tvcal
Arena

Arena

1975Returning Series1 Season687 Episodes6.9TMDB
BBC FourBBC Two

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Season 1 · Episode 215

George Orwell 4: Nineteen Eighty-four

Jan 4, 1984

The last in this series of Arena films about the life and work of George Orwell begins with the tragic death of his wife Eileen in March 1945. Overcome with grief at his bereavement and despair at the future of Britain under the post-war Labour government, Orwell retreated to the remote Hebridean island of Jura. It was here, crippled with tuberculosis and isolated from the rest of the world, that Orwell cared for his adopted infant son, Richard, and wrote his last novel Nineteen Eighty-four-a nightmare vision of a totalitarian future in which Big Brother controls not only the lives but also the thoughts of his citizens, and love and individual freedom is no more than a distant memory. Among those appearing are Avril Dunn, Bill Dunn, Susan Watson, Sonia Orwell and Richard Blair.

Where to Watch

Loading...

Streaming data provided by JustWatch

Episode FAQ

Direct answers for episode-level questions and details.

When did Arena Season 1 Episode 215 air?

Arena Season 1 Episode 215 aired on January 4, 1984.

How long is Arena Season 1 Episode 215?

Runtime information for this episode is not available yet.

Comments

Comments coming soon

Discuss episodes with other viewers