A look at silent cinema's most enigmatic and erotic icon, featuring rare interviews with Louise Brooks herself, filmed shortly before her death.

Following the publication of his book 'Maus', a comic strip depicting cats and mice in the story of a young Jewish couple arrested and transported to Auschwitz, its creator comic-strip artist, Art Spiegelmann and his family, travel to Auschwitz for the first time.

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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

Warren Clarke narrates a look at London's world-famous red Routemaster buses which, although designed in the 1950s for a lifespan of just 17 years, was in use into the next century.

About Arena

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This edition chronicles Pinter's East End childhood, his work as an actor, the critical appraisal of his work, and his passion for cricket. The film looks at the various rooms in which Pinter formulated his ideas and wrote his early works, and features footage shot at the Almeida Theatre of a recent production of Pinter's first play 'The Room', featuring Lindsay Duncan, Keith Allen, Lia Williams, and Henry Woolf, and which was directed by Pinter himself.

This programme focuses on the relationship between the public and private aspects of Pinter's life and work. The film includes footage from two Pinter stage productions - 'One For The Road' with Pinter himself in the lead role, and 'Celebration', which was directed by Pinter.

Premiere. Ronald Eyre reviews what's going on in the theatre, Kenneth Tynan talks to Laurence Olivier about Lilian Baylis and The Old Vic, and a film about David Hockney's sets for The Rake's Progress.

George Melly looks at how they sold the 70's and a report on the opening of the Space Studios.

An interview with Howard Barker, author of 'Stripwell', and an extract from same; commentary by Kenneth Tynan; and an investigation of 'Birds of Paradise'.

Cartoonist Mel Caiman on the New Yorker magazine and its artists, Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine Gallery, and a new documentary exhibition from Jarrow.

Peter Hall talks about the history and new South Band location of the National Theater, where he is artistic director.

Features Observer critic William Feaver on Painting the End of the World, Bill Brandt's selection of landscape photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the best of science fiction illustration.

Extract from a contemporary play and Kenneth Tynan opines.

Shirley Conran is the guest columnist; fashion photographer Barry Lategan is filmed working; and Victorian painter Edward Burne-Jones' London exhibition.

Deborah Norton reviews British stage events, a play extract, and Kenneth Tynan opines about the theatre.

Guest columnist Terry Measham; a look into the work of painter and poet Charles Tomlinson.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova rehearse for a BBC New Year Gala Performance; Kenneth Tynan draws a portrait of Albert Finney.

Filmmaker Roger Graef and journalist Simon Jenkins discuss the destruction of historical buildings, in light of a recent SAVE campaign report and the conclusion of the European Architectural Heritage Year.

Deborah Norton returns with reports, interviews and extracts from what is liveliest and best in the British theatrical scene.

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Jonathan Miller introduces this week's look at what is most stimulating and enjoyable on the theatrical scene.

A look at American photographer Paul Strand and recent trends in British photography.

Arena goes to Scarborough for the British premiere of a new Alan Ayckbourn play "Just Between Ourselves".

Arena looks at aspects of community art and the work of painter Keith Grant, artist-in-residence at the New Charing Cross Hospital.

Claire Bloom and Kenneth Tynan discuss extracts from Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days', George Bernard Shaw's 'Too True to be Good', and Tennessee Williams' 'Sweet Bird of Youth'.

Arena talks with Robert Janz and Dante Leonelli about incorporating time into sculpture.

Arena brings extracts from Paris' contemporary theatre season, including Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' and Marguerite Duras' 'Days in the Tree', and an interview with Delphine Seyrig.

Arena presents the work of British and American video artists.

Barbara Jefford, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Kenneth Tynan Billie Whitelaw and many of the people behind the scenes say goodbye to the Old Vic building.

Liverpool poet and painter Adrian Henry visits 'The Face of Merseyside'; Boyd and Evans use photographs as the basis of their explorations of everyday life.

Alumni of the Royal Court celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Barrie Penrose investigates a multi-national art empire and the artists and methods that created it.

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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

Film portrait of the New Wave singer-songwriter, Poly Styrene.

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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

David Bowie was the first person to write English lyrics to the original tune of what eventually became the global hit, My Way. Claude Francois, a big name in his native France, wrote and performed the original song called, Comme d’habitude which means ‘As Usual.’ It was quite common in the 60s for European hits to be picked up by British or American publishers, who would in turn commission somebody to apply an English lyric to the tune. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Dusty Springfield is a good example, it was originally an Italian hit. The European publisher would make money from the re-version, the Brits and the American publishers would make money, so everybody ate.

