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Private Notes
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 for The Rake's Progress.
George Melly looks at how they sold the 70's and a report on the opening of the Space Studios.
An interview with Howard Barker, author of 'Stripwell', and an extract from same; commentary by Kenneth Tynan; and an investigation of 'Birds of Paradise'.
Cartoonist Mel Caiman on the New Yorker magazine and its artists, Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine Gallery, and a new documentary exhibition from Jarrow.
Peter Hall talks about the history and new South Band location of the National Theater, where he is artistic director.
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 science fiction illustration.
Extract from a contemporary play and Kenneth Tynan opines.
Shirley Conran is the guest columnist; fashion photographer Barry Lategan is filmed working; and Victorian painter Edward Burne-Jones' London exhibition.
Deborah Norton reviews British stage events, a play extract, and Kenneth Tynan opines about the theatre.
Guest columnist Terry Measham; a look into the work of painter and poet Charles Tomlinson.
Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova rehearse for a BBC New Year Gala Performance; Kenneth Tynan draws a portrait of Albert Finney.
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 Architectural Heritage Year.
Deborah Norton returns with reports, interviews and extracts from what is liveliest and best in the British theatrical scene.
Jonathan Miller introduces this week's look at what is most stimulating and enjoyable on the theatrical scene.
A look at American photographer Paul Strand and recent trends in British photography.
Arena goes to Scarborough for the British premiere of a new Alan Ayckbourn play "Just Between Ourselves".
Arena looks at aspects of community art and the work of painter Keith Grant, artist-in-residence at the New Charing Cross Hospital.
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'.
Arena talks with Robert Janz and Dante Leonelli about incorporating time into sculpture.
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.
Arena presents the work of British and American video artists.
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.
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.
Alumni of the Royal Court celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Barrie Penrose investigates a multi-national art empire and the artists and methods that created it.
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 revue.
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 of Figaro'.
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 Crisp.
A look at the opening of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Gavin Miller interviews the director Robert Altman on "M*A*S*H", "Nashville", "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" and more.
David Gould, the expert who discovered Tom Keating's Samuel Palmer imitations, shows the process of identifying and analyzing suspected pictures.
Gavin Millar talks with Frank Westmore, whose family has dominated the make-up departments of American cinema for decades.
Peter Shaffer, writer of 'Equus', talks about his plays, his life and the theatre with an excerpt from the 1976 stage production of 'Equus'.
Gavin Millar interviews director Eric Rohmer about 'Die Marquise von O', 'Claire's Knee' and 'Love in the Afternoon'.
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 suburbia.
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 typecast by his success in one specialized genre.
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 Planchon's scenes from his Blues, Whites and Reds.
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.
Sculpture for the Blind - a special Tate Gallery exhibition; Linda Benedict-Jones, photographer; James Boswell - a revival of his war pictures.
Arena speaks with Spanish directors at the Madrid premiere of 'The Long Vacation of 36'.
20th anniversary tribute to Bertolt Brecht at Newcastle's University Theatre with scenes from 'The Good Woman of Setzuan' and prose, poetry and music.
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 Marriage'; and the results of the Titles Competition.
Gavin Millar talks to Mel Brooks just before the London release of 'Silent Movie'.
An introduction to the magical world of wood-sculptor Sam Smith, plus a look at one of this month's major exhibitions.
Gavin Miller talks to director Martin Ritt, writer Walter Bernstein, and actors Woody Allen and Zero Mostel about 'The Front'
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 Stoppard's 'Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land'.
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 Patty Hearst trial and the Watergate hearings.
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.
Peter Stein, director of Die Schaubuhne theatre co-operative, comes to London with his Shakespeare Project. Includes extracts from 'Summerfolk' and 'Shakespeare's Memory'.
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.
Arena investigates holograms and their potential in the arts; artist Kit Williams' vivid folklore paintings.
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.
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 are doing it and why they think they should go on doing it.
A look at Ealing Studios, including excerpts of many of their popular films.
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 Gothic art in Cologne.
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'.
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' by Christopher Logue.
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.
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.
Arena looks at erotic films, including 'Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus', 'Hardcore', and 'Come Play With Me'.
An interview with Sophia Loren on the occasion of the opening of 'The Cassandra Crossing'.
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 circus than a trade fair. But for all that, film people find it an indispensable fortnight in their calendar. More buying, selling and setting up of movies takes place in the jostling corridors of the Carlton Hotel in the last two weeks of May than anywhere else the rest of the year. A report on the business and the ballyhoo.
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 Stephen Poli akoff have been performed at the Royal Court, the Aldwych, in the West End and at the National Theatre. The plays they write are about violence, sex and politics. How accurate and useful is their portrayal of society? What is the reason for their success? What are their own roots, influences and attitudes? In an extended Arena, writer and critic Albert Hunt assesses this renaissance of British playwrights, which has given the theatre of the 70s a distinctive voice. Including interviews with, and extracts of plays by: Howard Bren ton, Trevor Griffiths, David Hare, Barrie Keeffe and John McGrath.
Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimental shows, Film Festival, Television Festival, and art galleries.
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 one of its ruling princes, John Franken heimer, director of The Manchurian Candidate and Grand Prix, about his career in the Dream Factory, and especially his latest suspense thriller Black Sunday.
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen talk about the filming of 'Annie Hall' and their long friendship.
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 vandalism.
George Melly explores his lifelong relationship with surrealism in all its forms and prominent personalities; Henry Moore discusses Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings.
A tribute to the British filmmaker Alan Clarke (1935-1990).
Arena explores the rise of the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra from his early family background to overwhelming showbusiness success. Interviews with friends, family and associates reveal a star-studded career in music and film.
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.
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.
Deborah Norton returns with reports, interviews and extracts from what is liveliest and best in the British theatrical scene.
Jonathan Miller introduces this week's look at what is most stimulating and enjoyable on the theatrical scene.
A look at American photographer Paul Strand and recent trends in British photography.
Arena goes to Scarborough for the British premiere of a new Alan Ayckbourn play "Just Between Ourselves".
Arena looks at aspects of community art and the work of painter Keith Grant, artist-in-residence at the New Charing Cross Hospital.
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'.
Arena talks with Robert Janz and Dante Leonelli about incorporating time into sculpture.
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.
Art and Design
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.
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.
Alumni of the Royal Court celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Barrie Penrose investigates a multi-national art empire and the artists and methods that created it.
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 revue.
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 of Figaro'.
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 Crisp.
A look at the opening of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Gavin Miller interviews the director Robert Altman on "M*A*S*H", "Nashville", "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" and more.
David Gould, the expert who discovered Tom Keating's Samuel Palmer imitations, shows the process of identifying and analyzing suspected pictures.
Gavin Millar talks with Frank Westmore, whose family has dominated the make-up departments of American cinema for decades.
Peter Shaffer, writer of 'Equus', talks about his plays, his life and the theatre with an excerpt from the 1976 stage production of 'Equus'.
Gavin Millar interviews director Eric Rohmer about 'Die Marquise von O', 'Claire's Knee' and 'Love in the Afternoon'.
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 suburbia.
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 typecast by his success in one specialized genre.
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 Planchon's scenes from his Blues, Whites and Reds.
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.
Sculpture for the Blind - a special Tate Gallery exhibition; Linda Benedict-Jones, photographer; James Boswell - a revival of his war pictures.
Arena speaks with Spanish directors at the Madrid premiere of 'The Long Vacation of 36'.
20th anniversary tribute to Bertolt Brecht at Newcastle's University Theatre with scenes from 'The Good Woman of Setzuan' and prose, poetry and music.
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 Marriage'; and the results of the Titles Competition.
Gavin Millar talks to Mel Brooks just before the London release of 'Silent Movie'.
An introduction to the magical world of wood-sculptor Sam Smith, plus a look at one of this month's major exhibitions.
Gavin Miller talks to director Martin Ritt, writer Walter Bernstein, and actors Woody Allen and Zero Mostel about 'The Front'
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 Stoppard's 'Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land'.
A fortnightly look at the big screen at home and abroad. News, views and interviews presented by Gavin Millar.
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 Patty Hearst trial and the Watergate hearings.
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.
Peter Stein, director of Die Schaubuhne theatre co-operative, comes to London with his Shakespeare Project. Includes extracts from 'Summerfolk' and 'Shakespeare's Memory'.
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.
Arena investigates holograms and their potential in the arts; artist Kit Williams' vivid folklore paintings.
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.
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 are doing it and why they think they should go on doing it.
A look at Ealing Studios, including excerpts of many of their popular films.
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 Gothic art in Cologne.
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'.
