dramatist of this century, was brutally executed at the age of 38 during the early days of the Spanish Civ…

296. Cambodian Witness

1986-12-05

When the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, they forced the entire population into the countryside where they were starved, beaten and worked to death on grand…

297. Scarfe on Scarfe

1986-12-12

In this week's Arena Gerald Scarfe takes a long, hard look at himself. In his paintings and drawings he mercilessly pillories the powerful and the famous and yet in public he pres…

298. Night Moves

1986-12-19

Fifty years ago Basil Wright and Harry Watts' classic documentary "Night Mail" celebrated the role of the railways as the nation's distributor of goods, mail, food, and other esse…

299. Dylan

1987-01-02

Arena presents Bob Dylan, concentrating on his classic songs and backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in his first concert on British television in over a decade.

300. Stand by Your Dream: Tammy Wynette

1987-01-16

Tonight Arena presents the moving story of the first lady of country music. At the age of 44 she's had 35 number one records, three Grammy awards, 50 albums, five husbands, four c…

301. Night and Day

1987-01-23

Night and Day is a 24-hour journey through the streets of London spent in the company of two different and unusual writers. The day is introduced by Spectator columnist Jeffrey B…

302. Dennis Potter

1987-01-30

'You can open your veins on television more easily than anywhere. It's the last stronghold for the individualist-writer.' Over the last 20 years Dennis Potter has established hims…

303. Martin Chambi and the Heirs of the Incas

1987-02-06

Tonight Arena tells the story of one of the most extraordinary photographers of the 20th century. Martin Chambi , an Indian born into a peasant family in the remote Peruvian coun…

304. The Confessions of Robert Crumb

1987-02-13

After Robert Crumb , comics could never be the same again. He came to fame in the mid 60s with characters such as Fritz the Cat and the archetypal guru Mr Natural , wicked satires…

305. Ruth, Roses and Revolver

1987-02-20

David Lynch , director of some of the strangest films in today's cinema, including Eraserhead and Elephant Man, guides us through the film works of a peerless group of artists - t…

306. A Brother with Perfect Timing

1987-02-27

Abdullah Ibrahim formerly Dollar Brand, pianist, composer, arranger, was bom in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1934. When Duke Ellington heard him in 1965 he was so impressed that he…

307. Tarkovsky's Cinema

1987-03-13

In 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky 's remarkable career in the cinema received the accolade of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It sealed his reputation in the west as Russia's g…

308. Putting Ourselves in the Picture

1987-03-20

Jo Spence 's photography defies definition - her work appears in community spaces as well as grand galleries. It deals with social problems, sexuality, myth and power. Tonight's A…

309. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

1987-03-27

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

310. Bayan Ko Pilipinas

1987-04-03

(Lino Brocka 's Philippines) Lino Brocka is the most influential film director in the Philippines, and a leading figure in the civil rights movement. Throughout the period of mart…

311. Talk is Cheap

1987-04-10

What is a chat show - a forum for stimulating conversation and the exchange of ideas or just an economical way of filling the airwaves? Gus Macdonald becomes host for an evening …

312. The Waugh Trilogy: Bright Young Thing

1987-04-18

Twenty-one years after his death Evelyn Waugh looms larger than ever over the English literary scene. In the course of three programmes Arena uses the testimony of his friends and…

313. The Waugh Trilogy: Mayfair and the Jungle

1987-04-19

The second of three programmes looks at Evelyn Waugh 's most productive period as a novelist, journalist, travel-writer and man of action. His exotic journeys from the coronation …

314. The Waugh Trilogy: An Englishman's Home

1987-04-20

Last of three programmes. When Waugh died on Easter Sunday 21 years ago his friend Graham Greene felt 'as if one's commanding officer were dead'. During his last 20 years he retr…

315. German Festival: Joseph Beuys

1987-06-06

Joseph Beuys was one of the most prominent and controversial German artists of the past 30 years. Sculptor, performance artist, teacher and maverick politician - when he died last…

316. ScreenPlay: Cariani and the Courtesans

1987-08-05

by Leslie Megahey A story of intrigue and romance in 16th-century Venice. Starring Paul McGann, Simon Callow, Michael Gough, Diana Quick When Cariani the painter falls in love …

317. Revolutionary with a Paintbox

1987-11-20

The Arena season opens with a profile of Diego Rivera , considered to be the most famous painter in the history of Latin America, and also the most notorious. He was a Rabelaisia…

318. Invisible Ink

1987-12-04

For 200 years British writers have achieved great success with their accounts of life on the Indian subcontinent. Less well-known are the writings of those Indians who travelled t…

319. Of Cats and Mice

1987-12-18

Art Spiegelman is one of America's leading comic-strip artists. Earlier this year he created a stir with Maus, a novel in strip form. Maus tells of a young Jewish couple who are …

320. Woody Guthrie

1988-01-08

he legend of Woody Guthrie - the rambling guitar player who discovered America from the roof of a freight train - was an inspiration to two decades of Americans, from the Weavers …

321. The Dandy-Beano Story

1988-01-15

Tonight Arena presents, on the occasion of their 50th anniversaries, a tribute to those great British institutions, the Beano and the Dandy. In their pages, the Softie has fought…

322. Broadway - The Great White Way

1988-01-22

Broadway is one of the most famous streets in the world. Legendary for bright lights, musical comedy, and the dreams of stardom, the myths and cliches of the theatre have influenc…

323. Ryszard Kapuscinski: Your Man Who is There

1988-01-29

The first of two programmes featuring the work of a major figure in contemporary literature and journalism. In three decades, reporting from Latin America, Africa and the Far East…

324. The Emperor

1988-02-05

Arena presents JONATHAN MILLER 'S acclaimed production for the Royal Court Theatre of RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI's play. Adapted for the stage and television by MICHAEL HASTINGS and JO…

325. My Name Is Celia Cruz

1988-02-12

The Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz has been the most adored and dynamic singer in Latin America for more than four decades. Since she left Cuba at the time of the Revolution with her …

326. All on a Mardi Gras Day Part One

1988-02-16

Today is Shrove Tuesday, in French, Mardi Gras , and tonight is the night before Lent. While the British celebrate with pancakes, the Latin world explodes in a riot of music and s…

327. All on a Mardi Gras Day: Part Two

1988-02-16

Continued from BBC2. From the Toulouse Cafe in the heart of downtown New Orleans where the day's t festivities climax with the cream of New Orleans rhythm and blues. One last bur…

328. Kerouac

1988-02-26

The novelist and poet Jack Kerouac died in 1969, a chronic alcoholic, at the age of 47. He was already something of a legend, not simply for his style of writing but for the style…

329. An Andalucian Journey: Gypsies and Flamenco 1

1988-03-04

The flamenco of southern Spain is more than music and much more than an exhilarating dance for the tourists. It's the soul of a culture, and its roots go back to the 15th century …

330. An Andalucian Journey: Gypsies and Flamenco 2

1988-03-05

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, when gypsies travelled to Spain via Asia and North Africa.…

331. Robert Mapplethorpe

1988-03-18

This month the National Portrait Gallery opens its doors to the controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. As the epitome of New York style he is less celebrated for his port…

332. The English Thoroughbred

1988-03-25

The English Thoroughbred In the late 17th century the fastest, most elegant racing machine known to man was developed by the English aristocracy. The English gentry crossed their…

333. Byrne About Byrne

1988-04-01

Each season Arena invites a distinguished figure in the arts to direct a film. This year's guest director is John Byrne, painter and author of Tutti Frutti. In this diverse and in…

334. Rhythms of the World: Randy Travis at the Albert Hall

1988-10-02

Randy Travis is the hottest new singer on the country music scene today. In June of this year he played his first British concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Arena filmed him and to…

335. Ten Green Bottles

1988-11-25

Arena's new season begins with a special anniversary edition and a chance to see again some classic moments from the past ten years. Dame Edna admits to keen enthusiasm for women…

336. Clint Eastwood: The Man with No Name.

1988-12-02

Dirty Harry and the other characters in the Eastwood repertory have dominated the box office for over 25 years. He has made over 40 films and directed 14 of them, invariably starr…

337. Moving Across the World on Horses

1988-12-09

Born in Sri Lanka in 1943, educated in Dulwich and now living in Canada, Michael Ondaatje has criss-crossed the world in a search for what he calls the 'unofficial story'. Ondaatj…

338. History Boys on the Rampage

1988-12-16

From Dundalk to Dungannon, Ballycastle to Belfast, Field Day, Ireland's foremost touring theatre company, journeys past checkpoints and critics with Brian Friel's controversial ne…

339. The Unforgettable Nat King Cole

1988-12-23

When Nat King Cole died in 1965, the world lost its greatest ballad singer. Last year, 22 years after his death, When I Fall in Love reached number 4 in the British charts. This …

340. Tales from Barcelona

1989-01-06

Award-winning director Jana Bokova presents a typically idiosyncratic portrait of Europe's most fashionable city. An equally eccentric and fascinating collection of characters off…