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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

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Rock band Sham 69 have a large and loyal following of working-class kids, who call themselves 'The Sham Army'. They have a reputation for causing trouble and Sham concerts have often been disrupted and brought to an end by fighting.

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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

Rudies Come Back or The Rise and Rise of 2-Tone

Not so long ago they were playing in London pubs. This week - 16 platinum discs, 21 gold and a triumphant world tour later, Dire Straits return to the London stage. Tonight's Arena film features the superb concert they played on their last visit to The Rainbow, and band members talk about their music and the pressures and consequences of their astonishing success.

Documentary about the Chelsea Hotel in New York, a legendary haven for the some of the greatest artistic talent of the 20th century, from Mark Twain to Dylan Thomas.

Andy Warhol and William Burroughs have dinner in the room where Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001, and Quentin Crisp, who lived in the hotel for more than 35 years, recalls moving in.

Documentary on two very individual English Artists. Sam Smith, who carves wooden toys and models evocative of the Edwardian era, and Chris Orr, illustrator of the minutes of suburbia.

Documentary whcih looks at the role of Radio One D.J. John Peel and his producer John Walters have had in the encouragement of rock bands who have yet to break through into commercial recording.

Documentary on Edward Hopper, american painter, whose work is the subject of an exhibition in London at the moment.

Documentary on the staging of The Ik in a quarry near Adelaide in australia by Peter Brook's travelling theatre company. Tribal Aboriginal performers travelled 1000's of miles to see the performance, along with popular plays presented by them.

Documentary looking at Britain's smallest theatre, run in Scotland by Barrie and Marrianne Hesketh for the last seventeen years, in which they take all the part s, design and direct all the shows.

Documentary profile of film director John Huston.

Programme which looks at the life and work of French film director Rene Clair and his work in France and Hollywood. With Leslie Caron, Gina Lollobrigida, Jean- Pierre Cassel, Claude Autant-Lara and Michel Boisrond.

Documentary profile of leading Israeli writer, Amos Oz in which he talks about t he thirty year history of the Israeli state whilst touring his home city of Jerusalem.

Film Portrait of William Gerhardie who died in 1977, whose book Bod's Fifth Colu mn was published in 1981. Michael Holroyd discusses Gerhardie's life and work a nd introduces an interview recorded in 1971.

Profile of pop singer Gary Glitter, who "retired" in 1976 and who was soon hopelessly in debt, but whose career has shown recent signs of revival.

Programme which looks at some of the films of silent film comedian Lupino Lane, whose work was mostly destroyed when his studio went bankrupt in the twenties. However exracts from 14 of his restored films are featured here.

Profile of american painter Robert Natkin, who talks about the early influences on his life.

Documentary which examines the effects of the cuts in education spending on Britain's Youth Orchestras, looking in particular at the example of Leicestershire schools.

Documentary looking at the future of the National Youth Theatre, looking at its history and the financial threats to its future exsistance. With interviews with Sir Ralph Richardson, Kate Adie, Martin Jarvis, Peter Terson, Helen Mirren.

Documentary in which Polish film director Wajda is interviewed in Warsaw and Cra cow shortly after receiving the Palm D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. He talks about his films and his avoidance of censorship as a film-maker in Poland.

Portrait of comedy film writer, director and sometime actor, Mel Brooks filmed on location in Hollywood with Gene Wilder, Dom de Louise and Sid Caeser.

Documentary about the image on the Mona Lisa and the various contexts in which the image can be seen throughout the world.

Documentary which looks at the development of an idea for a play by Hanif Kureishi through the group improvisation and ideas of the Joint Stock Theatre Company to the first performance of the finished play, Borderline.

Documentary on British film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who talk about their career in partnership which produced some now-acknowledged "classics" of British Cinema, with comment from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

Since 1923 the Radio Times has been a leader in design & illustration & Eric Fraser one of its regular contributors talks about his work. > Through out the film covers & illustrations from the Radio Times from 1923 to the present day are featured with a soundtrack composed of excerpts from radio progs incl music, sport, comedy, lectures & early radio announcements. Eric FRASER talks about his change of style from humour to a more serious style since the war, his favourite type of work & how he manages to work to a script & produce designs very quickly. The intv with Fraser & vars hm working on an illustration are intercut through out the film. Name FRASER, Eric

Documentary which features the view of Booker prize-winning author Salman Rushdie of India through the eyes of his hero from the novel `Midnight's Children', Saleem Sinai.