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' by Christopher Logue.
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.
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.
Arena looks at erotic films, including 'Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus', 'Hardcore', and 'Come Play With Me'.
An interview with Sophia Loren on the occasion of the opening of 'The Cassandra Crossing'.
Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimental shows, Film Festival, Television Festival, and art galleries.
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 one of its ruling princes, John Frankenheimer, director of The Manchurian Candidate and Grand Prix, about his career in the Dream Factory, and especially his latest suspense thriller Black Sunday.
Martin Scorsese 's film New York, New York starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli is his most ambitious film to date. Not just a nostalgic homage to the Hollywood musical but a personal work that means as much to him, says Scorsese as Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Gavin Millar talks to Scorsese in San Francisco and the programme includes rare interviews with Robert De Nira , Liza Minnelli and Jodie Foster.
William Feaver introduces the latest work of this unique and controversial artist, known since the 60s as our foremost concrete poet. We visit Finláy's remote home in Scotland, where he has constructed his garden as a poem, a submarine noses its way through the bushes, an aircraft-carrier functions as a bird bath, and the sign on his front lawn tells us to beware of mines - Achtung Minen ! Plus Cleveland Brown a truly original naive painter from North London whose subjects include the Spaghetti House Siege and the Queen's Jubilee.
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen talk about the filming of 'Annie Hall' and their long friendship.
Second only to North Sea oil, the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre is Scotland's most staggering and unlikely success story. Despite its location on a devastated patch of Gorbals' ground, it attracts a large and dedicated audience for its bold and often spectacular productions. A look at the company, its policy, its audience and its plays.
The Colonels have gone - and Greek cinema is emerging again. Gavin Millar talks to Melina Mercouri in Athens where she is finishing her first film since her return from exile.
This month features Richard Seifert , who created much of the new sky-line of London. His high-rise blocks - most notably Centre Point - have been the cause of controversy and scandal, while the architect himself has remained an elusive and enigmatic figure. Now he talks to Arena about his career, his personal reason for city planning, and his present attitude to high-rise building. Plus Cleveland Brown : the work of a truly original North London ' naive ' painter - postponed from last month. And another discovery: an exhibition of dazzling patchwork pictures made by the wives of political prisoners in Chile.
A fortnightly look at the big screen at home and abroad: news, views and interviews presented by Gavin Millar
Messing around with the classics has a long and honoured history. In the 17th century Troilus and Cressida was produced with all the dirty bits cut out. In the 18th, King Lear had a happy ending. In the 19th, vast chunks were sliced off the classics to make way for ballet and vaudeville. In our own century we take a scalpel to the classic rather than a hatchet. Nevertheless a fascinating and vitriolic debate is now raging over the border line between interpretation and vandalism.
Introduced by Gavin Millar This week sees the opening of the 21st London Film Festival -the festival of festivals - with new films from 24 countries. Bertolucci, Angelopoulos, Herzog, James Ivory , Marguerite Duras and most of the brightest names in cinema will be here to see their films screened. Arena: Cinema reports on this year's highlights.
The Family: Michael Bennett introduces Uncle Cyril and other members of his own family whom he has immortalised in an exhibition of photographs. Wrapping up the Reichstag: The artist Christo has parcelled up buildings, coastlines, and human beings, hung an orange curtain across a Colorado gulf and created a two-million-dollar nylon fence along 25 miles of American farm-land. Last week CHRISTO was in London, and he explained to Arena his latest project- wrapping up the Reichstag in Berlin. The Wireless Show
This year's London Film Festival -the 21st - has been one of the biggest ever with a wider spread of films - in scale, nationality, genre and politics - than ever before. But one of the constant themes in pictures big and small has been the political struggle of Left and Right: fascism still seems everybody's favourite subject. Featuring Bertolucci's 1900, and films by Larissa Shepitko , Syberberg, Tanner and Gutierrez.
Leonard Rossiter is currently tackling his most demanding role as The Immortal Haydon. Alone on stage for two hours, he portrays the mad 18th-century painter Benjamin Haydon , whose life of wild fantasy and ambition ended in suicide. Nola Rae is a mime artist, clown, and one of the funniest women on the stage. She re-creates for Arena some of her bizarre and poignant characters, and Michael Dean makes a valiant attempt to interview her.
The Deep opens in London this week. Written by the man who wrote Jaws, Peter Benchley , it's been the biggest grosser in the USA this year-after Star Wars, of course. Although it features an underwater Jacqueline Bisset menaced by a moray eel, it has nothing to do with Jaws, swears its British director PETER YATES. Yates has been one of our more successful exports since Steve McQueen asked him over to direct Bullitt.
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 often been disrupted and brought to an end by fighting.
George Melly makes an unusual journey to the 1978 Surrealist Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London.
Examines the current controversy over the blurring of boundaries between drama and documentary. Looks at the conventions programme makers use who make drama documentaries and faction programmes.
A special edition of ARENA: ROCK featuring rock group The Tubes.
TV Documentary on the actress. It shows her in rehearsal, in performance, and talking about her commitment to an acting career.
Film portrait of the New Wave singer-songwriter, Poly Styrene.
David Bowie was the first person to write English lyrics to the original tune of what eventually became the global hit, My Way. Claude Francois, a big name in his native France, wrote and performed the original song called, Comme d’habitude which means ‘As Usual.’ It was quite common in the 60s for European hits to be picked up by British or American publishers, who would in turn commission somebody to apply an English lyric to the tune. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Dusty Springfield is a good example, it was originally an Italian hit. The European publisher would make money from the re-version, the Brits and the American publishers would make money, so everybody ate.
Rudies Come Back or The Rise and Rise of 2-Tone
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 Arena film features the superb concert they played on their last visit to The Rainbow, and band members talk about their music and the pressures and consequences of their astonishing success.
Programme which looks at the life and work of French film director Rene Clair and his work in France and Hollywood. With Leslie Caron, Gina Lollobrigida, Jean- Pierre Cassel, Claude Autant-Lara and Michel Boisrond.
Documentary about the Chelsea Hotel in New York, a legendary haven for the some of the greatest artistic talent of the 20th century, from Mark Twain to Dylan Thomas. Andy Warhol and William Burroughs have dinner in the room where Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001, and Quentin Crisp, who lived in the hotel for more than 35 years, recalls moving in.
Since 1923 the Radio Times has been a leader in design & illustration & Eric Fraser one of its regular contributors talks about his work. > Through out the film covers & illustrations from the Radio Times from 1923 to the present day are featured with a soundtrack composed of excerpts from radio progs incl music, sport, comedy, lectures & early radio announcements. Eric FRASER talks about his change of style from humour to a more serious style since the war, his favourite type of work & how he manages to work to a script & produce designs very quickly. The intv with Fraser & vars hm working on an illustration are intercut through out the film. Name FRASER, Eric
Documentary on two very individual English Artists. Sam Smith, who carves wooden toys and models evocative of the Edwardian era, and Chris Orr, illustrator of the minutes of suburbia.
Documentary whcih looks at the role of Radio One D.J. John Peel and his producer John Walters have had in the encouragement of rock bands who have yet to break through into commercial recording.
Documentary on Edward Hopper, american painter, whose work is the subject of an exhibition in London at the moment.
Documentary on the staging of The Ik in a quarry near Adelaide in australia by Peter Brook's travelling theatre company. Tribal Aboriginal performers travelled 1000's of miles to see the performance, along with popular plays presented by them.
Documentary looking at Britain's smallest theatre, run in Scotland by Barrie and Marrianne Hesketh for the last seventeen years, in which they take all the part s, design and direct all the shows.
Documentary profile of film director John Huston.
Documentary profile of leading Israeli writer, Amos Oz in which he talks about t he thirty year history of the Israeli state whilst touring his home city of Jerusalem.
Film Portrait of William Gerhardie who died in 1977, whose book Bod's Fifth Colu mn was published in 1981. Michael Holroyd discusses Gerhardie's life and work a nd introduces an interview recorded in 1971.
Profile of pop singer Gary Glitter, who "retired" in 1976 and who was soon hopelessly in debt, but whose career has shown recent signs of revival.
Programme which looks at some of the films of silent film comedian Lupino Lane, whose work was mostly destroyed when his studio went bankrupt in the twenties. However exracts from 14 of his restored films are featured here.
Profile of american painter Robert Natkin, who talks about the early influences on his life.
Documentary which examines the effects of the cuts in education spending on Britain's Youth Orchestras, looking in particular at the example of Leicestershire schools.
Documentary looking at the future of the National Youth Theatre, looking at its history and the financial threats to its future exsistance. With interviews with Sir Ralph Richardson, Kate Adie, Martin Jarvis, Peter Terson, Helen Mirren.
