Arena (British TV series)

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC since 1 October 1975. Voted by TV executives in Broadcast magazine as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has produced more than six hundred episodes directed by, among others, Frederick Baker, Jana Boková, Jonathan Demme, Nigel Finch, Mary Harron, Vikram Jayanti, Vivian Kubrick, Paul Lee, Adam Low, Bernard MacMahon, James Marsh, Leslie Megahey, Volker Schlondorff, Martin Scorsese, Julien Temple, Anthony Wall, Leslie Woodhead, and Alan Yentob.

History

The arts strand Arena was initially created in 1975<ref>Tise Vahimagi. (2003-12) "Burton, Humphrey (1931-)". BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 27 June 2013.</ref> by the BBC Head of Music & Arts at that time, Humphrey Burton, when he founded a magazine named Arena exploring art, design, filmmaking, and theatre. In 1977, under producer and director Leslie Megahey, the strand divided into Arena Theatre and Arena Art and Design, and Arena became less of a magazine and more a home for short, distinctive and stylish films about mainly British theatre and visual arts. In 1978, Megahey became editor of Omnibus and Alan Yentob, who had been supervising Arena Theatre, took over and the two themes were merged. The series, relaunched in January 1979 and renamed simply Arena, began to adopt a format of single subject essays. It earned great critical acclaim for its enthusiasm for the popular as well as the high arts. During Yentob's time as editor, Arena had six BAFTA nominations and three BAFTA awards.

A group of radical directors, notably Nigel Finch and Anthony Wall, gathered around Yentob and Arena, including Nigel Williams and Mary Dickinson. Hits from 1979 included Who Is Poly Styrene?,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> La Dame Aux Gladiolas,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a portrait of Edna Everage, and most notably the groundbreaking My Way,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an examination of the appeal of the song, by Finch and Wall. It was the first of their collaborations, which developed a new kind of arts film, taking an unlikely subject and building a poetic meditation on its various aspects - further examples include The Chelsea Hotel (1981),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Private Life of the Ford Cortina (1982),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Desert Island Discs (1982).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other successes included Megahey's portrait of Orson Welles (1982),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Williams's study of George Orwell (1982),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Yentob's portrait of Mel Brooks (1981)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Wall's four-part documentary on Slim Gaillard (1989).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On Yentob's move to become Head of Music & Arts in 1985, Finch and Wall took over as joint editors of Arena until Finch's death in 1995. Following a period of uncertainty concerning the future of the arts strand, series editor Wall protected the series in a reshuffle of the BBC. Since then Arena has been transmitted outside the conventional weekly broadcast strand on BBC Two and latterly on BBC Four.

Under Wall and Finch, Arena developed the idea of the themed evening, beginning with Blues Night (1985),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> followed by Caribbean Nights (1986),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Animal Night (1989),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Food Night (1990),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Texas Saturday Night (1991),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Radio Night simulcast with BBC Radio 4 (1993)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Stories My Country Told Me (1995),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a three-and-a-half-hour presentation on Nations and Nationalism. Since then Arena has won numerous awards with regular screenings at the BFI Southbank and has continued to cover the arts and culture at the highest level, with films on Bob Dylan, Harold Pinter, The National Theatre and Spitting Image.

Arena developed a substantial online presence featuring the Arena Hotel, a site that turns the 600-film Arena archive into a resource to build an online hotel for the stars. The Arena Hotel was nominated for a Focal International Award in 2013.Template:Citation needed Werner Herzog has praised the series as "the oasis in the sea of insanity that is television".Template:Citation needed

Wall retired in 2018, and the strand is now overseen by commissioning editor Mark Bell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Branding

The programme's theme music is taken from the title track of the 1975 album Another Green World by Brian Eno, himself the subject of a 2010 Arena film subtitled Another Green World.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Arena opening titles were voted among the "Top 5 Most Influential Opening Titles in the History of Television" by Broadcast magazine in 2004.