Documentary in which Jamaican-born poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, now resident in Brixton, visits Carifesta, a festival of West Indian culture held in Barbados, and surveys a small part of the very diverse cultural activity of the Islands. Performers include: South Stars - Trinidad; Network - Trinidad; Shake Keane - St Vincent; Bahamas National Dance Company; The Soulful Groovers - the Bahamas; Rebirth; the Renegades - Trinidad; Drama Group - Montserrat; the Mighty Arrow - Montserrat; Chronicle Atlantic Symphony Steel Orchestra; Michael Smith - Jamaica; the Dicey Doh Singers - Bahamas; the Mighty Sparrow - Trinidad; Irakere - Cuba.

This 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.

Arena 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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We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

Documentary 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.

BBC2 Arena documentary from 1985, which examines the controversial life and bizarre death of the Japanese author, playwright, actor and patriot, Yukio Mishima, who was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize for literature, and who committed suicide by ritual disembowelment, on 25th November 1970 after attempting a military coup.

Using rare archive footage, including film of Mishima giving a final speech just moments before his death, as well as interviews with the author conducted in English, and reminiscences from his former friends and colleagues, including his English born biographer, Henry Scott Stokes, and translator Donald Keene, the film attempts to shed light on what drove him towards his unusual choice of fate.

Interview with Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa.

A 24 hour journey through the streets of London as seen by two writers. Spectator columnist Jeffrey Bernard explores the daylight hours, with thriler writer Celia Fremlin walking the hours of darkness.

Alan Yentob interviews TV dramatist Dennis Potter about his work through the years, touching on subjects such as why and how he started writing, his sense of being different as a child, the insularity of his past in Forest of Dean, starting at the BBC in 1959 and a failed attempt at going into politics.

Story of photographer Martin Chambi, a Peruvian Indian whose photographs of the Inca ruins and Peruvian society brought him to the forefront of revolutionary artistic and social movements in South America in the 1930's.

Director David Lynch presents a guide to the work of the Surrealists.

Documentary on jazz musician Abdullah Ibrahim, a South African who moved to Amer ica in 1965. His music uses a blend of jazz and the traditional styles of South Africa.

Beyond the edges of the frame influential filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another.

Maria Von Trapp, Bob Guccione, Martin Scorsese, Mary O'Hara, Tony Monopoly and o thers talk about their training to become Roman Catholic monks, priests or nuns, and also discuss the similarity between the church and the world of arts and entertainment.

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Documentary on the personalities and machines of the trucking industry in Great Britain.

Three part pfofile of writer Evelyn Waugh. Covers the period of his early life with comments from Sir Harold Acton, Lady Diana Mosley, Anthony Powell, Peter Quennell and Graham Greene.

The most productive years of Waugh's writings. With comments from John Mortimer, Kingsley Amis, and Graham Greene.

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Documentary tracing the career of controversial German artist Joseph Beuys, from World War II up to his death in 1986.

A profile of Diego Rivera. The portrait compiles testimony from Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, ex-model and lover Bolores Olmedo and painter Jose Luis Cuevas. There is archive footage of Zapata, Trotsky and Rivera himself.

A courtroom 'drama' featuring Bob Guccione versus Ken Russell in a breach of con tract case regarding disagreements over a script for a film version of Daniel De foe's "Moll Flanders" which Guccione hired Russell to direct.

Documentary on the writings of Indians who travelled to Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries and wrote about their experiences.

Woody Guthrie was born into a family made rich by the Oklahoma oil boom. But by the time he was eight years old, his mother was in an insane asylum and his father had lost every penny. His personal life was a catalogue of tragedy and disease, yet he had a vision that inspired two generations of Americans. The dustiest of the Dust Bowlers, Guthrie made his own life into a myth. He appointed himself spokesman for the poor and oppressed and through his songs turned their life into his own.

This classic film is full of the songs of Woody Guthrie and contains rare footage of him performing. Guthrie's story is told in his own words and includes extended interviews with friends and family.

50th anniversary tribute to the Beano and Dandy comics. (Synopsis from BFI Film & TV Database)

Performance of Jonathan Miller's production for the Royal Court Theatre, of Ryszard Kapuscinski's "The Emperor", adapted for the stage and television by Michael Hastings and Jonathan Miller. Drama about the last days of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia before his final overthrow.

A journey through southern Spain to meet the Andalucian gypsy families who keep alive the traditions of flamenco.

