Episodes cast for
"Arena" (1975) More at IMDbPro »

Season: 1 | 6 | 11 | unknown
Year: 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

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Season 1

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Season 1, Episode 1: Theatre

1 October 1975

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Season 6

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Season 6, Episode 1: Radio Night: The Seven Ages of Radio

18 December 1993
Ian McKellen ruminates on the history of radio, characterized as Shakespeare's seven ages of man.

Season 6, Episode 3: Zhang Yimou

12 March 1993
Director of Ju Dou, Red Sorghum and Raise the Red Lantern is interviewed from within China whilst making a commercial for Philip Morris (China is one of the largest consumers of cigarettes in the world). Although many of his films have been banned inside his native China, Zhang Yimou is fast becoming the most celebrated Chinese director in the world.

Season 6, Episode 7: Duchamp's Fountain

2 April 1993
In 1917 a white porcelain object curiously entitled "Fountain" was entered into an exhibition of new work by independent artists in New York. The object was a common lavatory urinal bought from a sanitary appliance store, and the artist was eventually revealed as Marcel Duchamp. It was to become one of the most provocative and influential artworks of the twentieth century.

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Season 11

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Season 11, Episode 3: The Dandy-Beano Story

15 January 1988

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Unknown Season

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'The Journey' or The Memoirs of a Self-Confessed Surrealist

18 January 1978
George Melly explores his lifelong relationship with surrealism in all its forms and prominent personalities.

A Genius Like Us: A Portrait of Joe Orton

9 November 1982

A Night in with the Girls

15 March 1997
A look at powerful women in British television.

A Pretty British Affair

17 November 1981
Detailed interview with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger looking back at their long career as influential British film-makers and their unusual partnership. Includes clips from many of their films.

Alec Guinness: A Secret Man

29 December 2003
Arena documentary chronicles the life and work of one of Britain's greatest actors.

Amy Winehouse: The Day She Came to Dingle

23 July 2012
Documentary telling the story of the day Amy Winehouse recorded a stunning acoustic performance in a church in the small Irish fishing village of Dingle in 2006.

Arena Animal Night: Animals on Trial

16 December 1990

Arena Animal Night: Sacred Elephant

16 December 1990

Arena at 30

3 September 2005

Art and Design 3

5 November 1975

Art and Design 7

28 January 1976

Bette Davis: A Basically Benevolent Volcano

2 November 1983

Blackpool Wakes

13 January 1989

Blondes: Jayne Mansfield

24 December 1999

Bob Dylan's Legends

26 September 2005
Bob Dylan's songs are often inspired by the lives of real people. This film focuses on three - songwriter Woody Guthrie, boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter and comedian Lenny Bruce.

Bob Marley: Exodus 77

3 June 2007
The year 1977 was a crucial one in the life of reggae superstar Bob Marley. Forced to leave Jamaica he made an album in London, Exodus, that propelled his music and message of Rastafari across the planet.

Brian Eno: Another Green World

22 January 2010
A profile of the musician Brian Eno.

Buddy Holly

12 September 1985

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

19 December 2003

Building for a Change

16 January 1980

Burroughs

22 February 1983
Documentary on the life of William S. Burroughs.

Byrne About Byrne

1 April 1988

Cab Driver

26 July 2008

Caroline 199: A Pirate's Tale

1 March 1991
This is the story of Radio Caroline the legendary pirate radio station that helped to reinvent the 60s and lead to an explosion of popular music and the opening up of the airwaves. It shows how charismatic club owner and artist manager Ronan O'Rahilly desperate at the lack of space on the air ways to hear the new emerging music came up with a plan. He would park a boat in international waters and broadcast pop and rock into the UK in defiance of the authorities. It worked beyond his wildest dreams.

Chelsea Hotel

3 January 1981
BBC documentary that catches scenes in the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

Chi-Chi the Panda

20 March 1992

Cool

3 April 2009
Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music that started in the 1940s in the bars of New York and LA, and became known as cool jazz.