341. Blackpool

1989-01-13

With more visitors than the whole of Greece and more holiday beds than Portugal, Blackpool is Europe's most successful holiday resort. Growing to prominence in the Industrial Revo…

342. The Tip of the Iceberg

1989-01-27

Breasts/bosoms/bust/boobs/bristols/knockers... we live in a breast-obsessed society and 'tits' are by no means the preserve of the tabloids; the symbolism of the breast is express…

343. Laurens van der Post and Albert Sample

1989-02-03

Arena presents two films by award-winning director Georg Troller , made for West German television's leading arts programme Personenbeschreibung. Sir Laurens van der Post is the …

344. New York - The Secret African City

1989-02-10

eyond the familiar world of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, there is another New York, whose roots lie in West and Central Africa. Successive waves of newcomers of African descent…

345. Eugene Ionesco : the Joke's on Us

1989-02-17

The absurdity of life has been Eugene lonesco's theme and preoccupation since he wrote the first of his 33 plays and, alongside Beckett and Genet, created a revolution in the thea…

346. John Cassavetes

1989-02-24

Actor and director, John Cassavetes, who died earlier this month was one of the few truly independent movie-makers working out of Hollywood. In this tribute to an influential and …

347. Power in the Blood

1989-03-03

Ten years ago, Vernon Oxford turned his back on the bright lights of Nashville and a life as a popular country singer, and gave himself to the Lord. Today, he is a gospel preacher…

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

1989-03-17

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. It is the same with most jukeboxes; they once entertained b…

349. Juke Box Jury

1989-03-19

Arena continues its centenary celebration of the jukebox with a special edition of one of the original pop music programmes. Juke Box Jury is 30 years old and was essential weeke…

350. Berthold Lubetkin

1989-03-31

Born in Georgia in 1901, Berthold Lubetkin is one of the most outstanding and influential architects in Britain. His life has spanned the Russian Revolution and two World Wars. Fi…

351. Heavy Metal

1989-04-07

Ever since its noisy birth out of the primitive fuzzboxes of the 1960s, heavy metal music has been maligned and misunderstood by public and critics alike. But, to its millions of …

352. The Other Graham Greene

1989-04-21

For some 25 years the author Graham Greene found himself the victim of a bizarre masquerade. A man calling himself Graham Greene opened hotels in Jamaica, courted high society in …

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

1989-10-22

'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. He became a jazz legend, collaborating wit…

354. Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 2: How High the Moon

1989-10-29

In 1938 jazz legend and international star Slim Gaillard went to Hollywood to appear in Hellzapoppin: and then war broke out. Gaillard became one of America's first black bomber p…

355. Slim Gaillard's Civilisation 3: My Dinner with Dizzy

1989-11-05

This week Slim Gaillard cooks dinner for his old friend Dizzy Gillespie. They discuss the English language and their contributions to it — 'bebop' and 'Vout-o-reenee'. They also …

356. Animal Night: Smashing Pigs

1989-12-16

Some people see the pig as representing dirt, sloth and obesity; others view it with affection. In this film we see them all: farmyard pigs, performing pigs, pigs as pets, piggy b…

357. Animal Night: Sacred Elephant

1989-12-16

A film version of Heathcote Williams 's epic poem, an impassioned hymn of praise to one of nature's most magnificent creatures, and a lament at man's folly of hunting it to near e…

358. Animal Night: Great Wildlife Presenters Through the Ages

1989-12-16

The animals in wildlife films have always been vying for attention with that eccentric breed - the animal presenter. This medley of classic clips of wildlife films from the last 5…

359. Animal Night: John Daniel the First

1989-12-16

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 gorilla to survive captivity. His uncanny intelligence and ver…

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

1989-12-16

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 mysterious life of a very ordinary dog.

361. Animal Night: Animals on Trial

1989-12-16

Novelist Julian Bames, philosopher Nicholas Humphrey and French historian Dr Michel Rousseau help to uncover one of the most bizarre chapters in criminal history: the judicial pro…

362. Animal Night: The Animal Night Debate

1989-12-16

Speciesism, vivisection, vegetarianism, farming, sport, zoos, circuses and pets will be some of the topics discussed in a live debate chaired by Donald MacCormick at the Royal Ins…

363. 25 x 5: the Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones

1989-12-27

The phenomenal career of the Rolling Stones has taken them from being the bad boys of rock 'n' roll to becoming proteges of the establishment. They now tell their own story ... Th…

364. Numbers

1990-01-19

So says Gregory Chaitin, one of the world's three leading mathematicians, addressing the camera from the deep recesses of the IBM building in Yorktown Heights, New York State. He …

365. Oblomov

1990-01-26

Oblomov is a slob. Even Gorbachev is said to have denounced him from the podium: 'We must stamp out the Oblomovs from our society.' The lazy aristocrat of Goncharov's 19th-century…

366. Jerry Lee Lewis

1990-02-02

This is the story of 'the Killer', the ultimate wild man of rock, from his phenomenal success at the age of 20 with Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On to the present. After more than 30…

367. Roberto Rossellini

1990-02-09

The great Italian film director, who died in 1977, was the founder of 'neo-realism'. Following the international success of his films dealing with the Second World War - Rome, O…

368. Next Time Dear God Please Choose Someone Else

1990-02-23

Traditional Jewish humour flourished in adversity. Religious persecution and life in the ghetto nurtured its own kind of bitter comedy which, in 20th-century America, has develop…

369. Salif Keita

1990-03-02

Salif Keita - the golden voice of Mali - is one of the firstÃ African world superstars. He can trace his lineage directly back more than 700 years to its founder, the warrior kin…

370. Fred Zinnemann: A Director's Life

1990-03-09

Fred Zinnemann, best known for the classic western High Noon, has had a career in movies spanning 65 years. In an exclusive interview with Arena, Zinnemann talks about his life fr…

371. Spike and Company - Do It a Cappella

1990-03-16

Actor and director Spike Lee joins actress Debbie Allen on a journey in search of the perfect vocal performance. They travel through Brooklyn as different groups duel, jam and reh…

372. Peggy and Her Playwrights

1990-03-23

Now in her 80s, Peggy Ramsay is the most powerful and unconventional play agent in Britain. She started her agency in the mid-50s in a converted brothel in the West End and has b…

373. The English Rose

1990-03-30

The term 'English rose' conjures up a variety of images which fall somewhere between the delicate pink roses of high summer and the fair complexion of a young girl. Either way, th…

374. Paris Is Burning

1990-04-06

They call themselves the 'Children'. By day they are cycle-messengers, assistants in department stores, prostitutes or unemployed; by night they are members of clubs or houses wit…

375. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

1990-04-13

On 4 July 1967, Private Raymond Griffiths was killed in Vietnam. He was 19 years old - the average age of US combat troops in the war. He was one of more than 30,000 American serv…

376. Havana

1990-04-15

Cuba's legendary capital, once a playground for the rich, has an extraordinary faded beauty with its grand colonial palaces decaying into crumbling tenements. Since the popular r…

377. The Princess

1990-04-20

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 'he' were changed to 'she' throughout, would Machiavelli's …

378. The Ten Commandments of Krzysztof Kieslowski

1990-05-04

Krzysztof Kieslowski is the foremost director to have emerged in Poland since Andrzej Wadja. His two most recent features, A Short Film about Killing and A Short Film about Love, …

379. Le Paris Black

1990-05-11

Paris's love affair with the black world stretches from the Cubists' discovery of African sculpture at the beginning of the century to the present day appreciation of rap and Afri…

380. Kino Perestroika

1990-05-18

Tonight's programme looks at the Soviet cinema since perestroika and examines the work of some of its most important film directors who are working again after years of enforced s…

381. The Daily Worker Story

1990-05-25

When Lenin told the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain that its survival depended on having a daily paper, he could not have forseen that after 60 years of heroic strug…

382. Oooh Er, Missus! - The Frankie Howerd Story

1990-06-01

Considered by many to be our greatest living stand-up comedian, the incomparable Francis Alick Howerd holds a special place in the hearts of the British public. Born during a sno…

383. Agatha Christie - Unfinished Portrait

1990-09-20

This Arena Special celebrates the centenary of Dame Agatha Christie's birth with the first film biography of the world's most widely read author. Total sales of her crime novels a…

384. The Fever

1990-09-29

A new musical, Township Fever, is about to open on Broadway. Written by Mbongeni Ngema , the co-author of Woza Albert , it is vibrant and funny, but also quite shocking and contr…

385. Food Night: Introduction

1990-12-15

Tonight Arena brings you an evening of short films and a debate devoted to that most universal of subjects, food. Spitting Image has created your hosts, Meat and Two Veg. From the…

386. Food Night: Modern Food

1990-12-15

Today's hypermarket is an Aladdin's cave compared to the grocery store of 30 years ago. Food Night looks at the ever-increasing gulf between what appears on the supermarket shelf …

387. Food Night: Great Moments in Food History

1990-12-15

A salute to four great thinkers. If Rossini had not preferred food to music there would have been no Tornados Rossini. If Nellie Melba had not become so fat through eating too m…

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

1990-12-15

Food has had a part to play in religion, politics, science and war, and throughout history has underlined the social divide between prince and peasant. Today food remains as divis…

389. Food Night: Good Manners

1990-12-15

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

390. Food Night: What's Kosher?

1990-12-15

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

391. Food Night: The Last Supper

1990-12-15

Louisiana State Penitentiary recently released a list of the last meals ordered by prisoners about to be executed. One man, whose crime was shooting a grocery store attendant, req…

392. Food Night: The Complete History of the Potato

1990-12-15

With the help of potato experts from all over the world Food Night pays homage to this nutritious, delicious, maligned and sometimes despised vegetable - the paradoxical potato.