Profile of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, to accompany the exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery.

Documentary on the thoroughbred horse. Horses include Oh So Sharp, Dancing Brave, Adjal and Reference Point.

John Byrne, author of TUTTI FRUTTI, writes and directs his own film autobiography.

Tenth anniversary edition of the programme, featuring clips from some of the pro grammes of the last ten years.

Interview with Clint Eastwood about his career, his work as a director and the evolution of the Eastwood persona.

Documentary about the work of Michael Ondaatje, including a dramatisation of his ideas.

Report about the Field Day Theatre Company's production of Making History on tour in Northern Ireland.

1989 documentary which takes a look at Europe's most successful holiday resort, famous for its Tower, illuminations, landladies and party political conferences. Includes interviews with Norman Tebbit, John Cole, Paul Theroux and Tony Benn.

Two films by award-winning director Georg Troller, made for West German televisi on's arts programme PERSONENBESCHREIBUNG, profiling Sir Laurens Van Der Post and his work in drawing attention to the plight of Africa's threatened tribes; and on the Texan criminal Albert Sample.

Report from New York, on the import of African gods, myths and rituals into the city by inhabitants of African descent.

Assessment of the life and work of the dramatist Eugene Ionesco.

Tribute to actor and director John Cassavetes who died in February 1989. Friends, associates and fellow directors remember the man and his work.

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Special edition of the programme to celebrate the centenary of the juke box.

Documentary on the life and work of architect Berthold Lubetkin.

For some 25 years Graham Greene has found himself the victim of a bizarre masquerade. A man calling himself Graham Greene has opened hotels, courted high society in the south of France and was entertained by tea planters in India convincd he was the real Graham Greene.

An Arena Special looking at the career, development and success of the band over the past 25 years, and including clips from the Stones' own archives and from the hitherto unseen GREAT ROCK 'N' ROLL CIRCUS of 1969, made in answer to the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour". It traces in detail the high and low points of the group over the years and their present continuing success.

Reenactments of passages from the controversial Kenneth Anger collection of tawdry gossip about the golden age of Hollywood.

An Arena Special looking at Orson Welles and the production of the film CITIZEN KANE, considering the furore that accompanied it and the real life press baron William Randolph Hearst upon whom Kane is based, and his efforts to halt the film, destroy the negative and persecution of people involved with its production and showing. It includes BBC interviews with Welles made in 1960 and 1982, and film historian Robert Carringer looks at the scenes that never made it to the screen. American film critic Pauline Kael also analyses the film's enduring appeal.

Paul Yates and Peter Blake on their fascination with masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki.

Profile of the jazz trumpeter, composer and band leader who died earlier this month (January 1993).

Edward Said, a Palestinan writer, academic and exile, talks about his book "Culture and Imperialism" and explains how the attitudes forged over the last 200 years continue to enforce the relationship between the west and the developing world.

Documentary which goes on an imaginative tour from the Colorado grave where Dick is buried to the suburbs of California where he lived and worked. Talks to his ex-wives, friends and biographers.

This poetic documentary uses archive newspaper reports, the contemporary photographs of Charles Van Shaick, and reconstructions to portray the mysterious and tragic events that befell the small and unsuspecting American town of Black River Falls in the 1890s. The story was originally told in Michael Lesy's book, which was itself based on newspaper reports and archive photographs from the time. Ian Holm narrates the stories using the words of the local newspaper editor.

A programme exploring the work of crime writer James Ellroy, whose credits include LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia and My Dark Places, the latter a harrowing memoir of his own mother's murder. Ellroy later moved on from crime writing to pen his own secret history of the United States. As the second volume of his 'Underworld USA' trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand - was published in the UK in 2001, the film takes a tour of Ellroy's often disturbing world.

Two-part Arena special celebrating the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's best-loved public figures. Lord Attenborough's film CV as actor stretches from Brighton Rock to Jurassic Park, while as director he has been responsible for Oh! What a Lovely War, Shadowlands and Gandhi. He has also been integral to the work of many charities, while his support for minority groups has led to the building of a Centre for Disability and the Arts. Part one examines his early career and follows Attenborough as he visits his childhood home, travels to Brighton and Hove, and reminisces with brothers John and Sir David.

The conclusion to this two-part profile looks at Attenborough's career as Britain's most distinguished film director, whose biopic Ghandi won eight Oscars in 1982, including best director. It also explores his other lives as chancellor of Sussex University and vice-president of Chelsea FC, and examines the political commitment behind films such as Cry Freedom and 10 Rillington Place.