Documentary in which Polish film director Wajda is interviewed in Warsaw and Cra cow shortly after receiving the Palm D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. He talks about his films and his avoidance of censorship as a film-maker in Poland.
Portrait of comedy film writer, director and sometime actor, Mel Brooks filmed on location in Hollywood with Gene Wilder, Dom de Louise and Sid Caeser.
Documentary about the image on the Mona Lisa and the various contexts in which the image can be seen throughout the world.
Documentary which looks at the development of an idea for a play by Hanif Kureishi through the group improvisation and ideas of the Joint Stock Theatre Company to the first performance of the finished play, Borderline.
Documentary on British film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who talk about their career in partnership which produced some now-acknowledged "classics" of British Cinema, with comment from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Documentary which features the view of Booker prize-winning author Salman Rushdie of India through the eyes of his hero from the novel `Midnight's Children', Saleem Sinai.
Documentary in which Jamaican-born poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, now resident in Brixton, visits Carifesta, a festival of West Indian culture held in Barbados, and surveys a small part of the very diverse cultural activity of the Islands. Performers include: South Stars - Trinidad; Network - Trinidad; Shake Keane - St Vincent; Bahamas National Dance Company; The Soulful Groovers - the Bahamas; Rebirth; the Renegades - Trinidad; Drama Group - Montserrat; the Mighty Arrow - Montserrat; Chronicle Atlantic Symphony Steel Orchestra; Michael Smith - Jamaica; the Dicey Doh Singers - Bahamas; the Mighty Sparrow - Trinidad; Irakere - Cuba.
First of a two-part film profile of Orson Welles, looking at his life and career in theatre, radio and particularly film. With Jeanne Moreau, John Huston, Peter Bogdanovitch, Robert Wise, Charlton Heston, and a detailed interview with Welles himself. This part deals with his work up to Touch of Evil.
Second of a two-part profile of Orson Welles, looking at films including The Trial, Chimes at Midnight, The Immortal Story and F for Fake and discussing his many unfinished projects, including The Other Side of the Wind and Don Quixote.
Arena celebrates Roy Plomley's Desert Island Discs with the help of many celebrity castaways, including Paul McCartney, Frankie Howerd, Russell Harty, Trevor Brooking, the Lord Mayor of London, Professor J.K. Galbraith and Arthur Askey. The special guest for the 40th anniversary programme was Paul McCartney who was also a fan of the show: "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."
This quirky Arena, made in 1982, looks back to a time when the humble Ford Cortina was the most popular, and the most stolen, car in Britain.
Documentary which looks at the life and premature death of rock n' Roll star Eddie Cochran, with comment from Larry Parnes, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Cochran's mother and his fiancee Sharon Sheeley.
Anthony Wall Director Stars: The Everly BrothersIke EverlyTed Everly Filming locations Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London, England, UK(reunion concert footage)
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 as a patriot in 1940, his ill-starred career as a producer at the BBC, and later as a columnist on Tribune. The film closes with the end of the war and the writing of Orwell's masterpiece Animal Farm. with Douglas Cleverdon , Lettice Cooper , Tosco Fyvel, Anthony Powell and Malcolm Muggeridge
'I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive. The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasise that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism if not fought against could triumph anywhere.' 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 bereavement and despair at the future of Britain under the post-war Labour government, Orwell retreated to the remote Hebridean island of Jura. It was here, crippled with tuberculosis and isolated from the rest of the world, that Orwell cared for his adopted infant son, Richard, and wrote his last novel Nineteen Eighty-four-a nightmare vision of a totalitarian future in which Big Brother controls not only the lives but also the thoughts of his citizens, and love and individual freedom is no more than a distant memory. Among those appearing are Avril Dunn Bill Dunn Susan Watson Sonia Orwell and Richard Blair
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 heart of much of today's popular music. Thomas A. Dorsey , 'father' and virtual inventor of gospel music, haunted the sinful world of the blues singers as 'Georgia Tom', before turning his music over to God in the early 1920s. In doing so, he remarks, '... I was thrown out of some of the best churches'. Willie Mae Ford Smith suffered similar setbacks, both as a woman evangelist in a predominantly male world and from those who considered her music too spirited to be truly religious. '... You make us sick with that stuff - you might as well be Bessie Smith or one of those Smith sisters!' Tonight's film features some astonishing scenes of gospel revivalism in 'Mother' Smith's Antioch Baptist Church, while the Massed Gospel Choirs Convention honours 84-year-old 'Doctor' Dorsey who crowns the proceedings with an impassioned reading of his classic song 'Precious Lord take my hand'.
At 10.5 precisely on 17 February 19**, that grande-dame of Antipodean culture, Edna May Everage, drew her first breath in the modest suburb of Moonee Ponds. On Arena tonight, live by satellite from Sydney, Australia, cultural attache Sir Les Patterson salutes a megastar of the entertainment firmament. On this auspicious day - a day which is rumoured, incidentally, to coincide with the 50th birthday of reclusive impresario Barry Humphries-Sir Les introduces precious fragments from the BBC archive which relive the agony and the ecstasy of 'La Dame aux Gladiolas'. Narration David Dimbleby
NTHONY 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 luxury. Sadly in a public place nothing very exciting is meant to go on.' RICHARD HAMILTON : 'I took the idea of a room in an institution as a way of looking at the times we live in.' MARC CHAIMOWICZ: 'There are hints of a liaison between two people, like a frozen frame from a film.' Four leading contemporary artists take on an unusual and imaginative commission, to design and build a room of their own.
Playwright, actor, clown, teacher and philosopher, he is an international celebrity with two West-End smash hits to his credit - Can Pay? Won't Pay! and Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He is also a passionate collector of theatre history and a great hero of the Italian Left. Arena filmed DARIO FO against the background of medieval Italy, working with students in Umbria, at home in Milan and against the colourful backdrop of the Venice Carnival, where he performed his triumphant one-man comic show, Mistero Buffo.
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 made famous by Philip Marlowe in the Chandler books. Film star mansions give way to tatty motels; exclusive offices stand alongside nightclubs with aspiring comics and amateur nude contests. Then the famous 'strip' and Hollywood's legendary coffee shop, Schwabs, where, they say, a girl in a tight sweater turned into Lana Turner. Meet some of Sunset's most colourful and improbable residents - the failed showbiz impresario who made his millions selling cookies and the high-rise developer who let John Wayne take his cow up in the lift.... the lucky ones have achieved a peculiarly Hollywood brand of success, but every day on Sunset you meet the other ones - still looking for a break, for a job, for a deal. All of them still trying to play their part in the Hollywood dream.
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 Watson. The Caravaggio Conspiracy is a true story of a remarkable collaboration between dealers, auction houses and the law to transform Peter Watson , an ignorant outsider, into an international art dealer. Tonight Arena, with the help of the participants, traces the story of how Watson, with a fake limp straight from the pages of a thriller, and a potted knowledge from books of art history, conned his way into a world of mafiosi and art dealers and recovered two masterpieces of stolen Renaissance art.
David Inshaw belongs to a great tradition of English Romantic Painting - the tradition of Stanley Spencer , Samuel Palmer and the Fre-Raphelites. His most famous painting 'The Badminton Game' now hangs in the Tate Gallery. For years he was a member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists, a group of painters, among them Peter Blake , preoccupied with English pastoral themes. But Inshaw s pictures tell their own story - of people, places and objects meticulously and magically recalled. Abandoning conventional interviews and commentary, tonight's film offers a journey into David Inshaw 's haunting, imaginative world.
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 Monitor, it marked the arrival of the dramatised arts documentary and proved to be one of the most popular television films ever made. An unashamedly romantic evocation of the composer's life and inspiration in the Malvern Hills, the film nevertheless foreshadowed Russell's later, more contentious, work with his darkly ironic counterpoint of 'Land of hope and glory' with the battle scenes and graveyards of the First World War. Narrated by Huw Wheldon
For the first time on British television, Arena presents a concert by this great legend ot rock n roll. Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't sound like anybody else -the voice, the piano and the on-stage antics make an unforgettable combination. He plays and sings today exactly as he did when he made his first records, and as a special bonus the concert is preceded by rare footage of him performing 'Whole lotta shakin" in 1957. Since then he has kept his reputation for wildness, eccentricity and the ability to hold an audience spellbound. Last May Arena's cameras captured him in top form.