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

1990-12-15

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

394. Food Night: Movable Feast - the Politics of Disgust

1990-12-15

Mealworms served in a cherry tomato, grasshoppers rolled in bacon - these are just a few of the nourishing dishes served up in this film which explores repulsion and revulsion in …

395. Food Night: Eating for One

1990-12-15

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

396. Food Night: Fasting and Abstinence

1990-12-15

As Christmas approaches, time to contemplate self-denial.

397. Food Night: Debate

1990-12-15

As the evening's climax, Arena assembles a forum of distinguished politicians, economists, nutritionists, moralists and senders and receivers of aid to debate the international po…

398. Lifepulse - a Natural Thriller

1990-12-28

A spectacular musical celebration of life, capturing evolution in all its glorious diversity, and the rhythms of nature in all its beauty, delight, and horror. From the raging fu…

399. Miller Meets Mandela

1991-01-18

Nelson Mandela, since his release, has become one of the most famous people in the world. Everyone has heard of the leader, but Mandela the man remains an enigma. For the first ti…

400. Derek Jarman - a Portrait

1991-01-25

Derek Jarman is a uniquely British outsider: a painter, film-maker and a self-appointed enfant terrible with a paradoxical affection for tradition. He makes films as a painter or …

401. Anselm Kiefer : Operation Sealion

1991-02-01

Kiefer is Germany's most controversial and reclusive artist. He is also its most successful. The millions his work commands in the auction houses and his popularity with collector…

402. The Strange Story of Joe Meek

1991-02-08

On 3 February 1967, Joe Meek, composer of Telstar and pioneer independent producer, shot his landlady and then himself. With Humphrey Lyttelton, Screaming Lord Sutch, Heinz, Jonat…

403. The Other Roci

1991-02-22

Rocky is the name of American artist Robert Rauschenberg's pet turtle. It is also the name of an epic and visionary project which in the last eight years has taken Rauschenberg ar…

404. Caroline 199 - A Pirate's Tale

1991-03-01

December 1990: a rusty ship drifts silently in the North Sea. As the Government and its Broadcasting Bill close in for the kill, Radio Caroline could be silenced for ever. For Ron…

405. Staring at the Ceiling

1991-03-08

This profile of Keith Waterhouse follows him through his hectic diary. As a columnist for the Daily Mail he reports from the Conservative conference in Bournemouth and the Labour …

406. Three Irish Writers

1991-03-15

It has been said that the English hoard words like misers and the Irish spend them like sailors. Tonight's Arena presents three great Irish masters of the English language, Flann …

407. One Irish Rover

1991-03-16

For more than two decades, Van Morrison has been fusing different musical influences, creating a style of his own. In this programme he duets with Bob Dylan and plays harmonica wi…

408. The Importance of Being Oscar

1991-03-17

This one-man show based on the life of Oscar Wilde was the jewel in the crown for Irish actor Michael MacLiammoir 's career. The programme was first shown on St Patrick's Day 196…

409. The Other

1991-03-22

Roci Rocky is the name of American artist Robert Rauschenberg 's pet turtle. It is also the name of an epic and visionary project which in the last eight years has taken Rauschenb…

410. Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon

1991-04-05

When Kenneth Anger first published his classic expose of Hollywood's best-kept secrets and scandals, it was immediately banned. The underground film-maker struck a raw nerve in 't…

411. Elmore Leonard 's Criminal Records

1991-04-12

Top US crime writer Elmore Leonard 's street-wise characters range from violent hoodlums in and around Detroit to low-life hustlers on Florida's Gold Coast. Arena travels with him…

412. The Human Face

1991-04-19

In the last of the current series of Arena, musical performance artist Laurie Anderson presents an examination of mankind's obsession with its own image. For thousands of years ar…

413. Texas Saturday Night

1991-04-24

A show as big as the Lone Star State this is an epic voyage through the wildest state in the union - from the honkytonks and dancehalls to the hill country and burning deserts; fr…

414. The Grass Arena

1992-01-19

Brutalised at home and school, John Healy drinks a promising boxing career into the "grass arena" - the savage community of vagrant alcoholics. He drifts towards certain death, un…

415. Billy, How Did You Do It? 1

1992-01-23

The first of a special three-part presentation in which American film director Billy Wilder discusses his career with German film maker Volker Schlondorff. From Marlene Dietrich t…

416. Billy, How Did You Do It? 2

1992-01-24

Second of three in-depth conversations with the film director and writer Billy Wilder. He recalls his memories of the great Hollywood stars - "Mae West walked out of the door all …

417. Billy, How Did You Do It? 3

1992-01-25

Last of a special three-part presentation in which American director Billy Wilder discusses his career. He remembers working with Marilyn Monroe on Some Like It Hot "With Monroe…

418. Masters of the Canvas

1992-01-31

When pop artist Peter Blake confessed in a magazine article that his fantasy was to be the mysterious masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki, who never speaks and never removes his mask, …

419. Oliver Stone

1992-02-07

A portrait of the controversial American film director, Oliver Stone, whose work often arouses the fiercest passions in both supporters and critics. In a revealing interview, Ston…

420. Fatwa

1992-02-14

On 14 February 1989 Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Tonight, on the third anniversary of the fatwa, a gathering of international writers and artis…

421. Six Degrees of Separation: a New York Tale

1992-02-21

In 1983, David Hampton was arrested for pretending to be the son of actor Sidney Poitier and conning his way into the homes of some of New York's most powerful and influential fam…

422. The Incredible Case of Comrade

1992-02-28

Rockstar Dean Read was the biggest rock star the communist world had ever seen. Virtually unknown in his native America, the "Red Sinatra" was the first pop musician Mikhail Gorba…

423. Croatia - the Artists' War

1992-03-06

This film asks how the culture of a country survives amid gunfire. Ivan Rabuzin , the 71-year-old Croatian artist, says his paintings stand as accusations. "They show an image of …

424. Otto Dix : a Tale of Two Germanies

1992-03-13

"I'll either be famous or infamous," declared the controversial German painter who died in 1969. His subjects range from tranquil landscapes to frenzied sex murders, from brutalis…

425. Chi-Chi the Panda

1992-03-20

Refused entry to America from China in 1958 because of the embargo on "communist goods", the giant panda Chi-Chi came to London Zoo - a constant object of media attention and publ…

426. Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up

1992-03-27

Tales of the City first appeared in the 70s as a daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Armistead Maupin's stories about life in San Francisco as seen through the eyes of a…

427. Last Supper - Frank on Frank

1992-04-03

A self-portrait of photographer and film maker Robert Frank. Often called the "eyes of the Beats", Frank's work spans 45 years from his influential book of photographs The Americ…

428. A Spanish Odyssey - a Portrait of Javier Mariscal

1992-04-10

Javier Mariscal is an artist who cannot be categorised - a designer who thinks a Camel cigarette packet has as much value as a Picasso. Phillipe Starck , the doyen of the design …

429. An Argentinian Journey: 1: The Gaucho and the Pampas

1992-04-17

Three films which take a journey through the rich musical heritage of Argentina. The story begins just south of Buenos Aires in the Pampas. This is the land of the gaucho - the s…

430. An Argentinian Journey: 2: Zamba, Chacarera and Chamame

1992-04-18

Three films which take a journey through the rich musical heritage of Argentina. In the vast regions from the plains of the Pampas to the provinces of the north, three distinct s…

431. An Argentinian Journey: 3: Pacha Mama - Sacred Land

1992-04-19

The Calchaquies valleys in the Andes and the Humahuaca canyon form the most underdeveloped and remote region in Argentina, with traditions going back beyond the Inca conquest. The…

432. Sportswriter: the Fight, the Match and the Race

1992-07-18

Few activities in modern life can rival sport for creating excitement, passion and commitment. Arena takes a look at how the tensions and glories of sporting life are turned into …

433. Linda McCartney, behind the Lens

1992-12-26

In her first television profile, Linda McCartney talks about her life in photography and, with husband Paul, about the difficulties of being married to a Beatle and how she has co…

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

1993-01-08

Arena's 1993 season opens with this three-part exploration of the life and work of the enigmatic writer. Greene's obsessions with the seedy world of love, sex, betrayal, disloyalt…

