Latest episode
S1 E686 · Maria Callas: The Final Act
Arena is a documentary TV series that premiered on BBC Two on October 1, 1975. It has 1 season and 692 episodes so far and is still airing new episodes. The latest episode, Season 1 Episode 686 "Maria Callas: The Final Act", aired on December 29, 2024.
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.
Last updated
692 episodes · 5 seasons
1975 · 50 episodes · Last episode: 1 year ago
The disappearance of McCartney’s original Höfner bass over 50 years ago is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great mysteries. This is the story of the iconic instrument and the quest to find it. Featuring exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney, his brother Mike, Klaus Voormann, Elvis Costello and the roadies, journalists and fans who embarked on a mission to return the bass to its place in music history.
The incredible story of broadcaster, journalist, musician and author Clemency Burton-Hill's recovery following a devastating brain haemorrhage in early 2020.
At the peak of his career, acclaimed ballet dancer Steven McRae severely damages his Achilles tendon. This is the story of his rehabilitation and the days leading up to his triumphant return to stage.
Friends, family and co-stars take part in this revealing and entertaining look at British icon Roger Moore and his rise to global fame. With rare home-movie footage.
Launched 30 years ago, Loaded magazine epitomised the 90s in its irreverence and appetite for hedonism. But how did it stand up to pressure to put more 'sexy babes' on the cover?
In May 2024, Alan Bennett turned 90. This film celebrates the life and long career of one of Britain's best-loved playwrights. Part frank reflection on the ageing process, part remembrance of the joys of youth, Alan is aided by the films he has written and the documentaries he has presented in his quest to understand the person he has become.
In this new film from Arena, a cast of musical experts and admirers uncover the truth about the Maria Callas myth and the gift of her extraordinary voice.
The story of Noel Coward, the most prolific writer, director and entertainer of the 20th century, told in his own words.
A celebration of the unique life and talent of Caroline Aherne, featuring unseen photographs and contributions from a cast of her lifelong friends, including Steve Coogan, Jon Thompson, Craig Cash and producer Andy Harries.
Poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest is one of the most viscerally exciting artists working in Britain today. They are the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious Ted Hughes prize and have been nominated for both Brit and Mercury music prizes. This unique Arena film, shot over several years, gains a rare insight into their life and creative process.
Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel transformed women's fashion, a truly revolutionary designer whose influence is still evident today. Her designs called into question the role of women, sex and power, and ignited a whole new way of dressing. Yet her life remains shrouded in mystery. This feature-length Arena documentary weaves together the story of Chanel’s creations - from the little black dress to the tweed suit and the iconic chain handbag - over the contours of her colourful life.
A profile of artist and activist Nan Goldin, using slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage to tell the story of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid overdose crisis.
A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, key to the success of the band.
With unique access to Karl Lagerfeld’s inner circle - many having never spoken publicly before - and his beloved cat, this film opens up the extraordinary world of the man known as Kaiser Karl.
he life and career of the pioneering musician, a black artist who grew up in the segregated American South and broke down barriers and took 1950s America by storm. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones supported him and took inspiration from his musicianship and stagecraft, and he went on to influence artists as diverse as David Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Prince.
A visually arresting feature documentary, set in the present but which tells the rich story of Haiti’s past, that follows a number of carnival performers in the lead-up to, and during, the annual Jacmel Mardi Gras. This is not the carnival of sequins and sound systems found elsewhere in the Caribbean, but a celebration of rebellion and resistance resonating through the centuries.
2022 marks the centenary of one of the defining poems of the 20th century, 'The Waste Land'. TS Eliot's groundbreaking work first exploded into the world on 15 October 1922 and has continued to resonate with successive generations. But in 2020, there were dramatic new revelations that demonstrated how, behind Eliot's mask, there was a much more personal story to be found within 'The Waste Land' – which can now at last be explored
A hundred years after its publication, this film reveals the tawdry, shocking, poetic, uplifting and gloriously kaleidoscopic humanity of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses.
River takes its audience on a journey through space and time spanning six continents, showing rivers on a scale and from perspectives never seen before.
Documentary that follows Björn Andrésen, the boy catapulted to fame when Luchino Visconti chose him to play Tadzio in his screen adaptation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
An Arena documentary about the life and work of video art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka, which reveals the profound effect they had on the American avant-garde.
An investigation into the extraordinary life and work of B. Catling, an eye-popping insight into the late-flourishing career of a maverick artist, teacher and performer.
How a US lifer survived long-term solitary confinement through a remarkable pen-pal friendship and the making of beautiful little paintings from M&M's.
An exploration – from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Grace Jones – of how black artists use the sci-fi genre to examine black history and imagine new, alternative futures.
British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander travels to West Africa to discover the modern-day impact on its people of atrocities that took place over a century ago.
Docudrama portrait of Delia Derbyshire, the electronic sound pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme tune, exploring the idea that this extraordinary composer herself lived outside of time and space.
