Arena
1975•NR•3 Seasons•689 Episodes•7.2•Returning Series
Documentary
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.
Network
BBC Four, BBC Two
Origin
GB
Episodes
Recommended
8.1
Doctor Who Confidential
2005
7.7
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
2011
7.4
Natural World
1983
6.7
Biography
1987
8.1
Earth at Night in Colour
2020
7.6
Welcome to Earth
2021
6.6
The World According to Jeff Goldblum
2019
7.4
The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy
2023
7.4
Marvel's 616
2020
7.9
Nature
1982
6.9
Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II
2020
8.5
Planet Earth III
2023
7.4
Horizon
1964
7.5
30 for 30
2009
8
Animal
2021
7.6
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
2023
8.5
Captains of the World
2023
7.1
Grand Designs
1999
8.3
BTS: Burn the Stage
2018
7.6
How It's Made
2001
Similar Shows
10
Stray Kids MAKING FILM
2018
TURN ON THE LIGHTS
2023
In Our Care. The Keeper's Choice.
2022
8
James Bond Confidentiel
2022
7.3
The Movies That Made Us
2019
6.9
Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films
2025
5.5
Looking for the Hobbit
2014
Cascadeurs
2023
6.7
The Neistat Brothers
2010
9
Pyros: Painting with Fire
2014
Our Lives
2017
9
Inside Legacy Cinema
2022
6.8
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
2018
8.1
How To with John Wilson
2020
8.1
Mr. Scorsese
2025
8.3
Icons Unearthed: Spider Man
2024
La Course Destination Monde
1988
7
Behind the Opening Ceremony: The Director's Cut
2022
On the Trail of Easy Rider: 40 Years On... Still Searching for America
2011
10
HK2NY: Hong Kong to New York - Backpacking Documentary Series
2014