- published: 20 Jul 2015
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Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since 1 October 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. Arena covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car. Arena was originally conceived by the producer Alan Yentob, who also did on-camera presenting and interviewing work for the programme. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.
Arena was voted one of the 50 most influential programmes of all time in a poll of leading TV executives in Broadcast magazine.[citation needed]
Arena has presented many themed nights examining a single subject in various ways, including; an "Animals Night" (16 December 1989), "Food Night" (15 December 1990), "Cuba Night" (2 January 1999) "Bus Night" (10 December 2005) and the ambitious "Radio Night", simulcast on BBC Two and BBC Radio 4 on 18 December 1993.
Over the years, Arena has also covered Salvador Dalí, Mark Boyle, the Mona Lisa, the Chelsea Hotel in New York, Howard Hodgkin, Richard Hamilton, Anthony Caro, Marc Chaimowicz, the Cable Street Mural, John Byrne, John Hoyland, Robert Natkin, Harold Pinter, Orson Welles, Dire Straits, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Bob Marley, etc. In My Way (1978), a documentary film devoted to the song, Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols sung his version.