For decades among the foremost names in documentary, Nick Broomfield has often implicated himself in the film-making process with honesty and candour. Yet never has he made a movie more distinctly personal than this complex and moving film about his relationship with his humanist-pacifist father, Maurice Broomfield, a factory worker turned photographer of vivid, often lustrous images of industrial post-WWII England.
xclusive testimony reveals the multifaceted man behind the maverick performer Fela Kuti, who created a sound for a continent - Afrobeat.
The definitive story of international art sensation Keith Haring, told using previously unheard interviews. Haring blazed a trail through the art scene of 80s New York and revolutionised pop culture.
Through the words of James Baldwin, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers.
In 1974, Ike White recorded an album while serving life for murder. The album became his ticket to freedom. But, just as he was on the cusp of stardom, Ike disappeared.
Made across six months in the run-up to publication of 'The Mirror and the Light', the final book in Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, this film enjoys exclusive and extensive access to one of the world’s greatest living writers, delving into Mantel's past and present as she describes a vivid imagination active from an early age and recounts with candour a tale of growing up with a dark family secret.
Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 - but his career also coincided with one of the bloodiest political upheavals of the 20th century, the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot in an experimental film made up of a diverse cast of people.
Haunting film about Britain and the nuclear age, from the first bomb tests to our potentially futile preparations for attack during the Cold War.
This feature-length documentary for Arena by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the remarkable story of a charlatan art dealer who swindled over $50 million from the art establishment before going on the run.
Documentary that exposes a darker, less well-known side of film director Ingmar Bergman, focusing on the landmark year of 1957, which saw Bergman direct two films and four plays.
When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell.
Documentary profiling Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama whose work, including her much-visited Infinity Mirror Room installations, defies classification.
A rare insight into the work of Cindy Sherman, one of the world's leading, and most elusive, contemporary artists.
A long-lost film of the creative community formed by Peter Beard, Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee Radziwill and her relatives, the Beales of Grey Gardens, in 1970s New York.
A year in the life of abstract artist Sean Scully, one of the world's wealthiest painters. Little known at home but a superstar abroad, Sean flies around the world to open 15 major museum exhibitions - a journey that also reveals his extraordinary life story.
Multimedia artist Rachel Maclean takes a satirical look at the contradictory pressures faced by women today.
A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy sparkling conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive.
A Bob Dylan performance of songs expressing his new-found Christianity in the late 70s, enhanced by a series of sermons between the songs, written by the actor Michael Shannon.
Exploring the relationship of artist Stanley Spencer's daughters, Unity and Shirin, as they try to understand and reclaim their father and investigate their family's archaeology.
Today's music superstars use a lovingly reassembled old machine to record in the same way that their early predecessors did - with no edits, no overdubs and no retakes.
The story of the pioneers of American roots music explores Hawaiian music, Cajun music and Mississippi John Hurt's blues.
As Desert Island Discs reaches 75, today's custodian of the island, Kirsty Young, introduces the 1982 Bafta-winning Arena classic.
Series telling the stories of the pioneers of American roots music. The second episode explores gospel, the songs of the coal mines and the Mississippi Delta blues.
1 episode
Interviews with Ventriliquists
Arena Season 5 release dates →Interviews with Ventriliquists
1988 · 2 episodes · Last episode: 37 years ago
1 episode · Last episode: 3 years ago
The story of original influencer Coco Chanel, whose designs still represent the zenith of female sexuality, style and power.
2024 · 1 episode · Last episode: 1 year ago
E1
In 1994, editor James Brown spotted an opportunity to create a general interest men's magazine in a world fixated on yuppies and the new man. With a team of bucky young hopefuls, they birthed Loaded, a magazine that went on to define the lad culture of the 90s. The magazine quickly became a cultural phenomenon, offering a blend of irreverent humour, gonzo journalism, celebrity interviews, sports and jaw-dropping images, tapping into the aspirations, interests and rebellious attitudes of young men, and capturing a hedonistic lifestyle characterised by excess, humour and indulgence. And the women’s equivalent, ‘ladettes’, were not far behind. But as they hurtled towards the end of the century, the realities of lad culture took hold, with drink, drugs and bravado rearing their ugly heads. Lads' mags were born, driving the pressure to compete with 'sexy babes' on the covers. The women who had felt empowered were now being asked to strip for the magazines.
James Brown
Gail Porter
Irvine Welsh
Katie Puckrik
David Baddiel
Harold Wilson
Coco Chanel
Self (archive footage)
A date for the next episode of Arena hasn't been announced yet. Follow Arena in the Streambay app and you'll be notified as soon as a new episode airs.
The most recent episode of Arena, Season 1 Episode 686 "Maria Callas: The Final Act", aired on December 29, 2024.
Arena has 1 season with 692 episodes in total.
Arena first aired on BBC Two on October 1, 1975.
Download the Streambay app, follow Arena, and you'll get a push notification the moment each new episode is released.
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S1 · E552 3 months ago
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10.0
S18 · E260 4 years ago
6.3
7.5
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