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

1993-01-09

Disloyalty, secrecy and spying fascinated Greene both in his work and in his private life. Tonight's film charts the hidden years of his life when his marriage broke down and he b…

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

1993-01-10

Last of the biographical films, with extracts read by Sir Alec Guinness. A World of My Own (1961-91) Passionately promoting the link between Catholicism and communism, defending …

437. On the Road with Boggs

1993-01-15

In the 1980s American artist J S G Boggs stunned the art world by holding an exhibition of banknotes, drawn by himself. In one go, he broke moral, artistic and legal taboos-counte…

438. The Grateful and the Dead

1993-01-22

The story of the unlikely and unpublicised relationship between a 60s American rock band and some of Britain's little-known orchestral composers. Once the icons of the San Francis…

439. A Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie

1993-01-29

Elder statesman of jazz and a co-founder of the style that became bebop in the 40s, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie will be remembered by many as the trumpet player with ballooning c…

440. Larry Kramer

1993-01-05

One of the world's leading figures in the battle against Aids is not a doctor, scientist or politician, but a writer - Larry Kramer - who says: "Aids has given me my life's work."…

441. Edward Said: the Idea of Empire

1993-02-12

Palestinian writer, academic and exile, Edward W Said takes a journey into the worlds of history, literature, ideas and imagination to explain how he wrote his most recent book, C…

442. The Last Soviet Citizen

1993-02-19

For three decades the Soviet Union's obsession with space stirred the soul of the nation like a secular religion - from the first space star Yuri Gagarin to the sad saga of cosmo…

443. Derek Walcott

1993-02-20

An interview with the poet who last December won the Nobel prize for literature, and whose current novel-length poem has caused him to be dubbed the "Homer of the Caribbean". He …

444. Zhang Yimou

1993-03-12

One of China's most successful film directors, Zhang Yimou , talks about his life, his work, and his views on China. The stunning photography and quintessential "Chineseness" of h…

445. Philip Roth

1993-03-19

To mark his 60th birthday, and the publication of his new book Operation Shylock, Philip Roth breaks his long silence and talks to Arena about his life, books, and some of the lin…

446. Only the Names Have Been Changed

1993-03-26

To the innocent reader, the characters in a work of fiction are the author's inventions. To those in the know, it is often more complicated. Arena investigates the effect novels c…

447. Weegee

1993-04-02

Chronicling New York low and high life, Weegee's photographs have often shocked the world. His wife, Wilma Wilcox , talks about the man behind the myth.

448. Duchamp's Fountain

1993-04-02

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp entered a white porcelain object in a New York exhibition. it was a urinal. Arena unearths the origins of this extraordinary story with an account from Duc…

449. Edgar Reitz: Return to Heimat

1993-04-12

An Arena special which documents the making of Reitz's second great German epic, The Second Heimat, which begins on BBC2 next Saturday. When Jewish writer Carole Angier watched th…

450. Tales Of Rock And Roll: Peggy Sue

1993-04-17

The arts series returns with four films tracing the origins of classic rock songs. The inspiration behind Buddy Holly's famous song - Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham - now runs a draina…

451. Not a Bad Girl

1993-04-18

Brenda Fassie is South Africa's answer to Madonna. A black singer for black people, she is streetwise, outrageous and aiming to be an international star. With her new album I'm No…

452. Heartbreak Hotel

1993-04-24

The second documentary in this Arena series telling the true stories behind classic rock songs is devoted to Elvis Presley's first million-selling release, Heartbreak Hotel. This …

453. Walk on the Wild Side

1993-05-01

All the characters named in the song were real people who frequented Andy Warhol's studio in the late 60s. Trans-sexual Holly, and Jackie and Candy, who were transvestites, starre…

454. Highway 61 Revisited

1993-05-08

Last programme in the Arena series tracing the origins of classic rock songs. This musical journey travels the famous highway that has inspired successive generations of musician…

455. Arena: Radio Night: Introduction

1993-12-18

Your television and radio are cast as personalities (played by Peter Cook and Josie Lawrence) in this night of themed programmes showing how the two media have competed over the y…

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

1993-12-18

Ian McKellen ruminates on the distinct eras of radio broadcasting, characterised as Shakespeare's seven ages of man, with the aid of Professor Asa Briggs.

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

459. Radio Night: Heard But Not Seen

1993-12-18

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

460. Radio Night: Back to Square One

1993-12-18

The story of early radio's method of broadcasting live football, referring to a numbered grid - published in the Radio Times - on which listeners followed the action.

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

462. Radio Night: Sunday Dinner

1993-12-18

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

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

464. Radio Night: Pirates

1993-12-31

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

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

466. Radio Night: TV Theft, Radio Rip-Off

1993-12-18

Does TV steal radio's best comedy ideas? Included in the debate are Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Armando Iannucci and the voice of Spike Milligan.

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

468. Radio Night: The Spot FX Man

1993-12-18

Harold Listings, a frustrated radio technician, takes revenge.

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

1993-12-18

No overview.

470. Radio Night: It's Life, Jim

1993-12-18

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

471. Radio Night: The Time Signal

1993-12-18

Dr Carl Dolmetsch finds out why the pips changed pitch.

472. Radio Night: The Two Voyages of Donald Crowhurst

1993-12-18

The tragic story of the lone yachtsman and his radio.

473. Radio Night: The Shipping Forecast

1993-12-19

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

474. The Next Voice You Hear

1993-12-19

Concluding BBC2's Arena Radio Night, a film drama starring James Whitmore, Nancy Davis (later Reagan). Joe and Mary Smith are shaken one night when they hear what seems to be the…

475. In Search of Oz

1994-01-29

An exploration of the phenomenal popularity of L Frank Baum 's famous children's story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1900. About 20 film versions of the story have been m…

476. Who Is Vladimir Pozner?

1994-02-05

In the 1980s Vladimir Pozner , once dubbed "Ivan the Telegenic", became the second most celebrated communist in the west. Carrying Gorbachev's message to western television screen…

477. The Dark Side of Black

1994-02-12

The new stars of ragga and gangster rap - Shabba Ranks, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Buju Banton - have become as notorious as they are successful. They command huge audiences and reco…

478. The Ring - a South London Tale

1994-02-26

For centuries, bare-knuckle boxing has been going on behind closed doors. Nigel Finch's unusual film investigates this illegal activity by following one hopeful as he prepares for…

479. Glitterbug

1994-03-05

During the 1970s and 1980s Derekjarman kept a Super-8 film diary, chronicling the cultural high life and low life of London. The footage ranges from William Burroughs reading alou…

480. Theatre without Actors

1994-03-12

In 1960 an American film called Primary changed the notion of what a documentary could be, using techniques never before seen on TV. It was made by Robert Drew , whose role in the…

481. Kalashnikov

1994-03-19

Seventy million Kalashnikov (or AK-47) guns are scattered across the world. It was the Russians' Cold War weapon and is still the first choice of terrorists, guerrillas and mercen…

482. Trouble Man - the Last Years of Marvin Gaye

1994-03-26

On 1 April 1984 former Motown star Marvin Gaye provoked his father once too often, and was shot dead in his bedroom. It was the tragic finale to an extraordinary series of events …

483. Relics Introduction

1994-03-31

The idea that power exists in the remains of heroes and the things they leave behind is the focus of an Arena trilogy broadcast this weekend and introduced by this programme. Reli…

484. Relics: Einstein's Brain

1994-04-01

"Move Albert Einstein ," declares Japanese professor Kenji Sugimoto at the start of a bizarre journey in search of the great one's missing brain. Sugimoto would not look out of pl…

485. Relics: Curse of the Firebeetle

1994-04-02

A film drama set against civil war in Peru. When Ortiz, a professional graverobber, stumbles across the huge golden disc of the ancient sun god Atahualpa lost for years, he sets o…

486. Relics: The Grave Case of Charlie Chaplin

1994-04-03

In 1978 Charlie Chaplin 's coffin was stolen from his grave in Vevey, Switzerland, and a large ransom was demanded of his widow Oona. This fictional film inspired by those events …

487. Philip K Dick - a Day In the Afterlife

1994-04-09

The author of the stories behind Blade Runner and Total Recall grew up in California at a time when an agricultural idyll was fast being replaced by motorways, shopping stores and…

488. Voices from the Island

1994-04-23

Robben Island is South Africa's Alcatraz. For three decades Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and hundreds of other political prisoners were held in its maximum security prison for o…

489. Cindy Sherman - Nobody's Here but Me

1994-04-24

Using herself as the model, American artist Cindy Sherman has produced hundreds of photographs exploring the use of female stereotypes. Most recently she has addressed the theme o…

490. Bahia of all the Saints

1994-05-07

Brazil's major slave-trading port for nearly three centuries, Bahia has a black population of over 80 per cent which maintains the legacy of African tradition at every level of da…

491. Sandra Bernhard - Confession of a Pretty Lady

1994-05-20

Sandra Bernhard 's outrageous one-woman show deals with many normally taboo subjects and controversy runs through her personal life: she was once Madonna's lover and is a lesbian …

492. Louise Bourgeois

1994-08-06

This Arena special profiles sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who has suddenly become fashionable at the age of 84, and has been chosen to represent America at the Venice Biennale, the w…

493. The Peter Sellers Story 1

1995-02-11

Arena returns with a three-part special, presenting a film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors, incorporating home movies, film clips and interviews.