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 Paris with his Vietnamese wife Yolande - their marriage was regarded as 'fornication' under South African law - decided to return to his native country under a false passport, with the intention of recruiting workers against the Government and its policy of apartheid. Breytenbach was betrayed, arrested and sentenced to nine years. This year, two versions of his horrific experience of South African jails are to be published - Mouroir, a surreal account of his life in prison and True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. Tonight Arena presents the story of this extraordinary man including some of the poetry and paintings completed in prison and smuggled out of South Africa.
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 , shocked the conservative public in 1958 and his Indian documentaries were candid enough to concern the Indian government. Even in the permissive 70s, Malle found ways to provoke, depicting child prostitution in Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields , and corruption in Lacombe Lucien , about a collaborator in wartime France. Wallace Shawn, the American playwright and actor, first worked with Louis Malle in Atlantic City, USA. They became friends and Malle directed a film that Shawn had written called My Dinner with Andre. Arena took LOUIS MALLE and WALLACE SHAWN back to Atlantic City.
' ... the first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history.... before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.' 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 the pro-Soviet government, his continued life there finally became impossible. Prague has continued to be the setting for all of Kundera's writing. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting brought him to a wide international readership and was compared favourably with Gogol and Kafka. The New York Times wrote: 'It is impossible in this space to do justice to a masterwork. Kundera makes music out of history.' His new book The Unbearable Lightness of Being has been eagerly awaited and on the occasion of its publication Arena talks to Kundera in Paris and seeks reactions to his work from George Theiner , Karol Kyncl , Ian McEwan and Edward Goldstucker
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. Tonight Dirk Bogarde , star of The Servant, who first worked with him 30 years ago, remembers Losey and his distinguished career. Production ROSEMARY WILTON An Arena presentation followed by The Servant starring Dirk Bogarde James Fox , Sarah Miles In this highly acclaimed film of the 60s Joseph Losey successfully collaborated with playwright Harold Pinter and actor Dirk Bogarde. Tony, a rich young man, takes on a manservant, Barrett, to run his Chelsea home. Barrett seizes the opportunity to turn Tony's Georgian ruin into an elegant home. And gradually the relationship between master and servant begins to change ...
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 popular music culture since punk. Gary 'The Crown' Byrd raps us through the elements of Hip Hop - breakdancing, body-popping, graffiti art, rapping and scratching-and introduces us to its heroes. We meet Cool Hero, its legendary first DJ; the head-spinning breakdancing Dynamic Rockers; romeo rappers the Cold Crush Brothers and white funksters Malcolm McLaren and Mel Brooks. And we take the 'A' Train to Planet Rock-the devastated homeland of Hip Hop , better known as New York's South Bronx-to meet the 'Godfather' himself, Afrika Bambaataa whose wild youth as a member of the notorious Black Spades gang, led him to forsake violence for music and dance and found a new and powerful New York tribe called the Zulu Nation.
The first of two films about great names of American popular music. Tonight, the Everly Brothers, whose hits like 'Cathy's clown', 'Bye bye love' and 'Wake up little Susie' defined a generation. Yet their formidable succession of bestsellers had its origins deep in the musical traditions of rural America. 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. Their father Ike was an influential guitar picker and hosted the Everly Family Radio Show in the Mid West in the 40s and 50s. It was here that Don and Phil made their public debut. Arena retraces the Everlys' journey, from guitar picking in Kentucky with Ike's friend
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 death in a New York hospital at the age of 44, is told in the words of her closest friends and colleagues - but mostly through the songs themselves. Arena has assembled an unprecedented number of her filmed performances. Songs, including 'God bless the child', 'Don't explain' and 'Fine and mellow', are performed with the legendary names of jazz's golden age - among them Lester Young , Louis Armstrong , Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington. With Carmen McRae , Artie Shaw , John Hammond , Leonard Feather Norman Granz and Alice Vrbsky , Lady Day's maid and confidante of her last years.
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 of the earliest talkies, Eubie's classic 'I'm just wild about Harry' and a visit to singer Alberta Hunter.
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 contentious painters working today, and he still paints the human figure with the same conviction and intensity that startled the art world at his first exhibition nearly 40 years ago. Tonight, amid the spectacular disorder of his Chelsea studio, Bacon talks on film with great candour, to his friend of many years, the distinguished writer and critic David Sylvester.
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 cathedrals and palaces on scraps of paper, and the innocence of those early visionary sketches is evident in all his later work-from the cathedral in Tulsa he designed at the age of 22 to his extraordinary domestic monuments built for the American householder. A friend and disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright , Goff continued to pioneer well into his 70s. Arena went with him to his native midwest to see some of his astonishingly varied and inventive commissions.
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 early 70s with his unique fusion of traditional rhythm and jazz melodies known as Afro-Beat. Fela's music speaks of the conflict between the European colonial heritage and the traditional African past and cries out forcefully against corruption, exploitation and cultural betrayal. This programme interweaves Fela's music with the story of his struggle against the Nigerian authorities to retain his position as the musical conscience of independent Africa.
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 continues the autobiographical theme. As theatre director Henrik Vogler sits alone on an empty stage after rehearsal Anna, a young actress, suddenly returns to the theatre to talk about her part.... The director is both cynical and affectionate; he is sick and tired of the theatre but still in love with, and fascinated by, his actors. Bergman refers to it as a chamber-work for television, a meditation on life in the theatre and, even more, on what it's like to be old. Earlier this year
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 you saw the real thing. Meet Enrique Jorrin , creator of the cha-cha-cha; listen to the septet at the Casa de la Trova, Santiago; the jazz of Irakere; the passionate songs of Pablo Milanes , and the evocative music of family groups still carrying on traditions from 100 years ago. Watch exuberant dancing to the music of popular Los Van Van and, in the courtyard of the Folkloric Company, the rumbas -often remarkably similar to breakdancing - whose forms grew out of the sacred rituals and dances of Cuba's unique Afro-Catholic religions.
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 vie with each other in a virtuoso display of music - music which is, astonishingly, almost unknown in Britain. Last month Arena went to Varadero to capture the event and tonight presents the finest in contemporary Cuban and Latin American music. With Irakere and Arturo Sandoval ; Los Van Van, Cuba's most popular dance band; soul calypso by Dimension Costena from Nicaragua; and bands from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Uruguay. An Arena production in association with CUBAN TELEVISION
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 People at Madison Square Garden; it was an unprecedented step for an opera singer, a spectacular succcess. Along with his favourite arias from grand opera, Pavarotti delighted his audience with popular songs from his native Italy.
BBC2 Arena documentary from 1985, which examines the controversial life and bizarre death of the Japanese author, playwright, actor and patriot, Yukio Mishima, who was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize for literature, and who committed suicide by ritual disembowelment, on 25th November 1970 after attempting a military coup. Using rare archive footage, including film of Mishima giving a final speech just moments before his death, as well as interviews with the author conducted in English, and reminiscences from his former friends and colleagues, including his English born biographer, Henry Scott Stokes, and translator Donald Keene, the film attempts to shed light on what drove him towards his unusual choice of fate.
Interview with Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa.
A look at silent cinema's most enigmatic and erotic icon, featuring rare interviews with Louise Brooks herself, filmed shortly before her death.
Following the publication of his book 'Maus', a comic strip depicting cats and mice in the story of a young Jewish couple arrested and transported to Auschwitz, its creator comic-strip artist, Art Spiegelmann and his family, travel to Auschwitz for the first time.
A 24 hour journey through the streets of London as seen by two writers. Spectator columnist Jeffrey Bernard explores the daylight hours, with thriler writer Celia Fremlin walking the hours of darkness.
Alan Yentob interviews TV dramatist Dennis Potter about his work through the years, touching on subjects such as why and how he started writing, his sense of being different as a child, the insularity of his past in Forest of Dean, starting at the BBC in 1959 and a failed attempt at going into politics.
Story of photographer Martin Chambi, a Peruvian Indian whose photographs of the Inca ruins and Peruvian society brought him to the forefront of revolutionary artistic and social movements in South America in the 1930's.
Director David Lynch presents a guide to the work of the Surrealists.
Documentary on jazz musician Abdullah Ibrahim, a South African who moved to Amer ica in 1965. His music uses a blend of jazz and the traditional styles of South Africa.
Beyond the edges of the frame influential filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another.
Maria Von Trapp, Bob Guccione, Martin Scorsese, Mary O'Hara, Tony Monopoly and o thers talk about their training to become Roman Catholic monks, priests or nuns, and also discuss the similarity between the church and the world of arts and entertainment.
Documentary on the personalities and machines of the trucking industry in Great Britain.
Three part pfofile of writer Evelyn Waugh. Covers the period of his early life with comments from Sir Harold Acton, Lady Diana Mosley, Anthony Powell, Peter Quennell and Graham Greene.
