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Arena
Arena Episodes
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
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
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
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
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
Oooh Er Missus! The Frankie Howerd Story
Documentary about the life of Frankie Howerd, with help from friends and colleagues and including highlights from his TV and film career.
26-03-2024
BBC 4
Peggy Sue: Tales Of Rock And Roll
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 h ...
09-02-2024
BBC 4
Buddy Holly
Documentary looking at the short but brilliant career of legendary rock'n'roll star Buddy Holly. Features interviews with contemporaries and fans including backing band The Cric ...
09-02-2024
BBC 4
Byrne About Byrne
In this diverse and inventive autobiography, painter and author John Byrne travels from his youth, through his art school years to the period of his stage and TV plays, and on t ...
29-01-2024
BBC 4
The Orson Welles Story: Episode 2
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 proj ...
25-01-2024
BBC 4
The Orson Welles Story: Episode 1
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, Ro ...
18-01-2024
BBC 4
My Way
An investigation of the appeal and power of the popular song My Way, which was written by Paul Anka and was recorded by many artists, including Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, El ...
01-01-2024
BBC 4
Frank Sinatra: The Voice Of The Century
Arena profiles crooner Frank Sinatra, acknowledged as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, from his early family background to overwhelming showbusiness success.
29-12-2023
BBC 4
Tony Bennett’s New York
Once dubbed the 'king of cool', a look at the man behind the silky voice as Tony Bennett - civil rights activist, jazz enthusiast, painter and New Yorker - takes a tour around h ...
15-12-2023
BBC 4
Billy, How Did You Do It? - Part 3
Director Billy Wilder discusses his career with German film-maker Volker Schlondorff.
14-12-2023
BBC 4
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 riche ...
11-12-2023
BBC 4
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
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
Peter Shaffer
Writer Peter Shaffer talks about his plays, his life and the theatre. \n\n'I think the live experience in the theatre is very important when you can see shocks and murmurs going ...
05-12-2023
BBC 4
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
Ken Dodd's Happiness
A tribute to Liverpudlian comic Ken Dodd, in which he discusses his 50-year career and the influences of his comedy style. Features film clips of his early performances and foo ...
28-11-2023
BBC 4
Armistead Maupin Is A Man I Dreamt Up
Writer Armistead Maupin tells the story behind his Tales of the City novels, introduces some of the San Franciscans who provided the inspiration for his characters and explores ...
26-11-2023
BBC 4
Edward Hopper
Documentary about the great American realist painter Edward Hopper. His subject is the face of America - haunting, unforgettable images of late-night bars and lonely hotel rooms.
14-11-2023
BBC 4
Dylan Thomas: From Grave To Cradle
Author and broadcaster Nigel Williams examines the work and the legend of one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, Dylan Thomas.\n\nBorn in 1914, Dylan Thomas was an un ...
09-11-2023
BBC 4
Have You Seen The Mona Lisa?
Arena looks behind the Gioconda smile. The Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre behind plate glass - an unsigned, undated portrait of a smiling woman. She is the most idolised and abus ...
06-11-2023
BBC 4
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
Dire Straits
Arena cameras were on hand to film the return of Dire Straits from their triumphant 1980 Brothers in Arms world tour. The film features a superb concert they played at The Rainb ...
27-10-2023
BBC 4
Wisconsin Death Trip
Inspired by the book of the same name, film-maker James Marsh relays a tale of tragedy, murder and mayhem that erupted behind the respectable facade Black River Falls, Wisconsin ...
25-10-2023
BBC 4
Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues
Hank Williams was the greatest singer-songwriter country music has ever known. He died on a journey half-way across America to a gig he would never make, at the age of just 29. ...
22-09-2023
BBC 4
The Many Lives Of Richard Attenborough: Part 2
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 bes ...
27-08-2023
BBC 4
The Many Lives Of Richard Attenborough: Part 1
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 ...
27-08-2023
BBC 4
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 ...
