Archive for July 2022

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[Commlist] ViewFinder 120 - Arena published

Thu Jul 07 15:15:28 GMT 2022





Learning on Screen is pleased to announce the publication of ViewFinder Issue 120: Arena (https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/viewfinder/)

This term ViewFinder will be exploring the landmark BBC arts and culture series Arena. Rightly included in Broadcast Magazine’s 50 most influential programmes of all time as well as the BFI’s 100 BBC Gamechangers, Arena has been essential viewing for the culturally curious since its 1975 launch. Always innovative in its output, the show has been particularly noteworthy in its focus on cultural figures from marginalised social groups, its eschewing of high and low art binaries, and its keen eye for the peculiarities of British culture. These factors, at least in part, explain the series’ continued relevance and why, when the neon message in a bottle floats towards the viewer in the opening credits, one awaits the arrival of something special.

Examining Arena both in terms of its production context and in relation to programme content contributors to the issue include leading academics researching arts broadcasting and, significantly, creative personnel from the series itself. Indeed, we open the issue with an extended interview with Anthony Wall. A crucial figure in Arena’s development and character, Wall became the longest-serving Series Editor of the strand. In this interview he discusses, amongst other topics, the culture of working on the show and the nature of its distinct aesthetics and ethics. Other contributions in the issue include: Richard Haynes’s piece exploring the art sport journalism in the Arena episode Sportswriter. Michael Hrebeniak’s essay on the episode The Private Life of the Ford Cortina. Jonathan Bignell on ‘The Arena Samuel Beckett season: Art, Drama and Adaptation’. Mary Dickinson’s reflections on her experiences as an Arena director. Ian Greaves' biographical portrait of Nigel Finch Vana Goblot’s ‘Attitude, Alchemy, and Archive – Arena’s Arts Television and its Fight for Survival’.
Leanne Weston on Arena's representation of Amy Winehouse.
Katerina Loukopoulou on 'Arena's memorial Portrait of Henry Moore'.
Sergio Angelini’s ‘Arena – Ars Longa, Vita Brevis’.
ViewFinder is fully open access and can be read here: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/viewfinder/
Please do engage with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LearnonScreen

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