Dear Antonioni

18 January 1997

Dennis Potter

30 January 1987
Alan Yentob interviews TV dramatist Dennis Potter about his work through the years.

Dennis Potter: It's in the Songs! It's in the Songs!

2 January 2005
Documentary looking at how playwright Dennis Potter used popular songs as a powerful dramatic device and to express the depth of his characters in 'Pennies From Heaven' and 'The Singing Detective'.

Dennis Potter: Potter on TV

9 January 2005
A profile of Dennis Potter through archive interview and his role as a television critic.

Dickens on Film

10 January 2012
Arts documentary which scours the archives to reveal why Charles Dickens' work translates so well onto the screen. It looks at films of the silent era, to the work of director David Lean and high definition TV adaptations.

Drake's Progress

25 December 2001
Veteran entertainer Charlie Drake looks back over his life and career.

Dylan in the Madhouse

28 September 2005
The story of Bob Dylan's first time in London in December 1962 to film the BBC drama 'Madhouse on Castle Street'.

Dylan's Folk: The Pure, the Bad and the Holy

14 August 2007
A look at the Newport folk festival and the American folk revival of the 60s, which encompassed old time mountain music, blues and gospel.

Edinburgh International Festival 1976: Part 3

8 September 1976

Encountering Bergman

13 July 2007
A profile of the famous Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman through the eyes of three people who interviewed him.

Flames of Passion: The Other Side of British Cinema

2 September 2007
A programme making the case for the greatness of British films of the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Francis Bacon's Arena

19 March 2005

From an Immigrant's Notebook

11 March 1985

Harold Pinter Part 1: The Room

26 October 2002

Harold Pinter Part 2: Celebration

26 October 2002

Harold Pinter: A Celebration

24 January 2010

Heavy Metal

17 April 1989
An outline and retrospective of the heavy metal genre that swept the world in the 1980s.

Henry Moore

7 September 1986

Into the Limelight

6 October 2007
A documentary looking at the tribute bands who play at and the life that revolves the Limelight Club in a converted Methodist church in Crewe in the north west of England.

It's All True

9 May 1983

It's Time for 'Just a Minute'

26 December 2002
A documentary about the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel game "Just a Minute".

Jonathan Miller

31 March 2012
Documentary exploring the life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE - a theatre and opera director, humorist and television presenter. With contributors including Kevin Spacey and Eric Idle.

Ken Dodd's Happiness

24 December 2007
A tribute to the Liverpudlian comic Ken Dodd. He discusses his 50-year career and the influences of his comedy style.

L.S. Lowry: 'I'm Just a Simple Man'

12 June 1977

Little Platform, Big Stage: A Celebration of the British Bus Conductor

10 December 2005
A look at five conductors on London buses over five decades and the demise of the Routemaster bus.

Luck and Flaw

21 May 1980

Lunch with Galton and Simpson

25 December 2005
Nigel Williams meets comedy writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson for lunch as they discuss their career including classics 'Hancock's Half Hour' and 'Steptoe and Son'.

Magical Mystery Tour Revisited

6 October 2012

Max Bygraves: I Wanna Tell You a Story

25 December 2001
A film profile of the legendary singer and entertainer.

Meet the Dead Ringers

26 December 2002
A look behind the scenes of the popular Radio 4 comedy series.

Mike Leigh Making Plays

4 September 1982

Numbers

19 January 1990

Of Cats and Mice

18 December 1986
Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist and author Art Spiegelman discusses his graphic novel "Maus," which chronicles how his father survived the Holocaust. Also included a journey to Auschwitz, with his wife and art director Francoise Mouly-Spiegelman.

One for the Road

26 October 2002

Oooh Er, Missus! The Frankie Howerd Story, or Please Yourselves

1 June 1990

Painting the Clouds: a Portrait of Dennis Potter

25 December 2004

Paul Scofield

24 December 2008

Pavarotti: The Last Tenor

29 May 2004

Pete Doherty

12 November 2006
A film profile of the controversial Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty.

Philip K Dick: A Day in the Afterlife

9 April 1994

Private Life of the Ford Cortina

19 January 1982

Produced by George Martin

25 April 2011
A profile of legendary music producer Sir George Martin with the help of his son Giles and wife Judy with contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Michael Palin, Howard Goodall, Cilla Black, Bernard Cribbins and Rolf Harris.

