Arena Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• According to Beryl

  Beryl Bainbridge takes an in-depth look at the life of Samuel Johnson

• Alec Guinness - A Secret Man

  Profile of acting legend Alec Guinness, whose career spanned more than five decades, and who died three years ago at the age of 86. Best known to the younger generation as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy, Guinness started out on the stage at the age of 24, and went on to create many diverse roles such as the mild-mannered thief in classic Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob, clerical sleuth Father Brown and Fagin in David Lean's Oliver Twist - not forgetting his stiff-upper-lipped officer in wartime classic The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar. Contributions from friends and colleagues, including John le Carre, Eileen Atkins, Ronald Harwood, Simon Callow and Corin Redgrave, are supplemented by extracts from his private journals and letters, to build an in-depth profile of the man behind the many faces

• And the Winner Is

  Documentary examining the often bizarre world of awards ceremonies, from Streetsweeper of the Year to the Nobel Peace Prize. What is behind society's desire to give prizes and what are the potentially damaging consequences of picking winners and losers? With contributions from Academy Award recipients Glenda Jackson, Rachel Portman and Nick Park

• Arena: Desert Island Discs

  Documentary exploring the history of long-running radio series Desert Island Discs, with contributions from castaways Paul McCartney, Trevor Brooking and Frankie Howerd. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• Arena: Shadowing The Third Man

  Documentary about Carol Reed's thriller The Third Man, which was set in Vienna, written by Graham Greene and starred Orson Welles as the mysterious Harry Lime. The original locations used in the movie are revisited and the clashes between producers Alexander Korda and David O Selznick are explored, along with the story of how little-known zither player Anton Karas achieved pop stardom with the film's score. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• An Argentinian Journey

  The people of the mountains celebrate Pacha Mama, the Goddess of the Earth

• An Argentinian Journey: Zamba, Chacarera and Chamame

  Exploring Argentina's rich musical heritage

• Awards

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Big Platform Little Stage

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Bill Brandt

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Bill Brandt - Traveller in a Strange Country

  In-depth profile of Bill Brandt, one of the most influential British photographers of the 20th century. The documentary discovers that while his work offered a penetrating insight into the nature of the country from the 1930s to the 1960s, he remained a mysterious figure up until his death in 1984

• Budd Schulberg : A Contender

  Profile of novelist Budd Schulberg, whose critically acclaimed writing has been quoted by millions and featured in a famous exchange between Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger in Oscar-winner On the Waterfront, which follows. The programme examines how his glittering career has touched many aspects of culture, including cinema, literature, poetry and even sport

• Buffalo Bill's Wild West

  Another in-depth profile or study

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

  In-depth profile blending archive footage and dramatic reconstructions of cowboy William F Cody, better known as legendary hero Buffalo Bill : a nickname he earned when he supplied Kansas Pacific railroad workers with meat. After winning the congressional medal of honour, he turned to acting on stage, forming the touring Wild West Show, before using his fame to champion the cause of both Native Americans and sexual equality. Rock legend David Johansen provides the hero's voice

• Calling Hedy Lamarr

  Profile of actress Hedy Lamarr, once described as the most beautiful woman in films. She found fame and notoriety in her native Austria by performing a nude swimming scene, and was quickly snapped up by Hollywood moguls who made her an international star. Hedy's son John Loder searches for the truth behind his mother's public persona in a documentary which also reveals her lesser-known work as a top-flight physicist who spent most of World War Two helping to develop sophisticated anti-radar devices and technology which became the basis for billions of mobile phones

• Casanova

  Novelist Josephine Hart, author of Damage and Obsession, examines the enigmatic and extraordinary life of legendary lover Casanova. Ambitious and charming, in his day he was renowned for much more than his fabled romantic exploits : the memoirs he promised never to write detail vivid experiences as an astrologer, traveller, gambler, businessman and prison escapee

• Casanova

  Novelist Josephine Hart, author of Damage and Obsession, examines the enigmatic and extraordinary life of legendary lover Casanova. Ambitious and charming, in his day he was renowned for much more than his fabled romantic exploits : the memoirs he promised never to write detail vivid experiences as an astrologer, traveller, gambler, businessman and prison escapee

• Casanova

  Novelist Josephine Hart, author of Damage and Obsession, examines the enigmatic and extraordinary life of legendary lover Casanova. Ambitious and charming, in his day he was renowned for much more than his fabled romantic exploits : the memoirs he promised never to write detail vivid experiences as an astrologer, traveller, gambler, businessman and prison escapee