12-08-2023
BBC 4
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 ...
12-08-2023
BBC 4
Fela Kuti: Father Of Afrobeat
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 ...
15-06-2023
BBC 4
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live In Bristol 1984
Arena presents a concert by the legend of rock 'n' roll himself. Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't sound like anybody else - the voice, the piano and the on-stage antics make an unforgett ...
10-12-2022
BBC 4
B. Catling: Where Does It All Come From?
An eye-popping insight into the extraordinary, late-flourishing career of maverick artist, teacher and performer Brian Catling RA, whose unique vision and imagination are celebr ...
09-10-2022
BBC 4
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
A Tall Story - How Salman Rushdie Pickled All Of India
Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight's Children, winner of the Booker Prize 1981, talks about India and the autobiographical elements in the book.
11-08-2022
BBC 4
Remember The Secret Policeman's Ball?
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, ...
30-07-2022
BBC 4
River
River takes its audience on a journey through space and time spanning six continents, showing rivers on a scale and from perspectives never seen before.
25-07-2022
BBC 4
Bob Dylan - Trouble No More
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 t ...
20-05-2022
BBC 4
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes
Docudrama that explores the life and creative output of Coventry born-Delia Derbyshire – electronic musician, sound pioneer and female outsider in postwar Britain. From 19 ...
06-03-2022
BBC 4
The Most Beautiful Boy In The World
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 sc ...
13-02-2022
BBC 4
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
The Vasulka Effect
An exploration of the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka. The film examines the artistic processes of the pair and their profound effect on the 1960s N ...
28-11-2021
BBC 4
Painted With My Hair
Painted with My Hair is inspired by the paintings, poetry and letters of Donny Johnson, an exceptionally intelligent and talented US lifer, who has been locked away inside his c ...
31-10-2021
BBC 4
Cindy Sherman #untitled
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 inte ...
12-09-2021
BBC 4
Kusama: Infinity
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 ...
26-07-2021
BBC 4
Everything Is Connected - George Eliot's Life
Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot.\n\nJust as Eliot’s novel Middlemarch explored the lives of ordinary men and w ...
09-06-2021
BBC 4
Paris Is Burning
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 ...
24-03-2021
BBC 4
Whatever Happened To Spitting Image?
Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with contributions from caricaturists Peter Fluck and Roger Law and producer John Lloyd.
24-11-2020
BBC 4
Make Me Up!
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 wome ...
21-07-2020
BBC 4
Philip Hoare's Guide To Whales: 1. Baleen
Acclaimed author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of baleen whales, the largest animals ever to have lived. \n\nWith plates of bristly baleen instead of te ...
05-08-2019
BBC 4
Stanley And His Daughters
'Children of geniuses tend to have a rather hard time of it. If you're a genius you have to be a bit tough', says Unity Spencer, daughter of Stanley Spencer, one of the most imp ...
04-08-2019
BBC 4
Philip Hoare's Guide To Whales: 2. Toothed
Acclaimed author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of toothed whales, from the plight of the captive killer whale to the fate of the stranded London whale. ...
24-03-2019
BBC 4
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
Cigars - Out Of The Humidor
Documentary which follows the story of the cigar - from the tobacco fields west of the Cuban capital of Havana into the factories where poetry and daily newspapers are read alou ...
22-04-2018
BBC 4
My Name Is Celia Cruz
The queen of salsa, Celia Cruz has been the most adored and dynamic singer in Latin America for more than four decades. Since she left Cuba at the time of the 1959 revolution wi ...
20-04-2018
BBC 4
The 50 Year Argument - The New York Review Of Books
Martin Scorsese's documentary film charting literary, political and cultural history as per the New York Review of Books, America's leading journal of ideas since 1963.
29-06-2014
BBC 4
The National Theatre - Learning Zone
Made especially for schools, this version of the BBC Four Arena programme examines the history and purpose of the National Theatre as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
17-06-2014
BBC 4