Catch up TV
According to Beryl
Dame Beryl Bainbridge takes an idiosyncratic tour of the last 20 years of writer and poet Samuel Johnson's turbulent life, leading us through the streets of Streatham, the riches of the City of London and into the dank crypt of a suburban church wherein lies the gigantic coffin of gluttonous Henry Thrale.\n\nThrale was one of the richest brewers in England and Johnson spent the better part of his last years as the house guest of Henry and his wife Hester, both in their brewery in Southwark and their country estate in Streatham Park. Hester cared for the great lexicographer through his constant bouts of melancholia and gout, creating a bond of which Johnson's friend Boswell was to become insanely jealous, until she finally abandoned him for the charms of her daughter Queeney's Italian singing teacher. \n\nBainbridge took the story of their fascinating relationship for her novel According to Queeney. Director Udayan Prasad had come across the Johnson/Thrale story quite independently and as he began to develop the film he discovered that Bainbridge had been writing a book on the same subject. He met with her and decided to join forces to tell this extraordinary tale.\n\nJim Carter and Suzannah Harker read extracts from the actual letters that Johnson and Mrs Thrale wrote to each other, while Beth Goddard and Beryl Bainbridge read from According to Queeney.
Source: BBC 4
Most recent episodes of Arena
Arena
The Everly Brothers: Songs Of Innocence And Experience
The Everly Brothers were among the most successful and revered of all the giants of early rock 'n' roll. A determining influence on the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and the Beac ...
27-12-2024
BBC 4
Arena
The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert
In the autumn of 1983, the Everly Brothers played their legendary reunion concerts in London. Of all the venues in the world, they chose the Royal Albert Hall because they had t ...
27-12-2024
BBC 4
Arena
Agatha Christie - Unfinished Portrait
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 ...
21-08-2024
BBC 4
Arena
I Am Not Your Negro
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 assassin ...
11-08-2024
BBC 4
Arena
Dennis Potter
1987 edition in which 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 ...
02-06-2024
BBC 4
Arena
Tosca's Kiss
Casa Verdi is a rambling mansion in the city of Milan, inhabited by an extraordinary and captivating group of people. It once belonged to the composer Guiseppe Verdi, now it has ...
16-05-2024
BBC 4
Arena
Rudies Come Back: The Rise And Rise Of 2 Tone
In this Arena film from 1980, Adrian Thrills investigates 2 Tone, an exhilarating new musical blend that was taking the country by storm.\n\nOriginating in Coventry in 1979, 2 T ...
29-03-2024
BBC 4
Most popular episodes of Arena
Arena
Billy, How Did You Do It? - Part 1
Billy Wilder discusses his career with German film-maker Volker Schlondorff. From Marlene Dietrich to Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart to Gary Cooper, Wilder directed the film in ...
30-11-2023
BBC 4
Arena
Desert Island Discs
A 1982 film made to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roy Plomley's classic radio programme, featuring his successor as presenter, Sue Lawley.
31-01-2022
BBC 4
Arena
I Am Not Your Negro
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 assassin ...
11-08-2024
BBC 4
Arena
Louise Brooks
American film actress Louise Brooks has become one of the most celebrated icons of early cinema. Her performance as unrepentant pleasure-seeker Lulu in GW Pabst's Pandora's Box ...
07-12-2023
BBC 4
Arena
James Joyce’s Ulysses
One hundred years after its publication, this film reveals the tawdry, shocking, poetic, uplifting and gloriously kaleidoscopic humanity of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulys ...
07-09-2022
BBC 4
Arena
The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert
In the autumn of 1983, the Everly Brothers played their legendary reunion concerts in London. Of all the venues in the world, they chose the Royal Albert Hall because they had t ...
27-12-2024
BBC 4
Arena
The Brian Epstein Story
Documentary examining the turbulent life and career of Brian Epstein, who died in 1967 in mysterious circumstances. When Epstein met the Beatles at the end of 1961, he was a suc ...
04-11-2023
BBC 4
Arena
Jana Bokova's Havana
1990 documentary. Havana has a dilapidated ruined beauty - decaying grandeur alongside squalor with a string atmosphere of Africa and Old Spain. Despite the political turmoil of ...
11-05-2018
BBC 4
Arena
Billy, How Did You Do It? - Part 2
Second of three in-depth conversations with film director and writer Billy Wilder. He recalls his memories of the great Hollywood stars - 'Mae West walked out of the door all wh ...
07-12-2023
BBC 4
