Concept and creative process
‘Arena’ launched in 1975 and is still on air, a multi award-winning documentary series that has been voted one of the top 50 most influential programmes in the history of television. It began life as a magazine programme, covering the broad spectrum of the Arts under the then BBC Head of Music and Arts, Humphrey Burton. In 1977, when producer Leslie Megahey took over the strand, he divided its focus into two fortnightly strands, one covering Theatre and Cinema, the other Art and Design, each broadcasting on alternate weeks. This is an example of Arena Cinema, an elaborate scene-setting piece of cinema in its own right. It included a Hitchcock-style appearance of designer/director Ros Dallas as an ice cream seller. The titles were filmed live action on location. When Alan Yentob became Producer in 1978, the strands were merged and the programme was relaunched as ‘Arena’ in 1979, with its iconic ‘message in a bottle’ title sequence, which in 2004 was described by ‘Broadcast’ magazine as one of the "Top 5 Most Influential Opening Titles in the History of Television".