The most productive years of Waugh's writings. With comments from John Mortimer, Kingsley Amis, and Graham Greene.
Documentary tracing the career of controversial German artist Joseph Beuys, from World War II up to his death in 1986.
A profile of Diego Rivera. The portrait compiles testimony from Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, ex-model and lover Bolores Olmedo and painter Jose Luis Cuevas. There is archive footage of Zapata, Trotsky and Rivera himself.
A courtroom 'drama' featuring Bob Guccione versus Ken Russell in a breach of con tract case regarding disagreements over a script for a film version of Daniel De foe's "Moll Flanders" which Guccione hired Russell to direct.
Documentary on the writings of Indians who travelled to Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries and wrote about their experiences.
Woody Guthrie was born into a family made rich by the Oklahoma oil boom. But by the time he was eight years old, his mother was in an insane asylum and his father had lost every penny. His personal life was a catalogue of tragedy and disease, yet he had a vision that inspired two generations of Americans. The dustiest of the Dust Bowlers, Guthrie made his own life into a myth. He appointed himself spokesman for the poor and oppressed and through his songs turned their life into his own. This classic film is full of the songs of Woody Guthrie and contains rare footage of him performing. Guthrie's story is told in his own words and includes extended interviews with friends and family.
50th anniversary tribute to the Beano and Dandy comics. (Synopsis from BFI Film & TV Database)
Performance of Jonathan Miller's production for the Royal Court Theatre, of Ryszard Kapuscinski's "The Emperor", adapted for the stage and television by Michael Hastings and Jonathan Miller. Drama about the last days of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia before his final overthrow.
A journey through southern Spain to meet the Andalucian gypsy families who keep alive the traditions of flamenco.
Profile of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, to accompany the exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery.
Documentary on the thoroughbred horse. Horses include Oh So Sharp, Dancing Brave, Adjal and Reference Point.
John Byrne, author of TUTTI FRUTTI, writes and directs his own film autobiography.
Tenth anniversary edition of the programme, featuring clips from some of the pro grammes of the last ten years.
Interview with Clint Eastwood about his career, his work as a director and the evolution of the Eastwood persona.
Documentary about the work of Michael Ondaatje, including a dramatisation of his ideas.
Report about the Field Day Theatre Company's production of Making History on tour in Northern Ireland.
1989 documentary which takes a look at Europe's most successful holiday resort, famous for its Tower, illuminations, landladies and party political conferences. Includes interviews with Norman Tebbit, John Cole, Paul Theroux and Tony Benn.
Two films by award-winning director Georg Troller, made for West German televisi on's arts programme PERSONENBESCHREIBUNG, profiling Sir Laurens Van Der Post and his work in drawing attention to the plight of Africa's threatened tribes; and on the Texan criminal Albert Sample.
Report from New York, on the import of African gods, myths and rituals into the city by inhabitants of African descent.
Assessment of the life and work of the dramatist Eugene Ionesco.
Tribute to actor and director John Cassavetes who died in February 1989. Friends, associates and fellow directors remember the man and his work.
Special edition of the programme to celebrate the centenary of the juke box.
Documentary on the life and work of architect Berthold Lubetkin.
For some 25 years Graham Greene has found himself the victim of a bizarre masquerade. A man calling himself Graham Greene has opened hotels, courted high society in the south of France and was entertained by tea planters in India convincd he was the real Graham Greene.
An Arena Special looking at the career, development and success of the band over the past 25 years, and including clips from the Stones' own archives and from the hitherto unseen GREAT ROCK 'N' ROLL CIRCUS of 1969, made in answer to the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour". It traces in detail the high and low points of the group over the years and their present continuing success.
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene. Made over seven years, this film offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion houses, from fierce contests for trophies, to house mothers offering sustenance in a world where house members face homophobia and transphobia, racism, Aids and poverty. Paris is Burning celebrates the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.
Havana has a dilapidated ruined beauty - decaying grandeur alongside squalor with a string atmosphere of Africa and Old Spain. Despite the political turmoil of Cuba's last 30 years, its people remain among the most imaginative and fascinating in the world. Under the dictatorship of Castro, Cuba has become a highly regulated state to say the least. Director Jana Bokova persuaded the citizens of Havana to talk about their lives, their city and Cuba, despite their anxieties and fears about opening up to a foreign film crew. The film goes beneath the skin of this legendary city, particularly through its extraordinarily rich music which enables the people to express their true attitudes and feelings. It also visits Little Havana in Miami, 90 miles away, home to some of the one million exiles to have left Cuba in the last 30 years.
Documentary about the life of Frankie Howerd, with help from friends and colleagues and including highlights from his TV and film career.
Profile celebrating the centenary of the famous author Agatha Christie’s birth. Looking at her life, her character and the key moments in her childhood that influenced her writing.
An Arena Special looking at Orson Welles and the production of the film CITIZEN KANE, considering the furore that accompanied it and the real life press baron William Randolph Hearst upon whom Kane is based, and his efforts to halt the film, destroy the negative and persecution of people involved with its production and showing. It includes BBC interviews with Welles made in 1960 and 1982, and film historian Robert Carringer looks at the scenes that never made it to the screen. American film critic Pauline Kael also analyses the film's enduring appeal.
Reenactments of passages from the controversial Kenneth Anger collection of tawdry gossip about the golden age of Hollywood.
Warren Clarke narrates a look at London's world-famous red Routemaster buses which, although designed in the 1950s for a lifespan of just 17 years, was in use into the next century. About Arena
Paul Yates and Peter Blake on their fascination with masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki.
Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham, the inspiration behind Buddy Holly's famous song, is taken back by Arena to Lubbock, Texas, where she went to the same high school as Holly and where her marriage to his drummer Jerry Allison inspired a second tribute, Peggy Sue. Among the other people recalling this era is Peggy Sue's neighbour Donna Fox, who also inspired a 1950s classic, Ritchie Valens's Donna.
Profile of the jazz trumpeter, composer and band leader who died earlier this month (January 1993).
Edward Said, a Palestinan writer, academic and exile, talks about his book "Culture and Imperialism" and explains how the attitudes forged over the last 200 years continue to enforce the relationship between the west and the developing world.
Documentary which goes on an imaginative tour from the Colorado grave where Dick is buried to the suburbs of California where he lived and worked. Talks to his ex-wives, friends and biographers.
A remarkable guided tour through the culinary world of Elvis Presley, in his later years famed as much for his appetite as for his music. The King's passion for food is recounted by close friends, relatives and personal cooks who share the recipes that kept their idol happy. From the squirrel and racoon dishes of his youth to the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches that contributed to his demise.
This poetic documentary uses archive newspaper reports, the contemporary photographs of Charles Van Shaick, and reconstructions to portray the mysterious and tragic events that befell the small and unsuspecting American town of Black River Falls in the 1890s. The story was originally told in Michael Lesy's book, which was itself based on newspaper reports and archive photographs from the time. Ian Holm narrates the stories using the words of the local newspaper editor.
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 which Pinter formulated his ideas and wrote his early works, and features footage shot at the Almeida Theatre of a recent production of Pinter's first play 'The Room', featuring Lindsay Duncan, Keith Allen, Lia Williams, and Henry Woolf, and which was directed by Pinter himself.
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 The Road' with Pinter himself in the lead role, and 'Celebration', which was directed by Pinter.
The western movie, the cowboy novel, the rodeo and the wild west show are all means by which the West has become mythologised, distorted, caricatured and made larger than life. The West no longer lives in reality, only in the world of the imagination, but the key figure in the historical process whereby the factual, historical West was transformed into the 'Western myth' was William Frederick 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. It was within his persona that the raw material of experience was transformed into showbusiness. This documentary tells Buffalo Bill's story, including his life as a Pony Express rider, prairie scout, buffalo hunter and wild west show creator. With rock legend David Johansen as the voice of Buffalo Bill, Arena uses drama and unique archive of the real Buffalo Bill to tell an extraordinary tale with strangely contemporary resonance.
Two-part Arena special celebrating the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's best-loved public figures. Lord Attenborough's film CV as actor stretches from Brighton Rock to Jurassic Park, while as director he has been responsible for Oh! What a Lovely War, Shadowlands and Gandhi. He has also been integral to the work of many charities, while his support for minority groups has led to the building of a Centre for Disability and the Arts. Part one examines his early career and follows Attenborough as he visits his childhood home, travels to Brighton and Hove, and reminisces with brothers John and Sir David.