The western movie, the cowboy novel, the rodeo and the wild west show are all means by which the West has become mythologised, distorted, caricatured and made larger than life.

The West no longer lives in reality, only in the world of the imagination, but the key figure in the historical process whereby the factual, historical West was transformed into the 'Western myth' was William Frederick 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. It was within his persona that the raw material of experience was transformed into showbusiness.

This documentary tells Buffalo Bill's story, including his life as a Pony Express rider, prairie scout, buffalo hunter and wild west show creator.

With rock legend David Johansen as the voice of Buffalo Bill, Arena uses drama and unique archive of the real Buffalo Bill to tell an extraordinary tale with strangely contemporary resonance.

A celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Secret Policeman's Ball in aid of Amnesty International. Many of Britain's finest comedians, including John Cleese, Sir Bob Geldof, Alan Bennett, Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Fry, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Ruby Wax, Lenny Henry, Sting, Phil Collins and Rowan Atkinson are reunited in a reflection of the changes in British comedy over the last quarter of a century. The film examines the event, with interviews and recollections of the original stars alongside classic comedy moments.

Arena at 30 celebrates the hugely influential and award-winning arts documentary series. There are features on Orson Welles, Jean Genet, Francis Bacon and No Direction Home – Bob Dylan, a two-part film about the legendary musician, by Martin Scorsese, which aired on 26 and 27 September 2005 on BBC Two.

This opening part traces Bob Dylan's journey from a rock 'n' roll loving kid in the Midwest to his arrival as a major force in the world of folk music. In his own words, Dylan tells viewers how he became smitten with folk music as the story shifts scenes from the iron range in Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City.

Martin Scorsese continues to explore the emotional, musical and intellectual journey of Bob Dylan's early career. The story turns dark. At 23, Dylan is already a newsworthy phenomenon and with that success comes expectations.

The Tube is the world's oldest underground railway system, with its own unwritten rules of behaviour and protocol. This Arena begins 150 years ago in a Victorian London of slums and gaslight, and takes the viewer on a thrilling and mysterious adventure through Tube history. Using the voices of passengers and Tube staff, the programme is nothing less than a celebration of a parallel universe, underground.

The film has been produced for Arena by Lone Star productions in association with London's Transport Museum.

Marley's legendary concert at the Rainbow in the summer of 1977 took reggae music and the message of Rastafaria to a world that hitherto had been exposed to neither. The programme is a visual evocation of the world of 1977, a world that seems very far away now, and of the spirit of Marley's most significant album.

A look at the legend of 'Superman' and its portrayal in comic books and films.

Murray Lerner's documentary features Bob Dylan's performances at the Newport folk festival between 1963 and 1965 - the time when Dylan changed the music of the world and changed himself from the fresh-faced cherub singing Blowin' in the Wind to the rock 'n' roll shaman who blew pop music apart when he went electric.

The film No Direction Home told the story of how Dylan affected the world and the world affected Dylan, but this film brings you face to face with the work itself. Like the discovery of a hitherto unknown manuscript or an unseen masterpiece, this is a treasure trove, newly opened up.

Comedian Ken Dodd turned 80 in 2007. Armed with his tickling sticks, stand-up routines and songs he continues to delight his devoted audiences all over the country with his Happiness show. Arena's exploration of Britain's most enduring variety entertainer reveals his personal analysis of humour and illustrates why Ken Dodd is acknowledged as one of the finest exponents of his comic craft.

The fractured state of Europe after World War II was perfectly captured in Carol Reed's thriller The Third Man. Set in Vienna and with Orson Welles starring unforgettably as the mysterious Harry Lime, it showcased some of Graham Greene's finest screenwriting.

With unlimited access to the original movie, Arena explores the filmmaking artistry, moral world and furious infighting behind the film.

Documentary about the life of Frankie Howerd, with help from friends and colleagues and including highlights from his TV and film career.

Documentary celebrating one of London's great characters, the bus conductor. The film tells the stories of five extraordinary conductors from five decades of London's history, rich with period music and archive.

Acclaimed writer Philip Hoare confronts our fascination with one of the most mysterious animals in the ocean, the whale.

Travelling in the footsteps of Ishmael, the narrator of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the great American novel, he visits the whaling ports of New England. New Bedford was once the richest city in the USA, and the island of Nantucket is where the whaling industry began.

