Martin Rosenbaum

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.

On one level, Friendly Fire is a portrait of the poet Erich Fried by his son, the filmmaker Klaus Fried. But it is also an exploration of the traumatic legacy of a century of European history that raises questions about our direction of travel and the cyclical nature of our inheritance.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek is our guide through landscapes of classic film, music, social media, archive and webcasts. Making unexpected twists and turns, he maps the utopian illusions of our times. Through absurd juxtapositions and startling insights, we are seduced into recognising our fate, in order to change it.

A journey into the labyrinthine heart of ideology, which shapes and justifies both collective and personal beliefs and practices: with an infectious zeal and voracious appetite for popular culture, Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek analyzes several of the most important films in the history of cinema to explain how cinematic narrative helps to reinforce prevailing ethics and political ideas.

A film exploring Ian Fleming's espionage career, relentless habits, and tropical retreat in Jamaica, which shaped the fictional secret service agent, while detailing his tragic struggle to escape a character that overshadowed his legacy.

A hilarious introduction, using as examples some of the best films ever made, to some of Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek's most exciting ideas on personal subjectivity, fantasy and reality, desire and sexuality.

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.

On one level, Friendly Fire is a portrait of the poet Erich Fried by his son, the filmmaker Klaus Fried. But it is also an exploration of the traumatic legacy of a century of European history that raises questions about our direction of travel and the cyclical nature of our inheritance.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek is our guide through landscapes of classic film, music, social media, archive and webcasts. Making unexpected twists and turns, he maps the utopian illusions of our times. Through absurd juxtapositions and startling insights, we are seduced into recognising our fate, in order to change it.

A journey into the labyrinthine heart of ideology, which shapes and justifies both collective and personal beliefs and practices: with an infectious zeal and voracious appetite for popular culture, Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek analyzes several of the most important films in the history of cinema to explain how cinematic narrative helps to reinforce prevailing ethics and political ideas.

A film exploring Ian Fleming's espionage career, relentless habits, and tropical retreat in Jamaica, which shaped the fictional secret service agent, while detailing his tragic struggle to escape a character that overshadowed his legacy.

A hilarious introduction, using as examples some of the best films ever made, to some of Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek's most exciting ideas on personal subjectivity, fantasy and reality, desire and sexuality.

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.

From Boris Karloff to Mel Brooks - Frankenstein has fired the imagination of generations of artists who have created their own interpretation of this Gothic masterpiece. Frankenstein: A Modern Myth looks at some of these depictions, including Danny Boyle's sell-out hit at the National Theatre. The film has exclusive access to rehearsals and interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller - who alternate the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature - and with Danny Boyle. It also features cult film director John Waters: "I'm sympathetic to monsters, and this was the first one I came across as a child".

Documentary about British author and actor Alan Bennett. Recorded over the course of a year, the film features a number of intimate encounters with Bennett, including a trip to New York to receive an award from the city's public library, a national radio appearance and a visit to his local community-run library in Primrose Hill, London. Reflecting on key periods of his life as well as providing observations on current events.

A documentary that 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 43 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 Rev 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.

For three decades the Soviet Union's obsession with space stirred the soul of the nation like a secular religion - from the first space star Yuri Gagarin to the sad saga of cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev who circled the planet for almost a year, a helpless spectator of the momentous events back home on earth. Exploring the spiritual force of this grand obsession, Arena talks to Krikalev and the first cosmonauts, and ventures into the world of relics, icons and the memorabilia of the Soviet space venture.

A film about the world's most beautiful woman, a Hollywood goddess and her forgotten breakthrough invention that revolutionized mobile phones. A film about a mother, an emancipated woman and a failed life. The Hedy Lamarr Story tells her tale as a fusion of modern myths, constructed legends and true stories.

A magical and moving archive trip through the universal theme of love, from the very first kisses ever caught on film, through the disruption of war to the birth of youth culture, gay liberation and free love, we follow courting couples flirting at tea dances, kissing in the back of the movies, shacking up and fighting for the right to love.

A stunningly-photographed, thought-provoking road trip into the heart of the poor white American South. Singer Jim White takes his 1970 Chevy Impala through a gritty terrain of churches, prisons, truckstops, biker bars and coalmines. Along the way are roadside encounters with present-day musical mavericks the Handsome Family, David Johansen, David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower and old-time banjo player Lee Sexton, and grisly stories from the cult Southern novelist Harry Crews.

Documentary about the tube, the world's oldest underground system, with its own unwritten rules of behaviour and protocol, and used by three million passengers every day.

In 1989, a woman was brutally murdered in broad daylight on a beach in Brittany. The detective assigned to the case was a young homicide cop, Jean Francois Abgrall. He became convinced that the murderer was a weird drifter called Francis Heaulmes who, despite an alibi, kept dropping mysterious hints. Abgrall recounts how he trailed Heaulmes through France to bring him to justice.

Stefan, Davina and John work for Channel 4 News. It's no ordinary news program, because it deals with topics that no other station dares to report on. Who else would bring news about aliens, werewolves, zombies and vampires? Channel 4 news

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.

Four interwoven meditations on the nature of time, memory, experience and the quest for spiritual enlightenment.