The conclusion to this two-part profile looks at Attenborough's career as Britain's most distinguished film director, whose biopic Ghandi won eight Oscars in 1982, including best director. It also explores his other lives as chancellor of Sussex University and vice-president of Chelsea FC, and examines the political commitment behind films such as Cry Freedom and 10 Rillington Place.
A celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Secret Policeman's Ball in aid of Amnesty International. Many of Britain's finest comedians, including John Cleese, Sir Bob Geldof, Alan Bennett, Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Fry, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Ruby Wax, Lenny Henry, Sting, Phil Collins and Rowan Atkinson are reunited in a reflection of the changes in British comedy over the last quarter of a century. The film examines the event, with interviews and recollections of the original stars alongside classic comedy moments.
Arena at 30 celebrates the hugely influential and award-winning arts documentary series. There are features on Orson Welles, Jean Genet, Francis Bacon and No Direction Home – Bob Dylan, a two-part film about the legendary musician, by Martin Scorsese, which aired on 26 and 27 September 2005 on BBC Two.
This opening part traces Bob Dylan's journey from a rock 'n' roll loving kid in the Midwest to his arrival as a major force in the world of folk music. In his own words, Dylan tells viewers how he became smitten with folk music as the story shifts scenes from the iron range in Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City.
Martin Scorsese continues to explore the emotional, musical and intellectual journey of Bob Dylan's early career. The story turns dark. At 23, Dylan is already a newsworthy phenomenon and with that success comes expectations.
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 and changed himself from the fresh-faced cherub singing Blowin' in the Wind to the rock 'n' roll shaman who blew pop music apart when he went electric. The film No Direction Home told the story of how Dylan affected the world and the world affected Dylan, but this film brings you face to face with the work itself. Like the discovery of a hitherto unknown manuscript or an unseen masterpiece, this is a treasure trove, newly opened up.
Comedian Ken Dodd turned 80 in 2007. Armed with his tickling sticks, stand-up routines and songs he continues to delight his devoted audiences all over the country with his Happiness show. Arena's exploration of Britain's most enduring variety entertainer reveals his personal analysis of humour and illustrates why Ken Dodd is acknowledged as one of the finest exponents of his comic craft.
The fractured state of Europe after World War II was perfectly captured in Carol Reed's thriller The Third Man. Set in Vienna and with Orson Welles starring unforgettably as the mysterious Harry Lime, it showcased some of Graham Greene's finest screenwriting. With unlimited access to the original movie, Arena explores the filmmaking artistry, moral world and furious infighting behind the film.
The Tube is the world's oldest underground railway system, with its own unwritten rules of behaviour and protocol. This Arena begins 150 years ago in a Victorian London of slums and gaslight, and takes the viewer on a thrilling and mysterious adventure through Tube history. Using the voices of passengers and Tube staff, the programme is nothing less than a celebration of a parallel universe, underground. The film has been produced for Arena by Lone Star productions in association with London's Transport Museum.
A look at the legend of 'Superman' and its portrayal in comic books and films.
Marley's legendary concert at the Rainbow in the summer of 1977 took reggae music and the message of Rastafaria to a world that hitherto had been exposed to neither. The programme is a visual evocation of the world of 1977, a world that seems very far away now, and of the spirit of Marley's most significant album.
Documentary about the life of Frankie Howerd, with help from friends and colleagues and including highlights from his TV and film career.
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, rich with period music and archive.
Acclaimed writer Philip Hoare confronts our fascination with one of the most mysterious animals in the ocean, the whale. Travelling in the footsteps of Ishmael, the narrator of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the great American novel, he visits the whaling ports of New England. New Bedford was once the richest city in the USA, and the island of Nantucket is where the whaling industry began. Hoare searches for the truth behind the story of Moby-Dick and draws an eerie parallel between Captain Ahab's crazed pursuit of the great white whale and today's war on terror. He enters a world haunted by a bloody and violent past, and, in the three mile-deep waters of the Atlantic, has his own encounter with the legendary sperm whale.
Arts documentary series. Interview with music producer Phil Spector, looking back over a 50-year career.
Arts documentary series. Leading theatrical greats, including Peter Brook, Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt, pay tribute to the outstanding British actor Paul Scofield.
Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music of the 1940s and 50s that became known as cool jazz. Those who wrote and played it cultivated an attitude, a style and a language that came to epitomise the meaning of a word that is now so liberally used. The film tells the story of a movement that started in the bars and clubs of New York and Los Angeles and swept across the world, introducing the key players and setting them in the context of the post-war world.
Brian Eno first starred as the feather-crested electronic keyboard genius of Roxy Music forty years ago. Since then he has been hailed as a pioneer, with his revolutionary experiments in ambient music and audio visual art and as featured producer on benchmark albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and Coldplay. Eno has given Arena unprecedented access to observe him working in his studio and talking with friends and colleagues. The master of reinvention engages with fellow influential minds, including Richard Dawkins, Malcolm Gladwell, David Whittaker and Steve Lillywhite, in a series of conversations on science, art, systems analysis, producing and cybernetics
Three young men who emerged in the 1950s - Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck - not only captured the public's imagination, but in their own unique way determined the evolution of jazz as we know it today. Of this triumvirate, only Dave Brubeck remains. As he approaches his 90th birthday in December 2010, he is set to play New York's legendary Blue Note jazz club. This Clint Eastwood co-produced documentary tells Brubeck's personal story, tracing his career from his first musical experiences to the overwhelming success of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the iconic status he and his varied forms of musical expression have achieved. It is told with contemporary interviews, vintage performances, previously unseen archive and additional performances filmed especially for the documentary. The story is also told by Dave and Iola Brubeck, both in their own words and by musical example. Contributors include Bill Cosby, Jamie Cullum, Yo-Yo Ma, George Lucas and Eastwood himself. In 2009 Brubeck was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, with Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Grace Bumbry and Mel Brooks. He played with his sons for President Obama at the White House, and 55 years ago became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine. His classic Take Five is as familiar today as in 1959 when it was a Top 10 hit all over the world. Brubeck has an unlikely origin for a jazz giant, growing up on a ranch in Monterey, California. Monterey resident Clint Eastwood introduced Brubeck and his Cannery Row Suite at the 2006 Monterey Jazz Festival and each were so inspired by the success of the event they agreed to move forward with this full-length documentary together.
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 1959 revolution with her band Sonora Matancera, she lived in New York and rose to international fame with the legendary Latin bands of Tito Puente and Johnny Pacheco, the creators of salsa. This profile includes testimony from friends, fans, fellow professionals and a stunning performance at New York's world-famous Apollo Theatre.
Acknowledged as one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century, Arena explores the rise of legendary, Rat Pack crooner from his early family background to overwhelming show business success. Interviews with friends, family and associates reveal a star studded career in music and film alongside a fascinating private life of four marriages, liaison with the Kennedy family, Las Vegas business interests and an alleged association with the Mafia.
Profile of record producer Sir George Martin. He began with Nellie the Elephant, 633 Squadron and Peter Sellers, then came The Beatles and then the golden age of rock. Martin recorded the soundtrack of the second half of the 20th century. This rich and intimate portrait follows Sir George at 85 with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Cilla Black, Michael Palin, Rolf Harris and Bernard Cribbins among the many contributors.
A story told in flashbacks, Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines the immediacy of Bob Dylan's controversial 1966 tour of the British Isles with his remarkable personal and musical journey. Drawing from hundreds of hours of unseen footage and rare recordings, in-depth interviews and revealing photographs, the film strikes a remarkable balance - telling the story of one man's journey and at the same time placing that story within the greater canvas of human events. This opening part traces his journey from a rock 'n' roll loving kid in the Midwest to his arrival as a major force in the world of folk music. In his own words, Dylan tells viewers how he became smitten with folk music as the story shifts scenes from the iron range in Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City. An amazing cast of characters includes Dave Van Ronk, the king of Greenwich village folk clubs, Joan Baez, queen of the folk music world and Allen Ginsburg, America's beat poet laureate. And, most importantly, the wide range of music that influenced the young Bob Dylan is explored. As Dylan's fame and notoriety grows, his skill as a performer matures rapidly and the songs begin to pour out - Blowing in the Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Masters of War, Don't Think Twice It's Alright and many more. Part one ends with what seems to be the dawn of a new generation - Dylan, hands intertwined with musician Pete Seeger, the Freedom Singers and Odetta singing Blowin' in the Wind at the closing night of the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.
