Arena (TV series)

Infobox British television
show_name = Arena


size =
caption =
format = Documentary
runtime =
creator = Alan Yentob, Series Editor is Anthony Wall
series editor=Anthony Wall
network= BBC Two/BBC Four
first_aired = 1 October 1975
last_aired =
num_episodes =
producer = BBC,
related =

"Arena" is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since the October 1 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. "Arena" covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car. "Arena" was originally conceived by the producer Alan Yentob, who also did on-camera presenting and interviewing work for the programme. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Overview

"Arena" was voted one of the 50 most influential programmes of all time in a poll of leading TV executives in Broadcast magazine.Fact|date=July 2008

"Arena" has presented many themed nights examining a single subject in various ways, including; an "Animals Night" (16 December 1989), "Food Night" (15 December 1990), "Cuba Night" (2 January 1999) "Bus Night" (10 December 2005) and the ambitious "Radio Night", simulcast on BBC Two and BBC Radio 4 on 18 December 1993.

In 1988, "Arena" itself was the subject of an edition titled "Ten Green Bottles" (a reference to its iconic title sequence, which depicts a floating green bottle with a neon sign inside).

reviews

* 'Arena remains one of the premier brands in documentary television'- Esquire magazine

* 'Arena is the oasis in the sea of insanity that is television'- Werner Herzog

* 'This should be compulsive viewing for today's formulaic programme-makers.' -Daily Mail

* 'The series has always been able to treat both high and popular culture with gravitas.' -The Times.

Theme music

The programme's theme music is "Another Green World" by Brian Eno.

The arena opening titles were voted among 'the five most influential of all time' by Broadcast magazine.Fact|date=July 2008

Anthony Wall (series editor)

Anthony Wall has been with Arena for most of the strand’s 30 years, first as a director and since 1985 as Series Editor. As director, producer and executive producer, Wall has personally won three BAFTA awards, three Royal Television Society awards, the Prix Italia, an International EMMY and the Special Medallion at Telluride.

Recently Anthony has produced Arena: Bacon’s Arena, a portrait of the painter, and Arena: Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus, which received a nomination for International Critics’ Prize at the IDFA in 2004. He co-produced the multi-award winning "No Direction Home" - Bob Dylan for Arena directed by Martin Scorsese in 2005. In the last year Anthony has continued to oversee a diverse output of arts films at Arena: the strand profiled the contemporary media phenomenon Pete Doherty, as well as the lives of the Saints and the history of popular Radio Four soap opera The Archers.

Awards

To date, Arena has won nine BAFTAs and two international EMMYs. Arena has also won the 'grand jury prize' for 'Paris is burning' and 'the best performance award' for Lily Taylor's role in 'I shot Andy Warhol' at the Sundance film festival.

elected filmography:

* 2008 Cab driver
* 2007 Bob Marley: Exodus
* 2006 The Archers
* 2005 Dylan In The Madhouse
* 2004 Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus
* 2003 Dylan Thomas – From Grave To Cradle
* 2002 My Way
* 2001 Sykes and a Day
* 1999 Looking for The Iron Curtain
* 1998 The Brian Epstein Story
* 1993 Highway 61 Revisited
* 1988 Slim Gaillard’s Civilisation
* 1987 How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria
* 1986 Maytime On The Mosquito Coast
* 1984 The Everly Brothers - Songs of Innocence and Experience
* 1983 The Life And Times Of Don Louis Bunuel
* 1982 Desert Island Discs, Upon Westminster Bridge, Private Life of the Ford Cortina
* 1981 Superman – The Comic Strip Hero, Today Carshalton Beeches Tomorrow Croydon, Brighton To Barbados
* 1980 Luck and Flaw

References

*Vahimagi, Tise. "British Television: An Illustrated Guide". Oxford. Oxford University Press / British Film Institute. 1994. ISBN 0-19-818336-4.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/arena-at-30.shtml "Arena" at 30] site at bbc.co.uk.
* [http://catalogue.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/series/ARENA BBC Catalogue - Arena]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006pn88 BBC Programmes - Arena]