Awards and nominations

Arena has won a Primetime and International Emmys,<ref>International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (2013). "International Emmy Awards – Previous Winners 'Arts ProgrammeTemplate:'" Template:Webarchive. The International Emmy Awards. Retrieved 19 June 2013.</ref> a Grammy,<ref>The Recording Academy (2013). "GRAMMY.COM Past Winners Search – 'No Direction HomeTemplate:'". GRAMMY.COM. Retrieved 19 June 2013.</ref> nine BAFTAs,<ref>British Academy of Film and Television Arts (2013). "BAFTA Awards Search – 'ArenaTemplate:'". BAFTA. Retrieved 19 June 2013.</ref> six Royal Television Society Awards, a Peabody and the Prix Italia. Arena also won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Paris Is Burning (1990), the Best Performance Award for Lili Taylor's role in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) at the Sundance Film Festival, and the SFFIF's Mel Novikoff Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Selected filmography

Year	Films	Director
1975	Theatre
1978	Art and Design: The Journey	Nigel Finch Alan Yentob
1979	Now and Then - Anthony Green	Nigel Williams
	My Way	Nigel Finch
	Six Days in September	Judy Marle
1980	Rudies Come Back: The Rise and Rise of 2 Tone	Jeff Perks
	Adrian Dunbar and Victoria Wood
	Making The Shining	Vivian Kubrick
1981	Gary Glitter: Did You Miss Me?
	The Comic Strip Hero	Anthony Wall
	Chelsea Hotel	Nigel Finch
	Edward Hopper	Carol Bell
	Brixton to Barbados	Anthony Wall
1982	The Private Life of the Ford Cortina	Nigel Finch
	Desert Island Discs	Anthony Wall
	The Orson Welles Story	Alan Yentob L. Megahey
1983	Burroughs	H. Brookner
	Borges and I	D. Wheatley
	Bette Davis: A Basically Benevolent Volcano
1984	Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day	John Jeremy
	Francis Bacon
1985	Old Kent Road	M. Dickinson
	Blues Night: 1. Sonny Boy Williamson Sings	Kevin Loader
	Blues Night: 2. B. B. King Speaks
	Blues Night: 3. Chicago Blues
	Blues Night: 4. Blind John Davis
	Blues Night: 5. Blues Medley
	Blues Night: 6. Big Bill Blues
	Saint Genet	Nigel Williams C. Chabot
1986	Tosca's Kiss
	Louise Brooks	Charles Chabot Richard Leacock
	Henry Moore
	Caribbean Nights: C. L. R. James' First Cricket XI	C. Pattinson
1987	The Confessions of Robert Crumb	M. Dickinson
	Evelyn Waugh Trilogy	Adam Low
	Stop Making Sense	Jonathan Demme
1988	Kapuściński	Adam Low
1989	The Other Graham Greene	Nigel Finch
	Slim Gaillard's Civilisation (Episode 1) - "A Traveller's Tale"<ref name="SGCiv-1">Template:Cite episode</ref>	Anthony Wall
	Slim Gaillard's Civilisation (Episode 2) - "How High The Moon"<ref name="SGCiv-2">Template:Cite episode</ref>
	Slim Gaillard's Civilisation (Episode 3) - "My Dinner With Dizzy"<ref name="SGCiv-3">Template:Cite episode</ref>
	Slim Gaillard's Civilisation (Episode 4) - "Everything's OK in the UK"<ref name="SGCiv-4">Template:Cite episode</ref>
1990	Paris is Burning	J. Livingston Nigel Finch
	Agatha Christie: An Unseen Portrait	James Marsh
1991	Miller Meets Mandela	B. Marcus Nigel Finch
	Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon	Nigel Finch
	The Human Face<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Nichola Bruce Michael Coulson
1992	Masters of the Canvas	Mary Dickinson
	Armistead Maupin is a Man I Dreamt Up
1993	Edward Said	F Hanly T. May
	The Last Soviet Citizen	Leslie Woodhead
1994	Kalashnikov<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Paul Lee
	Marvin Gaye	J. Marsh
1995	The Peter Sellers Story Part 1: Southsea to Shepperton	Peter Lydon
	The Peter Sellers Story Part 2: Jack to Jacques
	The Peter Sellers Story Part 3: I am Not a Funny Man
	Punk and the Pistols	P. Tickell
	Stonewall	Nigel Finch
1996	Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood - Eric Hobsbawn and Slovakian Nationalism<ref name="SMCTM" />	Frederick Baker
	Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood - Desmond Tutu and the Rainbow Nation<ref name="SMCTM" />	T. May
	Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood - Eqbal Ahmad on the Grand Trunk Road<ref name="SMCTM">Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood. Retrieved 26 April 2016.</ref>	H. O. Hazareth
	The Burger & the King: The Life & Cuisine of Elvis Presley	James Marsh
	I Shot Andy Warhol	M. Harron
	Tony Bennett's New York	Leslie Woodhead
1997	Busby, Stein and Shankly: The Football Men	F. Hanly
	The Banana	Kate Maynell
1998	Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century	Alan Lewens
	The Brian Epstein Story: The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow	Anthony Wall
	The Brian Epstein Story: Tomorrow Never Knows
1999	Cuba Night	P. Esterson J. Shinner
	Salman Rushdie	M. Dickinson
	Looking for the Iron Curtain	Anthony Wall
2000	Wisconsin Death Trip	James Marsh
	Clint Eastwood	Anthony Wall B. Ricker
2001	Salgado: Spectre of Hope	P. Carlin
	My Way
2002	Kurosawa	Adam Low
	Harold Pinter Season at the BBC	Anthony Wall Nigel Williams Martin Rosenbaum
2003	The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough
	Imagine Imagine	Frederick Baker
	Dylan Thomas: Grave to Cradle	Anthony Wall
2004	Pavarotti: The Last Tenor	Frank Hanly
	Shadowing the Third Man	Frederick Baker
	Painting the Clouds: A Portrait of Dennis Potter	Martin Rosenbaum Nigel Williams
2005	Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues	Morgan Neville
	Calling Hedy Lamarr	Georg Misch
	Bacon's Arena	Adam Low
	No Direction Home: Bob Dylan	Martin Scorsese
	The Princess and Panorama	Samantha Peters
2006	Pete Doherty	Ashtar Alkhirsan
2007	Underground	Zimena Percival
	Bob Marley's Exodus '77	Anthony Wall
	Encountering Bergman	David Thompson
	Bergman and the Cinema	Marie Nyrerod
	Ken Dodd's Happiness	Ashtar Al Khirsan
2008	V.S. Naipaul: The Strange Luck Of...	Adam Low
	Phil Spector	Vikram Jayanti
2009	T. S. Eliot	Adam Low
2010	Brian Eno: Another Green World	Nicola Roberts
	Harold: A Celebration	Anthony Wall
	Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way	Bruce Ricker
2011	Produced by George Martin	Frank Hanly
	George Harrison: Living in the Material World	Martin Scorsese
2012	Dickens On Film	Anthony Wall
	Sonny Rollins: This is Who I Am	Dick Fontaine
	The Dreams of William Golding	Adam Low
	Jonathan Miller	David Thompson
	Amy Winehouse: The Day She Came to Dingle	Maurice Linnane
	The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour Revisited	Frank Hanly
	Screen Goddesses	David Thompson
	Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospels	Randall Wright
2013	AKA Norman Parkinson	Nicola Roberts
	The National Theatre	Adam Low
2014	Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?	Anthony Wall
	The 50 Year Argument: The New York Review of Books	Martin Scorsese David Tedeschi
2015	Night and Day
2016	All the Worlds a Screen: Shakespeare on Film
2017	The American Epic Sessions	Bernard MacMahon
	American Epic
2019	Bergman: A Year in the Life
2021	Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes
2022	River
2023	The Mysterious Mr. Lagerfield
	The Stones and Brian Jones
	Coco Chanel Unbuttoned
	Being Kae Tempest
	Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy
2024	Loaded: Lad's Mags and Mayhem
	From Roger Moore With Love
	Maria Callas: The Final Act
2025	Steven McRae: Dancing Back to the Light
	My Brain: After the Rupture

See also

• Storyville, a similar documentary series by the BBC

Sources

• Vahimagi, Tise. British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press / British Film Institute, 1994. Template:ISBN.

External links

• Template:BBC programme
• Arena Hotel site at The Space
• Template:IMDb title