Hoare searches for the truth behind the story of Moby-Dick and draws an eerie parallel between Captain Ahab's crazed pursuit of the great white whale and today's war on terror. He enters a world haunted by a bloody and violent past, and, in the three mile-deep waters of the Atlantic, has his own encounter with the legendary sperm whale.

Arts documentary series. Interview with music producer Phil Spector, looking back over a 50-year career.

Arts documentary series. Leading theatrical greats, including Peter Brook, Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt, pay tribute to the outstanding British actor Paul Scofield.

Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music of the 1940s and 50s that became known as cool jazz. Those who wrote and played it cultivated an attitude, a style and a language that came to epitomise the meaning of a word that is now so liberally used. The film tells the story of a movement that started in the bars and clubs of New York and Los Angeles and swept across the world, introducing the key players and setting them in the context of the post-war world.

Brian Eno first starred as the feather-crested electronic keyboard genius of Roxy Music forty years ago. Since then he has been hailed as a pioneer, with his revolutionary experiments in ambient music and audio visual art and as featured producer on benchmark albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and Coldplay.

Eno has given Arena unprecedented access to observe him working in his studio and talking with friends and colleagues. The master of reinvention engages with fellow influential minds, including Richard Dawkins, Malcolm Gladwell, David Whittaker and Steve Lillywhite, in a series of conversations on science, art, systems analysis, producing and cybernetics

The queen of salsa, Celia Cruz has been the most adored and dynamic singer in Latin America for more than four decades. Since she left Cuba at the time of the 1959 revolution with her band Sonora Matancera, she lived in New York and rose to international fame with the legendary Latin bands of Tito Puente and Johnny Pacheco, the creators of salsa.

This profile includes testimony from friends, fans, fellow professionals and a stunning performance at New York's world-famous Apollo Theatre.

Acknowledged as one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century, Arena explores the rise of legendary, Rat Pack crooner from his early family background to overwhelming show business success.

Interviews with friends, family and associates reveal a star studded career in music and film alongside a fascinating private life of four marriages, liaison with the Kennedy family, Las Vegas business interests and an alleged association with the Mafia.

Three young men who emerged in the 1950s - Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck - not only captured the public's imagination, but in their own unique way determined the evolution of jazz as we know it today. Of this triumvirate, only Dave Brubeck remains. As he approaches his 90th birthday in December 2010, he is set to play New York's legendary Blue Note jazz club.

This Clint Eastwood co-produced documentary tells Brubeck's personal story, tracing his career from his first musical experiences to the overwhelming success of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the iconic status he and his varied forms of musical expression have achieved.

It is told with contemporary interviews, vintage performances, previously unseen archive and additional performances filmed especially for the documentary. The story is also told by Dave and Iola Brubeck, both in their own words and by musical example. Contributors include Bill Cosby, Jamie Cullum, Yo-Yo Ma, George Lucas and Eastwood himself.

In 2009 Brubeck was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, with Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Grace Bumbry and Mel Brooks. He played with his sons for President Obama at the White House, and 55 years ago became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine. His classic Take Five is as familiar today as in 1959 when it was a Top 10 hit all over the world.

Brubeck has an unlikely origin for a jazz giant, growing up on a ranch in Monterey, California. Monterey resident Clint Eastwood introduced Brubeck and his Cannery Row Suite at the 2006 Monterey Jazz Festival and each were so inspired by the success of the event they agreed to move forward with this full-length documentary together.

Profile of record producer Sir George Martin. He began with Nellie the Elephant, 633 Squadron and Peter Sellers, then came The Beatles and then the golden age of rock. Martin recorded the soundtrack of the second half of the 20th century.

This rich and intimate portrait follows Sir George at 85 with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Cilla Black, Michael Palin, Rolf Harris and Bernard Cribbins among the many contributors.

A story told in flashbacks, Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines the immediacy of Bob Dylan's controversial 1966 tour of the British Isles with his remarkable personal and musical journey. Drawing from hundreds of hours of unseen footage and rare recordings, in-depth interviews and revealing photographs, the film strikes a remarkable balance - telling the story of one man's journey and at the same time placing that story within the greater canvas of human events.

This opening part traces his journey from a rock 'n' roll loving kid in the Midwest to his arrival as a major force in the world of folk music. In his own words, Dylan tells viewers how he became smitten with folk music as the story shifts scenes from the iron range in Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City.

An amazing cast of characters includes Dave Van Ronk, the king of Greenwich village folk clubs, Joan Baez, queen of the folk music world and Allen Ginsburg, America's beat poet laureate. And, most importantly, the wide range of music that influenced the young Bob Dylan is explored.

