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Arena (1975)
Arena 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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Episode 1 - A Genius Like Us: A Portrait of Joe Orton
Release Date: 1982-11-09 -
Episode 2 - Mike Leigh Making Plays
Release Date: 1982-09-04 -
Episode 3 - The Orson Welles Story
Release Date: 1982-05-18First 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, Robert Wise, Charlton Heston, and a detailed interview with Welles himself. This part deals with his work up to Touch of Evil.
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Episode 4 - The Orson Welles Story: Part Two
Release Date: 1982-05-21Second 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 projects, including The Other Side of the Wind and Don Quixote.
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Episode 5 - Desert Island Discs
Release Date: 1982-02-23Arena celebrates Roy Plomley's Desert Island Discs with the help of many celebrity castaways, including Paul McCartney, Frankie Howerd, Russell Harty, Trevor Brooking, the Lord Mayor of London, Professor J.K. Galbraith and Arthur Askey. The special guest for the 40th anniversary programme was Paul McCartney who was also a fan of the show: "I love its homeliness. It conjures up the best in traditional British pleasure, like the great British breakfast. It's an honour to be asked."
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Episode 6 - The Private Life of the Ford Cortina
Release Date: 1982-01-19This quirky Arena, made in 1982, looks back to a time when the humble Ford Cortina was the most popular, and the most stolen, car in Britain.
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Episode 13 - Three Steps To Heaven
Release Date: 1982-11-30Documentary which looks at the life and premature death of rock n' Roll star Eddie Cochran, with comment from Larry Parnes, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Cochran's mother and his fiancee Sharon Sheeley.