Martin Scorsese continues to explore the emotional, musicial and intellectual journey of Bob Dylan's early career. The story turns dark. At 23, Dylan is already a newsworthy phenomenon and with that success comes expectations - from the old left to become a politicial activist, and from the media to articulate the concerns of America's youth. It's a role in which Dylan is completely uninterested. He is already on the move, finding a new musical vocabulary to capture the complexity of a seismic cultural shift. He injects a heightened sense of poetry into his writing and adds electricity to his music, electricity that now seems inevitable but at the time saw him labelled a sell-out and a traitor. Scorsese delicately balances Dylan's internal world with signpost images from the external world. Dylan's music is the backdrop as the war in Vietnam escalates and the nightly news brings home images people would never have dreamed of seeing on their television sets. Scorsese takes the time to let viewers really see the music unfold in revelatory concert performances. By 1966 Dylan's personal world has become one of constant touring and press conferences. By the end of the film it is plainly obvious that for Dylan there are some journeys from which there is No Direction Home.
Arena broadcasts the UK television premiere of Martin Scorsese's portrait of the late George Harrison. Scorsese traces Harrison's life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a world-famous musician, philanthropist and filmmaker, weaving together interviews with George and his closest friends, photographs and archive footage including live performances - much of it previously unseen. The result is a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most talented artists of his generation. Part one looks at George's early years in The Beatles - from their first gigs in Hamburg and the beginning of Beatlemania, through to his psychedelic phase and involvement in religion and Indian music. The programme includes contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and Phil Spector.
Arena broadcasts the second and concluding part of Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison. Part two looks at Harrison's post-Beatles days - as a member of the Travelling Wilburys and a solo artist, as well as looking at his non-musical ventures, including his work as a movie producer and his family life with wife Olivia and son Dhani. Racing legend Jackie Stewart tells of George's love of motor racing, Monty Python's Eric Idle recounts how George saved the Life of Brian from catastrophe by re-mortgaging his mansion to help finance it, and there are contributions from Travelling Wilbury bandmates including Tom Petty. Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison gives a poignant account of her life with the Beatle, including the harrowing tale of the night when a violent intruder attacked them at home one evening in 1999. Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, among many others, talk openly about George's many gifts and contradictions and reveal the lives they shared together.
A programme exploring the work of crime writer James Ellroy, whose credits include LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia and My Dark Places, the latter a harrowing memoir of his own mother's murder. Ellroy later moved on from crime writing to pen his own secret history of the United States. As the second volume of his 'Underworld USA' trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand - was published in the UK in 2001, the film takes a tour of Ellroy's often disturbing world.
From the magical films of the silent era to the celebrated work of director David Lean and high definition television, this documentary revisits films and interviews from the archive to answer the question of why Dickens's novels have inspired so many hundreds of adaptations on screen. This co-production with Dickens 2012 not only encapsulates the history of Dickens's time, but also of the 100 years in which his work has survived most acutely on screen. It is not only the stories, themes and characters of Dickens's writing that translate so well onto screen - Sergei Eisenstein argued that there is something essentially filmic in his unique prose style; that Dickens's rapid 'cutting' within scenes and from scene to scene coupled with his seamless mixture of the bizarrely comic with the terrifyingly profound was itself proto-cinematic. Dickens wrote the way a camera saw before film had been invented and he remains to this day the most cinematic of writers.
2011 was the 82nd year in the extraordinary life of arguably the greatest saxophone player in the world, Sonny Rollins. Four decades ago, as a young filmmaker and aspiring musician, Dick Fontaine followed Rollins up onto the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan during one of his legendary escapes from the perils of 'the jazz life'. Today, still resisting stereotype and compromise, and revered by a new generation of young musicians, Rollins continues his single-minded search for meaning in his music and his life. Dick Fontaine's film is built around the explosive energy of Sonny's 80th Birthday Concert, where legendary figures Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman join him to celebrate his journey so far, his music and its future for a new generation.
Featuring a specially-shot introduction with Jamie Cullum, Arena presents a lost treasure - Sonny Rollins performing at Ronnie Scott's in 1974. After nearly 40 years unseen, this unique film shows a spellbinding performance from arguably the greatest saxophone player in the world. Having played alongside Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, Rollins is one of the few surviving jazz greats. This gig captures him after his 1972 comeback when his bands started to sound funkier and to use electric guitar and bass. The band for this1974 set features Japanese guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo and soprano saxophone player Rufus Harley, who doubles on the bagpipes.
The Dreams of William Golding reveals the extraordinary life of one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century. With unprecedented access to the unpublished diaries in which Golding recorded his dreams, the film penetrates deep into his private obsessions and insecurities. His daughter Judy and son David both speak frankly about their father's demons, and the film follows Golding from the impoverished schoolmaster whose first novel, Lord of the Flies, was published when he was forty-three years old, to his winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983. Other contributors include Golding's biographer John Carey, philosopher John Gray, writer Nigel Williams, the dean of Salisbury Cathedral, the Very Revd June Osborne and best-selling author Stephen King. Benedict Cumberbatch, who starred in the 2004 BBC adaptation of Golding's sea trilogy To the Ends of the Earth, reads extracts from his books.
The BBC's flagship arts documentary strand Arena returns with the first ever documentary exploring the extraordinary life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE. Jonathan Miller is usually described as a 'polymath' or 'Renaissance man', two labels he personally dislikes. But no-one quite like him has made such an impact on British culture through the medium of television, radio, theatre and opera. He has straddled the great divide between the arts and the sciences, while being a brilliant humorist, a qualified doctor and even a practising artist. With the man himself and a host of distinguished collaborators, including Oliver Sacks, Eric Idle, Kevin Spacey (who owes his first break to Miller) and Penelope Wilton, this Arena profile explores Miller's rich life and examines through amazing television archive - mostly from the BBC - how he makes these connections between the worlds of the imagination and scientific fact.
Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south-western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, capacity 85, and wowed the small, packed crowd with a searing, acoustic set of songs from Back to Black. After leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy spoke about her music and influences - Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and the Shangri-Las to name a few. Arena joined forces with Other Voices and went to Dingle to catch up with some of the people that Amy met on that day, including taxi driver Paddy Kennedy, her bass player Dale Davis and Rev Mairt Hanley of the Other Voices church. This film showcases not only Amy herself, but the musical geniuses that inspired her to forge her own jazz pop style.
The making of the Beatles' self-directed TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, which originally aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967 at the height of the band's popularity - but was greeted with disdain by the media and many viewers. The programme explores the creation of the surreal tale and investigates why it inspired such a furious critical reaction, and also asks whether opinions about the film have changed in subsequent years.
Fully restored to the highest technical standard with a remixed soundtrack, Magical Mystery Tour comes out of the shadows and onto the screen. By the end of 1967, The Beatles had achieved a creativity unprecedented in popular music. Their triumphant summer release, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was both avant garde and an instant hit. It went straight to No.1 in June and remained there for the rest of the year. They immersed themselves in the fiercely radical art of the new counter culture and decided to make a film on their own terms, not as pop stars but as artists. Roll up Roll Up for the Mystery Tour!
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 forty years. "The minute I come through this door and I close it, then I'm in my world of creation. I can't tell you how many shows or how many films - it's all here, I can feel it, it's almost tangible", he says in the film. Post-war Britain saw Sykes catapulted to fame in the hugely successful Variety Bandbox and Educating Archie. He quickly became the country's highest paid comedy writer. When Spike Milligan was going through a period of stress, Sykes helped him with The Goons, sometimes writing whole episodes and typically eschewing the credit. Later, his television series with Hattie Jacques, Sykes And A... ran for 20 years attracting gigantic audiences. Aged 78, he starred in a UK tour of Charley's Aunt; appeared with Nicole Kidman in The Others; introduced The Teletubbies and returned to London's Theatreland, appearing eight times a week in Ray Cooney's hit, the uproarious farce Caught In The Net. The film takes him through a day at his beloved office, an Aladdin's Cave of triumphs and treasures. There he muses on his life and career, and the other greats he knew and worked with.
Documentary focusing on the female stars of the Hollywood studio era, from its beginnings around 1910 through to its collapse in the early 1960s. Screen icons chronologically recalled include Theda Bara, Lillian Gish, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.
The arresting sight of Sister Wendy Beckett - all teeth and glasses - burst on to our screens in the 1990s. An instant star, she glided around the world in her habit telling us the story of painting. But she revealed nothing of her own, extraordinary story. Was she in fact a real nun? How did she know so much about art? And how could this consecrated virgin and hermit justify appearing on television and keep her rule of silence?
Legendary country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn is loved by fans from across the world. She has sold over 45 million albums worldwide and won more awards than any other female country music star. With affectionate and irreverent contributions from her extended family of self-confessed rednecks, now in her early eighties and still going strong, Loretta looks back at her long and extraordinary life, from being born a coal miner's daughter in Kentucky to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2013. Featuring Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Sissy Spacek and, of course, Loretta herself.