494. The Peter Sellers Story: 2: Jack to Jacques

1995-02-18

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

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

1995-02-25

The last of a three-part film portrait of one of the world's great comic actors. Tonight's film begins in 1964, with Sellers at the peak of his success. Dr Strangelove and The Pi…

496. Punk and the Pistols

1995-08-20

In August 1975, the face of British rock music was fundamentally changed: the Sex Pistols were formed. A host of colourful characters, including the Damned's Captain Sensible, Ric…

497. The Burger and the King

1996-01-01

The passion fans had for his music was matched only by the passion Elvis Presley had for his food. This documentary records his inexhaustible appetite for fast foods, the team he …

498. Stories My Country Told Me

1996-07-14

What is a nation? From Corsica to Kashmir, from Quebec to Bosnia, violent separatist movements are fighting to form their own nation states. This edition of Arena explores the fab…

499. Tony Bennett's New York

1996-12-22

At 70 years of age, singer Tony Bennett has been dubbed the King of Cool by the MTV-watching generation. Arena reveals the man behind the silky voice as Tony Bennett - civil right…

500. Caesar's Writers

1996-12-24

The legendary Sid Caesar was one of America's favourite TV stars in the fifties. His writing team, which include Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon, was probably the first eve…

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

1997-01-02

On 22 October 1995, for the first time, all the world's leaders gathered together in the United Nations in New York to have their photograph taken for the beginning of the UN's 50…

502. Dear Antonioni

1997-01-18

A portrait of the Italian film-maker Michelangelo Antonioni , who has directed such films as L'Awentura, which follows immediately, LaNotte and Zabriskie Point. The work of the di…

503. Busby, Stein and Shankly - the Football Men: Underground

1997-03-28

Sports writer Hugh Mcllvanney presents the first of a trilogy of programmes for the Easter weekend about three great football managers; Matt Busby. Jock Stein and Bill Shankly. T…

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

1997-03-29

Hugh Mcllvanney presents the second in a trilogy of programmes about three great football managers; Matt Busby , Jock Stein and Bill Shankly. Tonight's film focuses on 1945-60, t…

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

1997-03-30

Concluding the three-part series presented by sports writer Hugh Mcllvanney about three great football managers; Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly. This film charts the incr…

506. The Banana

1997-12-24

Tonight's programme considers musa sapientum, the fruit of the wise. The Velvet Underground's John Cale tells the story behind Andy Warhol's famous LP cover, Auberon Waugh and Joh…

507. Cigars - out of the Humidor

1997-12-25

In 1962, before John F Kennedy signed the embargo banning the importation of cigars into America from Cuba, the President ordered 1,200 Havana cigars, according to Pierre Salinger…

508. The Noel Coward Trilogy: The Boy Actor

1998-04-11

The first of a three-part profile of the writer, composer and actor covers Coward's meteoric rise from suburban south London to the world's highest-paid author by the time he was …

509. The Noel Coward Trilogy: Captain Coward

1998-04-12

The second of three programmes celebrating the life and career of Noel Coward focuses on the journey through the Far East which inspired his most famous song, Mad Dogs and English…

510. The Noel Coward Trilogy: Sail Away

1998-04-13

Concluding the three-part Easter special with a look at the last 30 years of Noel Coward's life. His post-war eclipse as a dramatist gave way to a new career as a highly successfu…

511. Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century

1998-05-15

Arena explores the rise of the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra from his early family background to overwhelming showbusiness success. Interviews with friends, family and associate…

512. The Brian Epstein Story: The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow

1998-05-25

The first of a two-part documentary telling the story of Brian Epstein. Gay when homosexuality was illegal, a gambler, shopkeeper and failed actor, he was also the pop king with t…

513. The Brian Epstein Story: Tomorrow Never Knows

1998-12-26

Concluding the two-part profile of the pop manager who brought global success to the Beatles. By the mid-sixties, the group's fame meant Epstein had little time to devote to the …

514. Cuba Night: the 40-Year Face-off

1999-01-02

No overview.

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

1999-01-02

Newsreel footage from 1962, when Fidel Castro's arrangement with then-Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to install nuclear-weapon sites triggered off the Cuban missile crisis.

516. Cuba Night: A Diamond in the Rough

1999-01-02

Cuba's baseball prowess has been long estabished. Fidel Castro himself was once scouted by a US team, and in 1992 Cuba surpassed even the Americans to win the first Olympic baseba…

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

1999-01-02

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

518. Cuba Night: The Simpsons: The Trouble with Trillions

1999-01-02

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

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

1999-01-02

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

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

1999-01-02

Since his death in 1967, the face of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara has stared down from posters and banners around the world, the most reproduced image since the Mona Lisa. Thi…

521. Cuba Night: The Clinton Years: Cuba Today and Tomorrow

1999-01-02

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

522. Salman Rushdie and the Ground beneath His Feet

1999-04-22

In Salman Rushdie 's new novel The Ground beneath Her Feet. singer Vina Aspara is caught up in an earthquake on Valentine's Day 1989, and never seen again. On that day Rushdie's o…

523. Looking for the Iron Curtain

1999-11-07

The Iron Curtain ran north to south through Europe and divided the world for 50 years. American writer and broadcaster Reggie Nadelson joins former Soviet Union spin doctor Vladim…

524. Casanova

1999-12-20

The legendary 18th-century lover has been immortalised in books, films and on television, but are these fictionalised accounts historically accurate? Novelist Josephine Hart inve…

525. Blondes - Jayne Mansfield

1999-12-24

In 1957, Jayne Mansfield was riding high as the most photographed woman in the world. Yet, ten years later, she was reduced to stripping in seedy nightclubs to finance a serious a…

526. Blondes - Diana Dors

1999-12-26

This second blonde-bombshell profile focuses on Britain's home-grown prototype, Diana Dors. The Rada-trained actress emerged as a sex symbol in the fifties through a run of low-bu…

527. Blondes - Anita Ekberg

1999-12-27

Perhaps best remembered as the shapely blonde who waded into the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita, fifties sex symbol Anita Ekberg became a Hollywood icon and a cult figure in Euro…

528. The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money

2000-01-02

Actor Dennis Hopper plays the eccentric host to this guide to the world of commercial creativity. The programme analyses advertising's true place in modern-day, media-obsessed pop…

529. The Veil

2000-05-20

More and more young Muslim women today are wearing the veil, saying that it frees rather than oppresses them. This one-off Arena explores how a simple piece of cloth has endured i…

530. Wisconsin Death Trip

2000-07-02

An edition in the occasional arts documentary strand. Wisconsin Death Trip. Inspired by a book of the same name, film-maker James Marsh tells the haunting tale of murder, madness …

531. Clint Eastwood: Out of the West

2000-12-24

The first of a two-part Christmas special profiling the Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. Eastwood recalls his tough childhood, and looks back at his early career, from…

532. Clint Eastwood: American Film-maker

2000-12-25

Concluding the two-part profile of the life and work of Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. The story continues with Eastwood's directorial debut, as he completed Play M…

533. James Ellroy's Feast of Death

2001-05-06

The art strand Arena returns with a new seven-part series. Best known for such novels as LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia, and the autobiographical work My Dark Places, crime wr…

534. And the Winner Is ...

2001-05-13

There is seemingly no endeavour for which there is not an award, from Preacher of the Year to Streetsweeper of the Year. Arena asks what lies at the heart of our fascination with …

535. Budd Schulberg - a Contender

2001-05-19

Eighty-six-year-old novelist Budd Schulberg talks to old friend Hugh McIlvanney about his life and his long and varied career - including his screenplay for the multiple Oscar-win…

536. The Source

2001-05-28

Tonight's film dramatises the story behind the leading artists who personified the Beat Generation, which saw its roots in the meeting of Allen Ginsberg , Jack Kerouac and William…

537. Salgado - the Spectre of Hope

2001-05-30

During the past 30 years the photographic work of Brazilian-born Sebastiao Salgado has helped to bring conditions of famine and poverty to international attention.