• Chi Chi the Panda

  Documentary telling the story of Chi-Chi, the panda who was refused entry to America in 1958 because of an embargo on communist goods, but attracted mass media attention upon its arrival at London Zoo

• Clint Eastwood : Part One: Out of the West

  First in a two-part profile of Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood, focusing on his poverty-stricken childhood in Thirties California, through early television success in Rawhide, to classic roles in films such as A Fistful of Dollars and Dirty Harry. Eastwood's mother Ruth makes her screen debut to add her unique perspective on the man who epitomised the cynical tough guy of the 1970s, describing the passion for jazz which underlies much of his work. With contributions from luminaries including Rip Torn, Eli Wallach, Meryl Streep, Gene Hackman and directors Don Siegel, Sergio Leone and Martin Scorsese

• Clint Eastwood : Part Two: American Filmmaker

  Concluding the two-part profile of Clint Eastwood, examining his lifelong commitment to the process of film-making. The actor made his directorial debut with the 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me, which proved the foundation for a remarkable career encompassing classics such as High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bird and the critically acclaimed Unforgiven. With contributions from Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Eastwood's mother Ruth Woods and wife Dina Ruiz

• Dead Ringers

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Dennis Potter - It's in the Songs! It's in the Songs!

  A look at Dennis Potter's innovative use of music to add to the dramatic effect of his plays, examining how the songs in works such as Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective are as much an integral part of the storyline as the dialogue itself. Part of the Potter at the BBC season

• Dylan Thomas - From Grave to Cradle

  Nigel Williams profiles Swansea-born poet Dylan Thomas, whose work, especially his most famous piece Under Milk Wood, has influenced cultural icons such as John Lennon and Bob Dylan. The film tries to find out whether the basic elements of his legend are false - including the 18 whiskies that supposedly killed him in 1953 - and asks if the lurid stories prevent readers from truly understanding his poetry. Part of Poetry Season

• Eastwood

  Profile of the legendary Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, star of classic films such as Unforgiven and the Dirty Harry series

• Estonia Dreams of Eurovision

  Insight into preparations for the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted by the previous year's surprise winners Estonia. Director Marina Zenovich assesses how the country's victory helped lift the spirits of a people struggling to cope with social upheaval after finally breaking free of the Soviet Union to establish their own state

• Evelyn Waugh: An Englishman's Home : Part Three

  The final part of the series focuses on Evelyn Waugh's deteriorating health, which saw the much-revered author suffer hallucinations which he described in The Ordeal of Gilbert Penfold. Part of The Art of Arts TV week

• Evelyn Waugh: Bright Young Things:Part One

  The first of three programmes examining the life and career of author Evelyn Waugh from his childhood and Oxford University days to his first failed marriage and early writing success with classics such as Decline and Fall

• Evelyn Waugh: Mayfair and the Jungle: Part Two

  Part two of three. Chronicling Evelyn Waugh's time spent in Africa as a journalist and his struggle to gain permission to remarry from the Catholic Church. Part of The Art of Arts TV week

• Ford Cortina

  A host of figures including Alexei Sayle, Magnus Magnusson and Terence Beckett pass judgement on the Ford Cortina, once Britain's most popular : and most stolen : car, which has been referred to as both the Dagenham dustbin and the poor man's Rolls-Royce. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• Francis Bacon's Arena

  Profile of artist Francis Bacon, the scandalously decadent figure with a well-documented penchant for alcohol and addiction to roulette, whose paintings are among the most vivid and disturbing in art history. The creator of Screaming Popes and numerous images of apocalyptic horror, he was renowned as England's first rebel superstar by the 1950s. The film charts the committed relationships he held with six contrasting men, including the tragic tale of his lover George Dyer, who committed suicide on the eve of the artist's Paris retrospective in 1971. Featuring contributions from Bacon's sister Ianthe Knott, relatives of his lovers, critics and collectors, as well as archive footage of the man himself. Love Is the Devil, which brings Dyer's tragic story to life, can be seen later this evening

• Frank Sinatra: Night of Nights

  Frank Sinatra's 1970 concert at an NSPCC benefit in London, featuring hits such as My Way, Under My Skin and Pennies From Heaven