Radio Night

18 December 1993
A themed evening of shows looking at the history and way the two broadcasting mediums, radio and television, have shared ideas and productions through the years. Including "Heard But Not Seen", "It's Life Jim", "Pirates", "The Shipping Forecast", "Sunday Dinner", "Seven Ages of Radio", "The Spot FX Man", "The Time Signal"

Real World Week

1992

Robert Mapplethorpe

18 March 1988

Roberto Rossellini

9 February 1990

Rolf Harris Paints His Dream

29 December 2010
Arena enlists supermodels Lily Cole and Lizzy Jagger and actresses Dervla Kirwan and Emer Kenny to help Rolf Harris achieve his ambition of painting Titania as inspired by Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Ruth, Roses and Revolver

20 February 1987

Saints

17 December 2006

Salvador Dali

21 November 1986
Documentary showcasing the life and works of surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

Scarfe on Scarfe

12 December 1986

Screen Goddesses

22 December 2012

Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel

25 December 2012
After years of telling the story of Christian art, Sister Wendy Beckett tells her own.

Sonny Rollins '74-Rescued!

17 February 2012
Restoration of a concert filmed at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in 1974.

Stand by Your Dream: The Tammy Wynette Story

16 January 1987

Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood

24 September 1997

Sykes and a Day

25 December 2001
A profile of the legendary comedy actor Eric Sykes.

T.S. Eliot

6 June 2009
An in-depth look at the life and work of T.S. Eliot, one of the 20th century's most important literary figures.

Tales of Rock 'N' Roll: Heartbreak Hotel

24 April 1993
Once upon a time a headline caught the eye of 2 songwriters, and the song caught the eye of a rising star.

Tales of Rock 'N' Roll: Highway 61 Revisited

8 May 1993
Investigates Bob Dylan's origins in Hibbing, Minnesota and takes a musical and historical journey down Highway 61 itself. John Bucklen, a teenage companion of Bob Dylan, provides some new insights into Dylan's earliest musical experiments and the journey Dylan himself undertook from a middle- class rock'n'roller in Hibbing to fashionable protest singer in New York.

Tales of Rock 'N' Roll: Peggy Sue

17 April 1993
Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham tells how Buddy Holly's songs Peggy Sue and Peggy Sue Got Married came to be written. She went to the same high school as Holly and married drummer Jerry Allison. Other people recall the era, including Donna Fox who inspired Ritchie Valens' song, Donna.

Tales of Rock 'N' Roll: Walk on the Wild Side

1 May 1993
Tells the story behind Lou Reed's song Walk on the Wild Side. The characters named in it were people who frequented Andy Warhol's studio in the late 1960s. Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro are the only "superstars" who have survived and they are interviewed in the programme. The programme presents a snapshot of a certain moment in the life of New York's underground culture.

The Animal Night Debate

16 December 1990

The Archers

1 January 2007
On 7 November 2006,"The Archers" hit the headlines of every national newspaper when it brought to a climax one of its biggest ever story-lines - the love triangle between David Archer (Tim Bentinck), his wife Ruth Archer (Felicity Finch) and herdsman Sam Batton. In the final seconds of the 15,000th episode of the soap, Ruth decided not to consummate her relationship with Sam, and five million listeners across Britain either heaved a collective sigh of relief, or felt cruelly disappointed. In the days that followed, the official Archers website received 1.2 million page impressions. The Ruth/Sam/David storyline is an important one, but it is only the latest in a long line of stories that stretch back to 1 January 1951, when "The Archers" was first broadcast to the nation. As things start to return to normal at Brookfield, who knows what new stories will unfold for the 60-odd other Ambridge residents on whose lives we eavesdrop every weekday, just after 7pm? In this film, broadcast 56 years to the day since the series began, Arena goes behind the scenes at the Archers production office and tracks the development of that dramatic 15,000th episode, from the script meeting last August where the story was mapped out by the team of writers under editor Vanessa Whitburn, through to the writing of the scripts, the studio recording and the response from listeners. We also catch a glimpse of the team preparing for the New Year's Day episode which will have gone out just before the film is broadcast. With extracts from episodes through the ages and interviews with actors, editors, writers and fans, plus comic moments from spoofs, Arena examines the enduring appeal of "The Archers". How has an agricultural soap opera, based in deepest Borsetshire (allegedly somewhere near Worcestershire) but produced in the urban sprawl of Birmingham become so deeply embedded in the British consciousness? And could it's theme tune be the nation's single most loved and loathed piece of music? Stephen Fry narrates the film, which is directed and produced by Emily Kennedy. Guy Crossman is the film editor and the researcher is Sue Fowler. Anthony Wall is the editor of Arena.