538. Stalin - the Red God

2001-05-31

Joseph Stalin is seen outside his native land as one of history's most deplorable tyrants, but throughout the former Soviet states a cult of Stalin still exists. This film documen…

539. According to Beryl

2001-10-06

A one-off film in which author Beryl Bainbridge chronicles the extraordinary relationship during the 18th century between Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale, the wife of rich London…

540. Night of Entertainers: Sykes and a Day

2001-12-26

Writer, performer and director, the late Eric Sykes was the renaissance man of British comedy. This episode of Arena opens the doors of the room that was his creative home for for…

541. Night of Entertainers: Drake's Progress

2001-12-25

Charlie Drake is perhaps best known as the "little man" taking on the world in such films as 'The Cracksman' and television series like 'The Worker'. Drake himself had much to ove…

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

2001-12-25

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

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

2001-12-25

Since a 1951 breakthrough appearance on the long-running radio series 'Educating Archie', Bygraves has proved a hit with the British public, whether he performs as an actor, a com…

544. The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 1

2001-12-26

In 1986, Dirk Bogarde burnt most of his personal papers at his home in southern France. However, 12 cans of home movies, shot mostly by Bogarde's long-term partner Anthony Forwood…

545. The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part 2

2001-12-26

The second of Arena's two-part film about Bogarde plots his progress to the forefront of European cinema in films such as Joseph Losey's 'The Servant' and Luchino Visconti's 'Deat…

546. Estonia Dreams of Eurovision

2002-05-18

As the 2001 winner, the Baltic state of Estonia, prepares to host this year's Eurovision Song Contest, this documentary explores the dramas, dreams, and dilemmas of what many see …

547. Kurosawa: Part One

2002-06-15

First in a two-part profile of Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa, looking at his childhood, early career and emergence as a major director during the American occupation. Kurosaw…

548. Kurosawa: Part Two

2002-06-22

Concluding the profile of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. International acclaim followed masterpieces like the influential 'Seven Samurai', but success at home was elusive. Una…

549. The Peter Sellers Story: As He Filmed It

2002-08-24

Arena revisits its 1995 BAFTA-nominated Sellers trilogy, this time using only film shot by the late comic, who died in July 1980. Sellers is seen at home, on set, on holiday and i…

550. Harold Pinter: 1: The Room

2002-10-26

This edition chronicles Pinter's East End childhood, his work as an actor, the critical appraisal of his work, and his passion for cricket. The film looks at the various rooms in …

551. Harold Pinter: 2: Celebration

2002-10-26

This programme focuses on the relationship between the public and private aspects of Pinter's life and work. The film includes footage from two Pinter stage productions - 'One For…

552. One for the Road

2002-10-26

Harold Pinter takes the lead role in the Gate Theatre, Dublin's production of his play, produced by Michael Colgan and directed by Robin Lefevre. In an unnamed police state, Nicol…

553. Politics and Pinter

2002-10-30

A 70th birthday tribute to Harold Pinter in three parts. The first section acknowledges Pinter's involvement in highlighting political injustices and puts his writing in its polit…

554. The Room

2002-11-05

An anxious recluse deals with the pressures of the outside world. A play by Harold Pinter, filmed in New York's Almeida Theatre in 2001

555. Radio Ha! Meet the Dead Ringers

2002-12-26

In a world of mimicry and satire, do the Dead Ringers team know who they really are? Meet Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Mark Perry, Kevin Connelly and Phil Cornwell, whose impressions …

556. Radio Ha! It's Time for Just a Minute

2002-12-26

Not many can talk for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation - but, for 35 years, Just a Minute panellists have done just that. Paul Merton, Clement Freud, Linda Smi…

557. I Am from Nowhere

2003-01-14

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

558. The Real Jane Austen

2003-06-12

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

559. The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough: Part One

2003-08-24

As he becomes an octogenarian, a two-part Arena special celebrates the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's best-loved public figures. Lord Attenborough's film CV as …

560. The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough: Part Two

2003-08-25

The conclusion to this two-part profile, which accompanies the Attenborough at 80 season of films this week, looks at Attenborough's career as Britain's most distinguished film di…

561. Imagine Imagine

2003-09-20

The huge and enduring popularity of John Lennon 's song, Imagine, is examined in this documentary. Yoko Ono , who is now acknowledged as the co-author of the song, is filmed as s…

562. Dylan Thomas - from Grave to Cradle

2003-11-22

In the 50th year since his tragic death, author and broadcaster Nigel Williams examines the work and legend of one of the most famous poets of the 20th century-Dylan Thomas. Born …

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

2003-12-19

Buffalo Bill was instrumental in transforming the Wild West into the caricatured setting portrayed in countless films and novels. Using archive footage, this part-dramatised docum…

564. Alec Guinness, a Secret Man

2003-12-29

The acting career of Alec Guinness spanned more than five decades. Although readily identifiable in character, the real man avoided the trappings of fame, preferring a secluded li…

565. Pavarotti - the Last Tenor

2004-05-29

For 40 years, Luciano Pavarotti has been hailed as one of the greatest tenors of all time, an artist fit to rank alongside the great Caruso. As his career reaches its climax, this…

566. Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

2004-07-09

Country singer Jim White takes a road trip through the rural white American South in in an Arena documentary. Driving through a terrain of truck stops and churches, he finds a co…

567. Shadowing the Third Man

2004-10-02

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

568. Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

2004-12-09

A documentary chronicling the series of Amnesty International fundraising concerts, which brought together a wealth of comedy talent and paved the way for future events such as Co…

569. Painting the Clouds - a Portrait of Dennis Potter

2004-12-25

The Potter at the BBC strand marking the 10th anniversary of his death starts with this feature-length profile. It charts his childhood, time at Oxford, bid for parliament and ris…

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

2005-01-02

How the playwright used popular songs as a powerful dramatic device and to express the depth of his characters in Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective.

571. Potter on Television

2005-01-09

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

572. Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues

2005-02-05

From Elvis to Norah Jones , Hank Williams 's songs have been recorded more often than those of any other country music writer. Dirt-poor and rail-thin, he blazed out of Alabama in…

573. Calling Hedy Lamarr

2005-02-12

Cited as being the most beautiful star in the Hollywood firmament during the 1930s and 40s, Hedy Lamarr's talents as an accomplished physicist who also engaged in perfecting radar…

574. Francis Bacon's Arena

2005-03-19

Haunting and ferocious, Francis Bacon's paintings made an indelible impression on art history. His life - as outrageous as his work - is recalled by Arena in the only documentary …

575. Arena at 30

2005-09-03

Bob Dylan, Jean Genet, Orson Welles and Francis Bacon are among the subjects in a look back at memorable editions of the past 30 years. With film makers Alan Yentob, Anthony Wall …

576. Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 1

2005-09-26 • ⭐ 8.0

Director Martin Scorsese enlists the help of Dylan himself, Joan Baez , film-maker DA Pennebaker , Greenwich Village folk icon Dave Von Ronk , and beat poet Allen Ginsberg , for a…

577. Bob Dylan: No Direction Home: Part 2

2005-09-27 • ⭐ 8.0

Martin Scorsese delicately balances Dylan's internal world with signpost images from the external as he follows the newsworthy phenomenon of a 23-year-old star laden with expectat…

578. Dylan in the Madhouse

2005-09-28

Surprisingly, Bob Dylan first came to the attention of the British public through his role in a 1963 BBC TV play, The Madhouse on Castle Street. The tape was later wiped and has s…

579. The Princess and Panorama

2005-11-08

An incredible 22.8 million viewers were agog as Diana, Princess of Wales spoke candidly of her marriage into the royal family. Ten years on, the secrecy and tensions behind this s…

580. Routemasters! The Double Decker Bus Conductors

2005-12-10

Documentary celebrating one of London's great characters, the bus conductor. The film tells the stories of five extraordinary conductors from five decades of London's history (ori…

581. Galton and Simpson

2005-12-25

Hancock's Half-Hour and Steptoe and Son - two persuasive reasons for making Ray Galton and Alan Simpson pre-eminent among Britain's postwar comedy writers. In their first full-len…

582. Pete Doherty

2006-11-12

A one-off documentary following six months in the life of Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty - the musician who currently throws the British tabloid press into a fr…

583. Saints

2006-12-17

The phenomenon of sanctity is examined in a documentary asking what makes a saint, comparing the Catholic Church's well-known practices with those of Hinduism and Buddhism.

584. The Archers

2007-01-01

Marking its 56th year on the air, Arena examines the enduring appeal of Radio 4's rural soap, which began in 1951 as a public service programme to help Britain's farmers get back …

585. The Underground

2007-03-18

Documentary about the Tube, the world's oldest underground system, with its own unwritten rules of behaviour and protocol, and used by three million passengers every day.

586. Bob Marley - Exodus 77

2007-06-03

The year 1977 was a crucial one in the life of reggae superstar Bob Marley. After an attempt on his life in his home that he was lucky to survive, he was forced to move from Jamai…

587. Encountering Bergman

2007-07-13

Examining the life and work of film director Ingmar Bergman , through people who know and have spoken to him, including Melvyn Bragg and Marie Nyrerod , producer of Bergman and Fa…

588. Bergman and Faro Island

2007-07-13

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

589. Bergman and the Cinema

2007-07-14

Ingmar Bergman examines his cinema career, which began when his first script was filmed in 1944. He is also joined by journalist and director Marie Nyrerod to look at his private …

590. Flames of Passion: the Other Side of British Cinema

2007-09-02

Britain's postwar cinema was not well looked upon by many critics. The melodramas, crime films and horror shockers were almost all derided by contemporary critics. Unearthing a we…

591. The Original Archers

2007-10-04

The earliest surviving episode in the BBC archives of The Archers, originally broadcast 11th March 1952, is repeated here in its entirety along with archive film of the period.