• Galton and Simpson

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Graham Greene

  In-depth profile of popular novelist Graham Greene examining his conversion to Catholicism, his turbulent marriage and affairs and the political views, which would court controversy in his later years. With contributions from his widow Vivien Greene, Auberon Waugh and John le Carre

• Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues

  Profile of American country singer Hank Williams, who embodied the honky-tonk ethos with seductive lyrics about love and ruin. Blazing out of Alabama in the late 1940s, he was hailed a superstar by the age of 25, only to meet his untimely death just four years later. Family and friends offer an insight into the man who became one of the most powerfully iconic figures in US music

• Harold Pinter : Part One: The Room

  First in a two-part documentary profiling acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter. The film offers an insight into the inspiration for his work, visiting the rooms in which he wrote in an attempt to identify links between the atmosphere there and the content of his plays. Beginning in the west London study where he writes today, the programme goes on to visit his previous places of work, including the terraced house where he grew up, a theatre dressing room and an apartment lounge. Plus, a chance to see scenes from the Almeida Theatre's most recent production of Pinter's first play The Room, directed by the writer himself, which stars Lindsay Duncan, Keith Allen, Lia Williams and Henry Woolf. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• Harold Pinter : Part Two: Celebration

  The concluding part of the profile of Harold Pinter chronicles how the playwright's critical acclaim launched him to stardom. The film reveals the relationship between his public and private lives, assesses the evolution of his writing style and examines his work in film and television. Plus, a chance to see the TV premiere of Celebration, a tale directed by Pinter which sees a group of friends celebrate in a restaurant over the course of an evening. Lindsay Duncan and Andy de la Tour star. With contributions from Antonia Fraser, Henry Woolf, Kenneth Cranham, Peter Hall and John Pilger

• Highway 61 Revisited

  A journey along Highway 61, which stretches from the Canadian border to New Orleans, revealing how it inspired the classic Bob Dylan album, and featuring a visit to the singer's home town of Hibbing, Minnesota. Part of Bob Dylan Week

• I Am From Nowhere

  Another in-depth profile or study

• I Thought I Was Taller

  Archive documentary from 1981 on writer and director Mel Brooks, whose films, including Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The Producers, have been hailed as some of the finest movie comedies of the 20th century

• Imagine

  Documentary examining the long-lasting appeal of classic John Lennon song Imagine, which was first featured as the title track on the former Beatle's 1971 solo album and has since been released a further four times. The programme features an interview with co-writer Yoko Ono, who shares her thoughts on the much-loved tune, and hears from fans including Merton Professor of English at Oxford University John Carey, York University Professor of Music Wilfred Mellers and Glasgow MP George Galloway

• James Ellroy's Feast of Death

  Profile of crime writer James Ellroy, famous for the novel LA Confidential, which was made into a successful film in 1997, and My Dark Places, the harrowing account of his investigation into his own mother's murder. More recently he has produced The Cold Six Thousand, the second novel in a planned trilogy charting a fictional history of the American underworld's involvement in politics, providing another insight into the writer's dark imagination

• The Journey: Art and Design

  Another in-depth profile or study. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• Just a Minute

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Kurosawa

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Kurosawa

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Kurosawa : Part One

  First in a two-part profile of Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, the cinematic legend who was born into a strict family and went on to produce acclaimed works which mirrored the post-war social changes in his native country. His masterpieces include Seven Samurai, Kagemusha and Ran, and he is credited with changing the face of Eastern cinema with his innovative takes on traditional stories

• Kurosawa : Part One

  Part one. In-depth profile of Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, the cinematic legend who was born into a strict family and went on to produce acclaimed works which mirrored the post-war social changes in his native country. His credits include Seven Samurai, Kagemusha and Ran

• Kurosawa : Part Two

  Part two of the documentary profiling influential Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, discussing arguably his finest film : Seven Samurai : and his disastrous Hollywood collaboration on Tora! Tora! Tora! which led to a suicide attempt in the early 1970s. His friendship with leading actor Toshiro Mifune also comes under scrutiny, along with their eventual enmity and Kurosawa's subsequent isolation from society. Fortunately, salvation was at hand with financing for a new movie : courtesy of Hollywood heavyweights Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. With contributions from Clint Eastwood, James Coburn and Kurosawa's children