The Brian Epstein Story: The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow - Part 1

25 December 1998

The Brian Epstein Story: Tomorrow Never Knows - Part 2

26 December 1998

The Comic Strip Hero

18 April 1981

The Complete History of the Potato

15 December 1990
Traces the history of the patata from the food staple of the Incas to the raw material of the gigantic crisp industry. Featuring an Irish politician, an English historian, a French chef and a Peruvian geneticist.

The Confessions of Robert Crumb

13 February 1987
In 1987, Robert Crumb presents himself: raised by a Marine father, educated in Catholic schools, married at 21 in Cleveland where he worked for a greeting card company, dropping acid in 1965, heading to San Francisco and getting in on the formation of Zap Comix, gaining celebrity, loving old time jazz, starting a band, living in a commune, meeting Aline Kominsky who became his second wife and his partner in art, having a daughter, and developing a more realistic drawing style. The confessions include his loneliness, his obsessions with women, his bewilderment by fame, his sense of the disintegration of Sixties' subculture, his nervous breakdown in 1973, and his peace now.

The Dreams of William Golding

17 March 2012

The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money

2 January 2000

The GPO Story

14 December 1983

The Human Face

19 April 1991
A highly innovative arts documentary, which uses the latest special effects, to investigate the cultural and scientific background behind the way we judge people by their face. The documentary was presented by US artist and musician, Laurie Anderson whose face was transformed into iconic and historic stereotypes as she talked. Special effects were created by Christopher Tucker.

The Hunt for Moby-Dick

20 September 2008
Writer Philip Hoare embarks on a journey to investigate humankind's fascination with the whale. He travels in the footsteps of Ishmael, narrator of "Moby Dick" from Southampton to America to the Azores.

The Incredible Case of Comrade Rockstar

28 February 1992

The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti

19 April 2003

The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel

6 September 1986

The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough

24 August 2003

The Original Archers

4 October 2007
A visualisation of the earliest existing episode of the Archers from the BBC archives - 11th March 1952 - using archive footage to recreate the period.

The Orson Welles Story

18 May 1982

The Orson Welles Story: Part Two

21 May 1982

The Peter Sellers Story

11 February 1995
The life and time of comedy genius Peter Sellers, told with the help of his extraordinary collections of home movies and featuring interviews with family, friends and colleagues.

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part One

26 December 2001

The Private Dirk Bogarde: Part Two

26 December 2001

The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima

3 December 1985

The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul

10 April 2008
Documentary profile of the life of the Nobel Laureate, V.S Naipaul widely regarded as Britain's greatest living author.

The Very Strange Story of... The Legendary Joe Meek

8 February 1991
Detailing the life of an influential 1960s British record producer, the first to top both the UK and US pop music charts with the same record.

The Whale in the Museum

21 September 2008
Documentary about the Natural History Museum's Blue Whale exhibit.

Underground

18 March 2007

Who Is Poly Styrene?

20 January 1979

Who Owns Che: The Importance of Not Being Ernesto

2 January 1999

Episode dated 19 January 1977

19 January 1977

Episode dated 5 October 1977

5 October 1977

aka Norman Parkinson

21 April 2013
Examining the glamorous life and long career of pioneering photographer Norman Parkinson.