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Arena : Season 2011
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Air date: 25 Apr '11 - 6 episodesArena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.
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List of Episodes (6)
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Arena (1975)
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1. Produced by George Martin
25 Apr '11Profile 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.
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Arena (1975)
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2. Bob Dylan: No Direction Home - Part 1
20 May '11A 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 h
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Arena (1975)
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3. Bob Dylan: No Direction Home - Part 2
21 May '11Martin 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 c
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Arena (1975)
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4. George Harrison: Living in the Material World - Part 1
12 Nov '11Arena 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 o
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Arena (1975)
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5. George Harrison: Living in the Material World - Part 2
13 Nov '11Arena 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
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Arena (1975)
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6. James Ellroy's Feast of Death
01 Dec '01A 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.
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