From the silent days of cinema, Shakespeare's plays have often been adapted to the big screen. Film-makers relished his vivid characters and dramatic plots as well as the magic and poetry of his work. At first, the results were patchy, then came Laurence Olivier. With Henry V, made to stir patriotic spirit during the Second World War, he perfectly translated Shakespeare from the stage to the screen. He followed Henry V with Hamlet, and both were smash hits. Olivier led the way for directors as diverse as Orson Welles, Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, Roman Polanski, Baz Luhrmann and Kenneth Branagh. The Bard's language has been no barrier, with bold versions of his dramas coming out of Russia, Japan, India and many other countries, not to mention Hollywood's free adaptations in genres as diverse as musicals and science fiction. Already over 30 films worldwide have been produced based on Romeo and Juliet alone.
Based on Jon Savage's book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded, Arena marks the year pop music and popular culture ripped up the rule book in articulate, instinctive and radical new ways. This was the year of Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland, Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment, and the year that Strawberry Fields Forever was recorded. Television was still in black and white, but the world outside was bursting with colour and controversy. In America, in London, in Amsterdam, in Paris, revolutionary ideas slow-cooking since the late 1950s reached boiling point. In popular culture and the mass media, 1966 was a year of restless experimentation and the search for new forms of expression - particularly in pop music. Written by Savage and director Paul Tickell, Arena's film takes viewers back to that moment in a vivid celebration of the music, films and TV that shaped the 1960s.
On October 15th 1966, the Roundhouse in north London hosted its first gig - the launch of radical newspaper International Times. The audience included Paul McCartney and Marianne Faithfull, along with 3,000 others trying desperately to get in. The result was a glorious shambles. Since then, virtually every big name in rock and alternative theatre has played there. Today it's as vibrant as ever, continuing to attract big names and full houses and running an array of outreach and youth programmes enabling young people to express themselves in the arts. Arena tells the tragicomic rollercoaster story of a unique venue.
Arena spends the summer with supercool self-confessed rock chick, Chrissie Hynde - shopping for clothes in Paris, hanging out with Sandra Bernhard in New York, life in London and a special trip back to her home town of Akron, Ohio. A thoughtful and intimate portrait of a 'lone, hungry, irritable wolf', featuring a glorious live performance at one of London's newest venues.
A short introduction to the 1982 Bafta-winning Arena classic from Kirsty Young. This programme does not include the documentary itself.
Film exploring the relationship of artist Stanley Spencer's two daughters, Unity and Shirin, as they try to understand and reclaim their father and investigate their family's archaeology. The film examines what it is like to be the children of a genius in a family whose private life has been described as 'the most bizarre domestic soap opera in the history of British art'. At the heart of the film are Stanley's daughters - Unity, 87 and Shirin, who's 91. Their separation, post-Stanley's divorce from fellow artist Hilda was traumatic. So, too, the fiasco of their father's second marriage to self-confessed lesbian, Patricia Preece. This separation took root in the daughters' lives, and only in old age have they come together. The film follows this late-life rapprochement, as Unity boxes up her father's drawings and letters and leaves her London home of 40 years to be with Shirin in Wales.
In 1979, Bob Dylan released Slow Train Coming, an album of strictly devotional songs. He declared he had found God in Christianity. For the following two years, accompanied by the finest musicians and gospel singers, he toured with a repertoire solely of songs expressing his new-found faith. A film was made of one of those performances, but it was never released. After 37 years, it is broadcast for the first time - but with a twist. The performance is enhanced by a series of sermons between the songs, all specially written for the film and preached by Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon. The result is Bob Dylan's gospel service combining the then of the gig with the now of the message of The Preacher.
A satirical look at the contradictory pressures faced by women today. It examines how television and social media can help us explore identity, at the same time encouraging women to conform to strict beauty ideals. Multimedia artist Rachel Maclean has created a world that is both seductive and dangerous, a place where surveillance, violence and submission are a normalised part of daily life. Siri wakes to find herself trapped inside a brutalist candy-coloured dreamhouse. Despite the cutesy decor, the place is far from benign, and she and her fellow inmates are encouraged to compete for survival. Forced to go head to head in a series of demeaning tasks, Siri and Alexa start subverting the rules, soon revealing the sinister truth that underpins their world.
The film project that artist Peter Beard initiated together with Jackie Kennedy’s sister, Lee Radziwill, about her relatives, the Beales of Grey Gardens. Lost for decades, this extraordinary footage focuses on Beard and his family of friends, who formed a vibrant and profoundly influential creative community in Montauk, Long Island in the 1970s. Featuring Peter Beard, Lee Radziwill, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Andy Warhol.
Cindy Sherman is one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. She is also notoriously elusive. So, it is a coup for Arena to get this in-depth and revealing audio interview with her. An exuberant weave of art and archive gives us a rare insight into one of the most influential artists alive today.
Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama’s work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, and mental illness. Kusama overcame countless odds to bring her radical vision to the world stage and created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, performance art, film and literature. Born in 1929, Kusama still creates new work every day. Her Infinity Mirror Room installations, the first of which was created in 1965, continue to attract visitors in record numbers.
Documentary that exposes a darker, less well-known side of film director Ingmar Bergman. Focusing on 1957, a landmark year in which Bergman directed two films and four plays, Jane Magnusson explores not only the director’s filmography but also his, at times, complex and turbulent personal life. Using a wealth of previously unseen archive material, contemporary interviews and a fantastic selection of clips from Ingmar Bergman’s vast body of work, this is a fascinating and unflinching study of one of the giants of world cinema.
A haunting film about Britain and the nuclear age, from the first bomb tests to our potentially futile preparations for attack during the Cold War. Framed by Britain's mission to build the bomb, A British Guide to the End of the World uses extraordinary unseen archive and exclusive testimonies from people directly involved in our nuclear story, from conscripted soldiers attending the early nuclear tests in the South Pacific to servicemen, volunteers and civil servants involved in the planning of how we might have managed in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. Accompanied by an atmospheric score, the film features classified footage, hidden for decades, as well as television reports and government information videos that retain the spirit of Cold War paranoia. Horrifying, absurd and at times achingly poignant, the film recaptures a time of stockpiled paranoia that left a generation traumatised.
Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot. Just as Eliot’s novel Middlemarch explored the lives of ordinary men and women, this experimental film is made up of a diverse cast of people from different backgrounds and features Jason Isaacs and Sheila Atim as the narrators.
Ike White was a gifted and critically acclaimed musician whose talent was discovered while he was serving a life sentence for murder. When he was released, he went into hiding under a pseudonym for decades. Masking his dark past, he had an incredible story that he hadn't told a soul.
Narrated entirely in the words of James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book project, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers. The film brings powerful clarity to how the images and reality of black lives in America today are fabricated and enforced.
In 1997, over one million people gathered in Lagos for the funeral of Fela Kuti, Africa’s biggest artist, who gave the world Afrobeat, yet was also a thorn in the side of Nigeria’s military regimes - a revolutionary who fought injustice with his music and a libertine who married 27 wives in one ceremony. When he died from a disease that carried huge stigma in Africa, there was fear his legacy would die with him. Exclusive testimony reveals the multifaceted man behind the maverick performer.
Docudrama that explores the life and creative output of Coventry born-Delia Derbyshire – electronic musician, sound pioneer and female outsider in postwar Britain. From 1962 until 1973, she worked at the BBC’s Radiophonic workshop, where she created the iconic Doctor Who theme tune, which remained uncredited in her lifetime. Delia’s story is told through two archives: the first, a collection of lost works, 267 reels of quarter-inch magnetic tape recordings of Delia’s work found in her attic after her death, the other, her school books, paintings and keepsakes, discovered in her childhood bedroom.
In 1970, film-maker Luchino Visconti travelled throughout Europe looking for the perfect boy to personify absolute beauty as the character of Tadzio in his adaptation for the screen of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. In Stockholm, he discovered Björn Andrésen, a shy 15-year-old teenager whom he brought to international fame overnight and, as a consequence, changed the course of the boy’s life. The remainder of Bjorn’s youth was turbulent and intense and took him from the Lido in Venice to London, to a welter of attention at the Cannes Film Festival, and to Japan. Fifty years after the premiere of Death in Venice, Björn takes us on a remarkable journey back through his life in a film composed of personal memories, cinema history, stardust and tragedy - as he makes a late attempt to reconcile with his past and finally get his life back on track.