• The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti

  Portrait of influential Italian film-maker Luchino Visconti, made to coincide with the British Film Institute's retrospective of his work at London's National Film Theatre in April and May. One of the initiators of Italian cinema's neorealist movement, his much-loved works, including Ossessione and Ludwig are considered classics in the movie world. Family, friends and collaborators pay tribute to a cinema pioneer who died in 1976 but continues to exert an influence on latter-day directors

• The Life and Times of Luchino Visconti

  Part two. In-depth profile of Italian director Luchino Visconti, featuring contributions from Franco Zeffirelli, Charlotte Rampling and Claudia Cardinale

• The Life and Times of Luchino Visconti : Part One

  Part one. Profile of Italian director Luchino Visconti, whose film Ossessione is showing on BBC Four on Wednesday

• Luciano Pavarotti - The Last Tenor

  Documentary profile of Luciano Pavarotti, following his globe-trotting life from Los Angeles to his native Italy. Hailed as one of the greatest tenors of all time, the singer was inspired at an early age by his father, and his 40-year career has seen Pavarotti become a household name all over the world. The programme features meetings with celebrity fans such as Michael Caine and Dustin Hoffman, behind-the-scenes footage of concerts as well as a rare glimpse into his personal life, including his wedding to Nicoletta Mantovani and the christening of their baby daughter Alice. Narrated by Ian McKellen

• The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough : Part One

  The first of two programmes marking the 80th birthday of acclaimed actor and director Richard Attenborough, celebrating his long career in showbusiness, from his renowned portrayal of gangster Pinkie in Graham Greene's Brighton Rock to his white-haired Dr John Hammond in Jurassic Park. With contributions from friends and family. Concludes tomorrow

• The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough : Part Two

  Part two. Profile of acclaimed actor and director Richard Attenborough, charting his long career in showbusiness and following his day-to-day life as he visits a Leicester disability centre and addresses the students of Sussex University. Shown to mark Attenborough's 80th birthday this month. With contributions from David Attenborough, John Attenborough, Sheila Sim and Ben Kingsley

• Marcel Carne

  Profile of acclaimed French director Marcel Carne, whose career spanned five decades from the 1930s to the 1970s

• Masters of the Canvas

  Producer Paul Yates explores the fascination he shares with pop artist Peter Blake for enigmatic wrestler Kendo Nagasaki - a man who never speaks or removes his mask

• My Dinner with Dizzy

  Scat singer Slim Gaillard spends an evening with jazz musician and friend Dizzy Gillespie

• My Way

  The appeal and power of Paul Anka's song My Way, most famously associated with Frank Sinatra, but which has also been recorded by such diverse artists as Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey and Sid Vicious. With contributions from Anka himself, George Brown, Dorothy Squires and Barry John. Part of The Art of Arts TV week

• One for the Road

  One for the Road, by Harold Pinter, which features the playwright and actor in his latest dramatic role as a sinister prison guard with the power of life and death over the inmates, who interviews his victims one by one. With Indira Varma

• Orwell : 1984

  Another in-depth profile or study

• Otto Dix : A Tale of Two Germanies

  A profile of controversial German artist Otto Dix, whose work has often been condemned as obscene and was burned by the Nazis

• Pete Doherty

  Film following Babyshambles singer-songwriter Pete Doherty on tour and at his London home. Through extensive access to the musician over the past six months, the programme offers an insight into the complex and intriguing man who first shot to fame as co-frontman of the Libertines. However, the media attention he has since received can be attributed more to his controversial private life than to his music

• Philip K Dick : A Day in the Afterlife

  Profile of Philip K Dick, the science fiction novelist behind films Total Recall and Blade Runner, who notoriously had five wives, used drugs and struggled for most of his life to gain literary success, and whose genius was only recognised after his death in 1982. Featuring contributions from Terry Gilliam, Elvis Costello and Fay Weldon

• The Private Dirk Bogarde

  Nicholas Shakespeare presents a profile of the British actor, most famous for his role as Simon Sparrow in the Doctor films of the 1950s and 1960s before a self-imposed European exile, during which he starred in the highly acclaimed Death in Venice. The documentary includes footage shot by Bogarde and Anthony Forwood, the man he lived with for 40 years, on the 16mm camera they bought in 1959, as well and contributions by his former nanny, family and friends

• Private Life of Ford Cortina

  Another in-depth profile or study

• The Private Life of the Ford Cortina

  Alexei Sayle explores the popularity of the Ford Cortina

• Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

  A celebration of the Secret Policeman's Ball, staged in 1979 in aid of Amnesty International. Stars from the original line-up, including Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Alexei Sayle and the Monty Python team, give an insight into the staging of the classic night of comedy, alongside highlights of the evening