As Dylan's fame and notoriety grows, his skill as a performer matures rapidly and the songs begin to pour out - Blowing in the Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Masters of War, Don't Think Twice It's Alright and many more.

Part one ends with what seems to be the dawn of a new generation - Dylan, hands intertwined with musician Pete Seeger, the Freedom Singers and Odetta singing Blowin' in the Wind at the closing night of the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

Martin Scorsese continues to explore the emotional, musicial and intellectual journey of Bob Dylan's early career. The story turns dark. At 23, Dylan is already a newsworthy phenomenon and with that success comes expectations - from the old left to become a politicial activist, and from the media to articulate the concerns of America's youth. It's a role in which Dylan is completely uninterested. He is already on the move, finding a new musical vocabulary to capture the complexity of a seismic cultural shift. He injects a heightened sense of poetry into his writing and adds electricity to his music,

electricity that now seems inevitable but at the time saw him labelled a sell-out and a traitor.

Scorsese delicately balances Dylan's internal world with signpost images from the external world. Dylan's music is the backdrop as the war in Vietnam escalates and the nightly news brings home images people would never have dreamed of seeing on their television sets. Scorsese takes the time to let viewers really see the music unfold in revelatory concert performances.

By 1966 Dylan's personal world has become one of constant touring and press conferences. By the end of the film it is plainly obvious that for Dylan there are some journeys from which there is No Direction Home.

Arena broadcasts the UK television premiere of Martin Scorsese's portrait of the late George Harrison.

Scorsese traces Harrison's life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a world-famous musician, philanthropist and filmmaker, weaving together interviews with George and his closest friends, photographs and archive footage including live performances - much of it previously unseen.

The result is a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most talented artists of his generation.

Part one looks at George's early years in The Beatles - from their first gigs in Hamburg and the beginning of Beatlemania, through to his psychedelic phase and involvement in religion and Indian music.

The programme includes contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and Phil Spector.

Arena broadcasts the second and concluding part of Martin Scorsese's portrait of George Harrison.

Part two looks at Harrison's post-Beatles days - as a member of the Travelling Wilburys and a solo artist, as well as looking at his non-musical ventures, including his work as a movie producer and his family life with wife Olivia and son Dhani.

Racing legend Jackie Stewart tells of George's love of motor racing, Monty Python's Eric Idle recounts how George saved the Life of Brian from catastrophe by re-mortgaging his mansion to help finance it, and there are contributions from Travelling Wilbury bandmates including Tom Petty.

Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison gives a poignant account of her life with the Beatle, including the harrowing tale of the night when a violent intruder attacked them at home one evening in 1999.

Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, among many others, talk openly about George's many gifts and contradictions and reveal the lives they shared together.

From the magical films of the silent era to the celebrated work of director David Lean and high definition television, this documentary revisits films and interviews from the archive to answer the question of why Dickens's novels have inspired so many hundreds of adaptations on screen.

This co-production with Dickens 2012 not only encapsulates the history of Dickens's time, but also of the 100 years in which his work has survived most acutely on screen. It is not only the stories, themes and characters of Dickens's writing that translate so well onto screen - Sergei Eisenstein argued that there is something essentially filmic in his unique prose style; that Dickens's rapid 'cutting' within scenes and from scene to scene coupled with his seamless mixture of the bizarrely comic with the terrifyingly profound was itself proto-cinematic.

Dickens wrote the way a camera saw before film had been invented and he remains to this day the most cinematic of writers.

2011 was the 82nd year in the extraordinary life of arguably the greatest saxophone player in the world, Sonny Rollins. Four decades ago, as a young filmmaker and aspiring musician, Dick Fontaine followed Rollins up onto the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan during one of his legendary escapes from the perils of 'the jazz life'. Today, still resisting stereotype and compromise, and revered by a new generation of young musicians, Rollins continues his single-minded search for meaning in his music and his life. Dick Fontaine's film is built around the explosive energy of Sonny's 80th Birthday Concert, where legendary figures Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman join him to celebrate his journey so far, his music and its future for a new generation.

Featuring a specially-shot introduction with Jamie Cullum, Arena presents a lost treasure - Sonny Rollins performing at Ronnie Scott's in 1974. After nearly 40 years unseen, this unique film shows a spellbinding performance from arguably the greatest saxophone player in the world. Having played alongside Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, Rollins is one of the few surviving jazz greats. This gig captures him after his 1972 comeback when his bands started to sound funkier and to use electric guitar and bass. The band for this1974 set features Japanese guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo and soprano saxophone player Rufus Harley, who doubles on the bagpipes.

