
In 1970, film-maker Luchino Visconti travelled throughout Europe looking for the perfect boy to personify absolute beauty as the character of Tadzio in his adaptation for the screen of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. In Stockholm, he discovered Björn Andrésen, a shy 15-year-old teenager whom he brought to international fame overnight and, as a consequence, changed the course of the boy’s life. The remainder of Bjorn’s youth was turbulent and intense and took him from the Lido in Venice to London, to a welter of attention at the Cannes Film Festival, and to Japan. \n\nFifty years after the premiere of Death in Venice, Björn takes us on a remarkable journey back through his life in a film composed of personal memories, cinema history, stardust and tragedy - as he makes a late attempt to reconcile with his past and finally get his life back on track.
Source: BBC 4
Mike Leigh: Making Plays
Dramatist Mike Leigh talks to Arena about his work and demonstrates his unique processes of building the characters of his dramas.
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BBC 4
The Last Soviet Citizen
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BBC 4
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BBC 4
Sister Wendy And The Art Of The Gospel
The arresting sight of Sister Wendy Beckett, all teeth and glasses, burst on to our screens in the 1990s. An instant star, she travelled the world in her habit telling us the st ...
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BBC 4
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BBC 4
Chelsea Hotel
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BBC 4
Masters Of The Canvas
When pop artist Peter Blake confessed that his fantasy was to be the mysterious masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki, who never speaks and never removes his mask, little did he know w ...
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BBC 4
Art And Design: The Journey
Singer and writer George Melly takes a walk from his home in north London to the Hayward Gallery, reminiscing along the way about the influence of surrealism on his early life.
26-10-2025
BBC 4
Billie Holiday: The Long Night Of Lady Day
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06-10-2025
BBC 4
A Tall Story - How Salman Rushdie Pickled All Of India
Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight's Children, winner of the Booker Prize 1981, talks about India and the autobiographical elements in the book.
11-08-2022
BBC 4
Mike Leigh: Making Plays
Dramatist Mike Leigh talks to Arena about his work and demonstrates his unique processes of building the characters of his dramas.
12-01-2026
BBC 4
Sister Wendy And The Art Of The Gospel
The arresting sight of Sister Wendy Beckett, all teeth and glasses, burst on to our screens in the 1990s. An instant star, she travelled the world in her habit telling us the st ...
10-11-2025
BBC 4
The Underground
Documentary about the tube, the world's oldest underground system. Three million passengers use it every day, and over the past 150 years, it has developed its own history, alon ...
18-11-2025
BBC 4
The Banana
Programme exploring the cultural significance of the banana.\n\nThe Velvet Underground's John Cale tells the story behind Andy Warhol's famous LP cover, Auberon Waugh and John W ...
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Cigars - Out Of The Humidor
Documentary which follows the story of the cigar - from the tobacco fields west of the Cuban capital of Havana into the factories where poetry and daily newspapers are read alou ...
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BBC 4
Dennis Potter
1987 edition in which Alan Yentob interviews TV dramatist Dennis Potter about his work through the years, touching on subjects such as why and how he started writing, his sense ...
02-06-2024
BBC 4
Clint Eastwood: 2. Part Two: American Film-maker
Arena's profile of Clint Eastwood continues with his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, which he completed in five weeks before going on to huge success in Dirty Harry. Featu ...
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BBC 4
Billy, How Did You Do It? - Part 1
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BBC 4
Painted With My Hair
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31-10-2021
BBC 4