• Saint Genet

  The acclaimed French playwright and self-declared outcast Jean Genet, who died in 1986, talks about his controversial works. Part of the Arena at 30 season

• Saints

  The phenomenon of sanctity is examined in a documentary asking exactly what constitutes a saint. The Catholic Church's saint-making practices, overseen by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, are compared with the traditions associated with Hinduism and Buddhism, which have something akin in the idea of the holy man and the guru. Also featured are the Islamic Sufi sect, who actively celebrate Christian paragons

• Salgado : The Spectre of Hope

  Profile of photographer Sebastiao Salgado, whose gritty work has won every major prize in the photography world during his 30-year career. Famed for his depictions of human suffering across the globe, Salgado's latest project encapsulates a six-year period in which he travelled through 43 countries to record powerful images of downtrodden people

• Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

  Country singer Jim White drives through the American rural South, building up a portrait of a community fiercely holding onto its traditions and religious beliefs. His trip is enlivened by roadside tales of survival from musical mavericks and encounters with people of the mining towns, mountains and swamps with a story to tell

• Secret Policeman's Ball

  Another in-depth profile or study

• The Source

  The story of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs, founders of literary phenomenon the beat movement, responsible for influencing a generation of artists and musicians. Featuring dramatised interludes starring Dennis Hopper and Johnny Depp

• Stalin : Red God

  Account of Stalin's rise to power from provincial trainee priest to absolute ruler of the Soviet Union, revealing his genius for manipulating his own image to fill the void left by the end of czarism and the repression of the Russian Orthodox Church. After being denounced by Kruschev in 1956, Stalin has been unremittingly vilified by historians, but the legacy of his reign still casts a long shadow over his native Georgia

• They Shot Graham Greene - At the NFT

  Portrait of author Graham Greene, captured on film by a National Film Theatre employee in conversation with Quentin Falk on stage for the Guardian Lecture in 1984. The event was a huge success at the time, with the rare public appearance in England of the famous exiled writer making headline news

• Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends

  The singer looks back on his life and work, with his friend and fellow jazz enthusiast Clint Eastwood, tracing his influences through the jazz archive and favourite musicals, featuring footage from his performance at the 2005 Montreal Jazz Festival. Providing their own personal insights into the New Yorker are contributors Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks, Mitch Miller, Harry Belafonte and Alec Baldwin. Narrated by Anthony Hopkins

• Two Sides of Dennis Potter: It's in the Songs

  First in a two-part retrospective of the works of screenwriter Dennis Potter, who was credited during his lifetime with pushing the boundaries of what could be done using the new medium of television. The first programme analyses his use of popular songs and music in series such as Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective, which used the conventions of the musical to add a flavour of the period, or express the characters' emotions in a way beyond the powers of mere dialogue. Part of the Potter at the BBC season

• Two Sides of Dennis Potter: Potter on TV

  Concluding the two-part retrospective of Dennis Potter's screenplays, examining how his work as a TV critic for four national newspapers helped him to analyse the new medium, and increase its potential in his own writing. His criticism appeared in the pages of The Sunday Times, Daily Herald and The New Statesman during the 1960s, expressing his view that TV should be used to enhance and cultivate the nation's cultural experience and understanding. Part of the Potter at the BBC season

• Visconti : Part Two

  Part two.

• Voices from the Island

  Nelson Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners recall their incarceration on South Africa's Robben Island, which for three decades housed not only political prisoners but convicts, lepers and the mentally ill. Amid the hopelessness, Mandela and his comrades devised strategies and subterfuges which transformed life on the island, while the vision of a new South Africa began to take shape. Part of Nelson Mandela 90th Night

• Warhol : I Am From Nowhere

  In-depth profile of Andy Warhol, considered by many to be America's most influential artist in the second half of the 20th century

• The Waugh Trilogy - Bright Young Things

  Part one. The life and career of author Evelyn Waugh, from his childhood and Oxford University days to his first failed marriage and early writing success with classics such as Decline and Fall. Part of The Art of Arts TV week

• Wisconsin Death Trip

  Documentary visiting the small town of Black River Falls, and examining sinister events that occurred there. The programme takes early 20th-century photographs as its starting point, and uncovers a chilling story that took place in this seemingly respectable community