The Dreams of William Golding reveals the extraordinary life of one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century.

With unprecedented access to the unpublished diaries in which Golding recorded his dreams, the film penetrates deep into his private obsessions and insecurities.

His daughter Judy and son David both speak frankly about their father's demons, and the film follows Golding from the impoverished schoolmaster whose first novel, Lord of the Flies, was published when he was forty-three years old, to his winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983.

Other contributors include Golding's biographer John Carey, philosopher John Gray, writer Nigel Williams, the dean of Salisbury Cathedral, the Very Revd June Osborne and best-selling author Stephen King.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who starred in the 2004 BBC adaptation of Golding's sea trilogy To the Ends of the Earth, reads extracts from his books.

The BBC's flagship arts documentary strand Arena returns with the first ever documentary exploring the extraordinary life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE. Jonathan Miller is usually described as a 'polymath' or 'Renaissance man', two labels he personally dislikes. But no-one quite like him has made such an impact on British culture through the medium of television, radio, theatre and opera. He has straddled the great divide between the arts and the sciences, while being a brilliant humorist, a qualified doctor and even a practising artist. With the man himself and a host of distinguished collaborators, including Oliver Sacks, Eric Idle, Kevin Spacey (who owes his first break to Miller) and Penelope Wilton, this Arena profile explores Miller's rich life and examines through amazing television archive - mostly from the BBC - how he makes these connections between the worlds of the imagination and scientific fact.

Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south-western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, capacity 85, and wowed the small, packed crowd with a searing, acoustic set of songs from Back to Black.

After leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy spoke about her music and influences - Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and the Shangri-Las to name a few. Arena joined forces with Other Voices and went to Dingle to catch up with some of the people that Amy met on that day, including taxi driver Paddy Kennedy, her bass player Dale Davis and Rev Mairt Hanley of the Other Voices church.

This film showcases not only Amy herself, but the musical geniuses that inspired her to forge her own jazz pop style.

The making of the Beatles' self-directed TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, which originally aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967 at the height of the band's popularity - but was greeted with disdain by the media and many viewers. The programme explores the creation of the surreal tale and investigates why it inspired such a furious critical reaction, and also asks whether opinions about the film have changed in subsequent years.

Fully restored to the highest technical standard with a remixed soundtrack, Magical Mystery Tour comes out of the shadows and onto the screen. By the end of 1967, The Beatles had achieved a creativity unprecedented in popular music. Their triumphant summer release, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was both avant garde and an instant hit. It went straight to No.1 in June and remained there for the rest of the year. They immersed themselves in the fiercely radical art of the new counter culture and decided to make a film on their own terms, not as pop stars but as artists. Roll up Roll Up for the Mystery Tour!

Writer, performer and director, the late Eric Sykes was the renaissance man of British comedy. This episode of Arena opens the doors of the room that was his creative home for forty years. "The minute I come through this door and I close it, then I'm in my world of creation. I can't tell you how many shows or how many films - it's all here, I can feel it, it's almost tangible", he says in the film. Post-war Britain saw Sykes catapulted to fame in the hugely successful Variety Bandbox and Educating Archie. He quickly became the country's highest paid comedy writer. When Spike Milligan was going through a period of stress, Sykes helped him with The Goons, sometimes writing whole episodes and typically eschewing the credit. Later, his television series with Hattie Jacques, Sykes And A... ran for 20 years attracting gigantic audiences. Aged 78, he starred in a UK tour of Charley's Aunt; appeared with Nicole Kidman in The Others; introduced The Teletubbies and returned to London's Theatreland, appearing eight times a week in Ray Cooney's hit, the uproarious farce Caught In The Net. The film takes him through a day at his beloved office, an Aladdin's Cave of triumphs and treasures. There he muses on his life and career, and the other greats he knew and worked with.

Documentary focusing on the female stars of the Hollywood studio era, from its beginnings around 1910 through to its collapse in the early 1960s. Screen icons chronologically recalled include Theda Bara, Lillian Gish, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

The arresting sight of Sister Wendy Beckett - all teeth and glasses - burst on to our screens in the 1990s. An instant star, she glided around the world in her habit telling us the story of painting. But she revealed nothing of her own, extraordinary story. Was she in fact a real nun? How did she know so much about art? And how could this consecrated virgin and hermit justify appearing on television and keep her rule of silence?