592. Tribute Bands - into the Limelight

2007-10-06

Affectionate documentary that goes behind the scenes of the Limelight Club in Crewe, where for ten years tribute acts to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Phil Lynott hav…

593. Tribute Bands - Live at the Limelight

2007-10-06

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

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

2007-10-14

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

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

2007-10-14

Murray Lerner's documentary features Bob Dylan's performances at the Newport folk festival between 1963 and 1965 - the time when Dylan changed the music of the world.

596. Dylan in the Madhouse

2007-10-14

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

597. Ken Dodd's Happiness

2007-12-24

A tribute to the Liverpudlian comedian, who turned 80 last month. Here, he discusses his 50-year career and the influences on his comedy style. Featuring film clips of his early p…

598. The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul

2008-04-10

Profile of the Nobel Prize-winning British writer, VS Naipaul. Filmed in Wiltshire, India and his native Trinidad, he remains as incisive, forthright and controversial as ever.

599. Cab Driver

2008-07-26

Documentary which gets to the heart of that much-maligned and stereotyped character, the London cabbie, using archive footage, music and film, as well as the drivers themselves.

600. The Hunt for Moby-Dick

2008-09-20

Writer Philip Hoare embarks on an epic journey to investigate humankind's ongoing fascination with the whale. He travels from Southampton to the whaling ports of America, before c…

601. Whale Night: The Whale in the Museum

2008-09-21

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

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

2008-09-21

Author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of baleen whales, the largest animals ever to have lived and the order including blue, fin and humpback whales.

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

2008-09-21

Author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of toothed whales, from the plight of the captive killer whale to the fate of the stranded London whale.

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

2008-09-21

Philip Hoare follows the historical trail of the whale hunters to the frozen seas of the North Pole, where he finds the bowhead, the white beluga and the tusked narwhal.

605. The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector

2008-10-25

Legendary, reclusive and controversial, Phil Spector changed the face of pop with his reverbladen "wall of sound" production techniques, working with artists including the Ronette…

606. Paul Scofield

2008-12-24

A host of theatrical greats pay tribute to the accomplished actor, who died in March this year aged 86. Featuring extracts from some of his most famous roles, including Sir Thomas…

607. Tony Bennett: the Music Never Ends

2009-02-14

Crooner Tony Bennett reflects on his life with his friend and jazz enthusiast Clint Eastwood. Bennett traces his musical lineage, highlighted by concert footage.

608. Cool

2009-04-03

Archive film shows how American jazz culture spread across the world in the 1940s and 50s, representing a movement that started in the clubs of New York and LA.

609. TS Eliot

2009-06-06

The Poetry Season continues with this in-depth look at the life of one of the 20th century's most important literary figures. As well as uncovering the many sides of the Nobel Pri…

610. Harold Pinter Night: The Birthday Party

2009-07-26

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

611. Brian Eno - Another Green World

2010-01-22

Brian Eno, former Roxy Music keyboardist and a pioneer in ambient music, engages with fellow minds in conversations on science, art, systems analysis, producing and cybernetics.

612. Harold Pinter - A Celebration

2010-01-24

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.

613. Johnny Mercer - The Dream's on Me

2010-04-04

Documentary telling the story and examining the legacy of Johnny Mercer, one of America's greatest songwriters and a man at the heart of the Great American Songbook.

614. Dave Brubeck - In His Own Sweet Way

2010-12-03

Profile of the influential jazz pianist Dave Brubeck as he approaches his 90th birthday, who had one of the biggest popular hits in jazz history with Take Five.

615. Rolf Harris Paints His Dream

2010-12-29

Arena enlists supermodels Lily Cole and Lizzy Jagger and actresses Dervla Kirwan and Emer Kenny to help Rolf Harris achieve a painting ambition.

616. Produced by George Martin

2011-04-25

Profile of record producer Sir George Martin, with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Michael Palin among the many contributors.

617. George Harrison: Living in the Material World: Part 1

2011-11-12

Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison, which traces his life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a world-famous musician, philanthropist and filmmaker.

618. George Harrison: Living in the Material World: Part 2

2011-11-13

Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison looks at his post-Beatles days as a member of the Travelling Wilburys and a solo artist, as well as his non-musical ventures.

619. Dickens on Film

2012-01-10

An exploration of Charles Dickens's contribution to the history of film and television, using archive footage of classic and less familiar adaptations from 1898 to the present day.

620. Sonny Rollins: Beyond the Notes

2012-02-17

Documentary about the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins, built around his 80th birthday concert, where he is joined by the likes of Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman.

621. Sonny Rollins '74: Rescued!

2012-02-17

Newly-discovered film footage of tenor sax legend Sonny Rollins at Ronnie Scott's in 1974, with a band featuring guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo and soprano saxophone player Rufus Harley.

622. The Dreams of William Golding

2012-03-17

An insight into the private obsessions and insecurities of the author of Lord of the Flies. With contributions from his daughter and son and bestselling author Stephen King

623. Jonathan Miller

2012-03-31

Documentary exploring the life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE, theatre and opera director, humorist and television presenter. With contributors including Kevin Spacey and Eric Idle.

624. Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle

2012-07-23

Documentary telling the story of the day Amy Winehouse recorded a stunning acoustic performance in a church in the small Irish fishing village of Dingle in 2006.

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

2012-10-06

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

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

2012-10-06

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

627. Screen Goddesses

2012-12-22

Documentary about the early female movie stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe - immortal goddesses made by Hollywood to reign over the silver screen.

628. Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel

2012-12-25

Documentary telling the personal story of Sister Wendy Beckett, who travelled the world telling the story of Christian art and painting in the 1990s, quickly becoming a star.

629. aka Norman Parkinson

2013-04-21

To mark the centenary of his birth, Arena examines the glamorous life and exceptionally long career of pioneering photographer and eccentric English gentleman, Norman Parkinson.

630. Arena: The National Theatre: Part One - The Dream

2013-10-24

First of two documentaries celebrating the National Theatre's 50th anniversary, with contributions from artistic directors, playwrights and stars such as Dame Joan Plowright.

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

2013-10-31

Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner talk about running the new National Theatre from its opening in 1976 to the fulfilment of Olivier's original dream.

632. Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

2014-03-20

Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with contributions from caricaturists Peter Fluck and Roger Law and producer John Lloyd.

633. The National Theatre: Learning Zone

2014-04-02

Made specially for schools, this version of Arena examines the history and purpose of the National Theatre as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

634. The 50 Year Argument - The New York Review of Books

2014-06-29

Martin Scorsese's documentary film charting literary, political and cultural history as per the New York Review of Books, America's leading journal of ideas since 1963.

635. Nicolas Roeg - It's About Time

2015-06-26

Profile of Nicolas Roeg, examining his personal vision of cinema as evidenced in his films, including Don't Look Now, Performance, Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

636. Night and Day

2015-11-22

To celebrate Arena's 40th anniversary, a new film made entirely from its own archive, evoking the one experience common to all - the 24-hour cycle from dawn to dusk to dawn again.

637. Loretta Lynn - Still a Mountain Girl

2016-03-18

With contributions from her family and fellow musicians, now in her early eighties and still going strong, country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn looks back at her life.

638. All the World's a Screen - Shakespeare on Film

2016-04-24

Documentary exploring the rich, global history of Shakespeare in the cinema, with a treasure trove of film extracts and archival interviews with their creators.

639. 1966 - 50 Years Ago Today

2016-07-24

Documentary marking the year pop music and popular culture ripped up the rule book, as restless experimentation and the search for new forms of expression took hold.

640. The Roundhouse - The People's Palace

2016-10-23

The tragicomic rollercoaster story of a unique venue, the Roundhouse in north London, which has hosted virtually every big name in rock and alternative theatre since 1966.

641. Alone with Chrissie Hynde

2017-02-10

Arena spends the summer with supercool self-confessed rock chick, Chrissie Hynde. Featuring a glorious live performance at one of London's most intimate venues.

642. American Epic: Episode 1: The Big Bang

2017-05-21

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

643. American Epic: Episode 2: Blood and Soil

2017-05-28

Series telling the stories of the pioneers of American roots music. The second episode explores gospel, the songs of the coal mines and the Mississippi Delta blues.

644. Kirsty Young: 75 Years of Desert Island Discs

2017-05-29

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

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

2017-06-04

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

646. American Epic: Episode 4: The Sessions

2017-06-09

Today's music superstars use a lovingly reassembled old machine to record in the same way that their early predecessors did - with no edits, no overdubs and no retakes.

