BBC Arena

A group of gay friends try to live with dignity and self-respect while events build to the opening battle in the major gay rights movement.

Based on the true story of Valerie Solanas who was a 1960s radical preaching hatred toward men in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he continued to ignore her. So she shot him. This is Valerie's story.

Beryl Bainbridge on Samuel Johnson and her novel According To Queenie - Johnson through the eyes of Queenie Thrale, the eldest daughter of Henry and Hester Thrale.

Follows the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices.

Inspired by the book of the same name, film-maker James Marsh relays a tale of tragedy, murder and mayhem that erupted behind the respectable facade Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the 19th century.

An exploration into the history of Shakespeare's plays, from the silent era to the modern day featuring archive interviews with movie directors including Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh and more.

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.

An affectionate portrait of San Francisco, and of the man whose Tales of the City have inspired thousands to go there. Maupin relates a life story more bizarre than his fictional characters(including a meeting with Nixon), while local eccentrics and ex-colleagues dish and praise lavishly.

Arena celebrates Roy Plomley's Desert Island Discs with the help of many celebrity castaways, including Frankie Howerd, Russell Harty, Trevor Brooking, the Lord Mayor of London, Professor JK 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'.

Documentary about the influential pop composer and record producer Joe Meek, who died in dramatic circumstances in 1967 after a bizarre childhood and a career, often controversial, which spanned the period from the mid-50s to the rise of the Beatles in the 60s. At the end of his life he was suffering from paranoid delusions that people were watching him through walls. Alan Lewens' film charts an Ortonesque tale of post-war Britain.

Arena documentary investigating the history and influence of iconic song 'My Way'

Phil Spector is a pioneer of American music, a legendary producer to John Lennon and Tina Turner, and, as of April 13th 2009, a convicted murderer. Yet the Spector who appears in Vikram Jayanti's documentary is not the severe, outlandishly coiffed defendant seen in sensationalistic accounts of his trial, but a charming, savvy music executive with a generous, but arguably accurate, estimation of his place in the history of popular music.

A remarkable guided tour through the culinary world of Elvis Presley, in his later years famed as much for his appetite as for his music. The King's passion for food is recounted by close friends, relatives and personal cooks who share the recipes that kept their idol happy. From the squirrel and raccoon dishes of his youth to the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches that contributed to his demise.

Writer Peter Shaffer talks about his plays, his life and the theatre. 'I think the live experience in the theatre is very important when you can see shocks and murmurs going through the house. It has a communal nature. A great play or a great production is a revelation, this is the function of all art, it doesn't have to be solemn - it's a moment, a leap of excitement inside oneself, which can be attached to a moral insight or a laugh, and it comes bolting out like rabbits out of a hedge.'

This British documentary is more than an analysis of John Lennon's song "Imagine" and its ramifications for the world we live in, it's a tentative documentary on John (and Yoko)'s art and songs' influence on a lot of people in all parts of the world and from all walks of life. As such, it should be better known and considered part of the Beatles "canon". The footage shows everything from a John Lennon Museum in Japan to a John Lennon elementary school in Liverpool to his influence on the thinking of a former Communist from Georgia (of the former USSR). It is provocative and very well made with a serious contribution from Yoko.

55-Minute BBC Arena documentary on the film actress Louise Brooks

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.

Considered one of the best ‘dub’ poets of his time, Mikey Smith is internationally renown for the socially engaged form and content of his work. Originally made for BBC2’s Arena, Upon Westminster Bridge profiles Smith’s poetry and politics through performance, exchanges with fellow poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, and conversations with historian and social theorist CLR James.

Adrian Thrills investigates a new and exhilarating musical blend which is taking the country by storm. 2-tone is a unique mix of music, fusing together reggae, rock, soul, ska, blue beat and punk. With its home in Coventry and its roots in reggae, it derives its name and identity from the co-existence of its black and white members.

Arena cameras were on hand to film the return of Dire Straits from their triumphant 1980 Brothers in Arms world tour. The film features a superb concert they played at The Rainbow, and band members talk about their music and the pressures and the consequences of success.