647. Stanley and his Daughters

2018-02-04

Exploring the relationship of artist Stanley Spencer's daughters, Unity and Shirin, as they try to understand and reclaim their father and investigate their family's archaeology.

648. Bob Dylan – Trouble No More

2018-03-30

A Bob Dylan performance of songs expressing his new-found Christianity in the late 70s, enhanced by a series of sermons between the songs, written by the actor Michael Shannon.

649. Nothing Like a Dame

2018-06-02

A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy sparkling conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive.

650. Make Me Up!

2018-11-04

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

651. Unstoppable: Sean Scully and the Art of Everything

2019-04-06

A year in the life of abstract artist Sean Scully, one of the world's wealthiest painters. Little known at home but a superstar abroad, Sean flies around the world to open 15 majo…

652. That Summer

2019-07-07

A long-lost film of the creative community formed by Peter Beard, Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee Radziwill and her relatives, the Beales of Grey Gardens, in 1970s New York.

653. Cindy Sherman #untitled

2019-07-28

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

654. Kusama: Infinity

2019-09-01

Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visited Infinity Mirror Room installations, defies classification.

655. Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

2019-09-21

When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell.

656. Bergman: A Year in the Life

2019-09-22

Documentary that exposes a darker, less well-known side of film director Ingmar Bergman, focusing on the landmark year of 1957, which saw Bergman direct two films and four plays.

657. The $50 Million Art Swindle

2019-09-23

This feature-length documentary for Arena by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the remarkable story of a charlatan art dealer who swindled over $50 million from the art estab…

658. A British Guide to the End of the World

2019-11-04

Haunting film about Britain and the nuclear age, from the first bomb tests to our potentially futile preparations for attack during the Cold War.

659. Everything Is Connected - George Eliot's Life

2019-11-10

Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot in an experimental film made up of a diverse cast of people.

660. Seamus Heaney and the Music of What Happens

2019-12-30

Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 - but his career a…

661. Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall

2020-03-07

Made across six months in the run-up to publication of 'The Mirror and the Light', the final book in Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, t…

662. The Changin’ Times of Ike White

2020-05-18

In 1974, Ike White recorded an album while serving life for murder. The album became his ticket to freedom. But, just as he was on the cusp of stardom, Ike disappeared.

663. I Am Not Your Negro

2020-06-20

Through the words of James Baldwin, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers.

664. Keith Haring: Street Art Boy

2020-07-04

The definitive story of international art sensation Keith Haring, told using previously unheard interviews. Haring blazed a trail through the art scene of 80s New York and revolut…

665. Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat

2020-11-21

xclusive testimony reveals the multifaceted man behind the maverick performer Fela Kuti, who created a sound for a continent - Afrobeat.

666. My Father and Me

2021-03-21

For decades among the foremost names in documentary, Nick Broomfield has often implicated himself in the film-making process with honesty and candour. Yet never has he made a movi…

667. Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes

2021-05-16

Docudrama portrait of Delia Derbyshire, the electronic sound pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme tune, exploring the idea that this extraordinary composer herself lived outside of…

668. African Apocalypse

2021-05-22

British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander travels to West Africa to discover the modern-day impact on its people of atrocities that took place over a century ago.

669. Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture

2021-05-29

An exploration – from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Grace Jones – of how black artists use the sci-fi genre to examine black history and imagine new, alternative futures.

670. Painted with My Hair

2021-10-31

How a US lifer survived long-term solitary confinement through a remarkable pen-pal friendship and the making of beautiful little paintings from M&M's.

671. B. Catling: Where Does It All Come From?

2021-11-21

An investigation into the extraordinary life and work of B. Catling, an eye-popping insight into the late-flourishing career of a maverick artist, teacher and performer.

672. The Vasulka Effect

2021-11-28

An Arena documentary about the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka, which reveals the profound effect they had on the American avant-garde.

673. The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

2022-02-13

Documentary that follows Björn Andrésen, the boy catapulted to fame when Luchino Visconti chose him to play Tadzio in his screen adaptation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.

674. River

2022-07-25

River takes its audience on a journey through space and time spanning six continents, showing rivers on a scale and from perspectives never seen before.

675. James Joyce’s Ulysses

2022-09-07

A hundred years after its publication, this film reveals the tawdry, shocking, poetic, uplifting and gloriously kaleidoscopic humanity of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses.

676. T.S. Eliot: Into the Waste Land

2022-10-22

2022 marks the centenary of one of the defining poems of the 20th century, 'The Waste Land'. TS Eliot's groundbreaking work first exploded into the world on 15 October 1922 and ha…

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

2022-11-27

A visually arresting feature documentary, set in the present but which tells the rich story of Haiti’s past, that follows a number of carnival performers in the lead-up to, and du…

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

2023-04-22

he life and career of the pioneering musician, a black artist who grew up in the segregated American South and broke down barriers and took 1950s America by storm. The Beatles and…

679. The Mysterious Mr Lagerfeld

2023-04-26

With unique access to Karl Lagerfeld’s inner circle - many having never spoken publicly before - and his beloved cat, this film opens up the extraordinary world of the man known a…

680. The Stones and Brian Jones

2023-05-15

A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, key to the success of the band.

681. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

2023-06-04

A profile of artist and activist Nan Goldin, using slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage to tell the story of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accounta…

682. Coco Chanel Unbuttoned

2023-09-15

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel transformed women's fashion, a truly revolutionary designer whose influence is still evident today. Her designs called into question the role of women, sex…

683. Being Kae Tempest

2023-11-29

Poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest is one of the most viscerally exciting artists working in Britain today. They are the youngest ever recipient of the pres…

684. Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy

2023-12-25

A celebration of the unique life and talent of Caroline Aherne, featuring unseen photographs and contributions from a cast of her lifelong friends, including Steve Coogan, Jon Tho…

685. Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story

2023-12-26

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

686. Maria Callas: The Final Act

2024-12-29

In this new film from Arena, a cast of musical experts and admirers uncover the truth about the Maria Callas myth and the gift of her extraordinary voice.

687. Alan Bennett 90 Years On

2024-12-13

In May 2024, Alan Bennett turned 90. This film celebrates the life and long career of one of Britain's best-loved playwrights. Part frank reflection on the ageing process, part re…

688. Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem

2024-12-14

Launched 30 years ago, Loaded magazine epitomised the 90s in its irreverence and appetite for hedonism. But how did it stand up to pressure to put more 'sexy babes' on the cover?

689. From Roger Moore with Love

2024-12-15

Friends, family and co-stars take part in this revealing and entertaining look at British icon Roger Moore and his rise to global fame. With rare home-movie footage.

690. Steven McRae: Dancing Back to the Light

2024-12-16

At the peak of his career, acclaimed ballet dancer Steven McRae severely damages his Achilles tendon. This is the story of his rehabilitation and the days leading up to his triump…

691. My Brain: After the Rupture

2024-12-17

The incredible story of broadcaster, journalist, musician and author Clemency Burton-Hill's recovery following a devastating brain haemorrhage in early 2020.

692. McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass

2024-12-18

The disappearance of McCartney’s original Höfner bass over 50 years ago is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great mysteries. This is the story of the iconic instrument and the quest to find…

Arena

Seasons

1. Theatre

2. Art and Design

3. Theatre

4. Art and Design

5. Theatre

6. Art and Design

7. Theatre

8. Art and Design

9. Theatre

10. Art and Design

11. Theatre

12. Art and Design

13. Theatre

14. Art and Design

15. Theatre

16. Art and Design

17. Theatre

18. Art and Design

19. Theatre

20. Art and Design

21. Theatre

22. Art and Design

23. Theatre

24. Art and Design

25. Theatre: Happy Birthday Royal Court

26. Art and Design: Art for Money's Sake?

27. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 1

28. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 2

29. Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 3

30. Theatre: A Dream Come True

31. Robert Altman

32. Art and Design: After Samuel Palmer

33. Frank Westmore

34. Theatre

35. Cinema: Eric Rohmer

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

37. Cinema: Don Siegel

38. Theatre: The Cultural Common Market

39. Cinema

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

41. Cinema

42. Theatre: Brecht in Newcastle

43. Cinema: Christmas Special

44. Cinema

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

46. Cinema

47. Theatre: Spokesong/At Home with Mole

48. Cinema

49. Art and Design: Ralph Steadman

50. Cinema

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

52. Cinema

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

54. Cinema

55. Theatre: A Night Out

56. Cinema

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

58. Cinema

59. Theatre: The Prospect Before Us

60. Cinema

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

62. Cinema

63. Cinema

64. Cinema

65. Theatre: Playwrights of the 70's

66. Edinburgh Festival

67. Cinema

68. Cinema

69. Art and Design

70. Cinema

71. Theatre

72. Cinema: Greece

73. Art and Design: Richard Seifert

74. Cinema

75. Theatre: Hands Off the Classics

76. Cinema: 21st London Film Festival

77. Art and Design: The Family/Wrapping up the Reichstag

78. Cinema: 21st London Film Festival - Part 2