Saturday 9 July 2016

439 Arena




First  viewed  : Uncertain

I  must  admit  I  never  quite  got  my  head  around  the  difference  between  Omnibus  and  Arena ,  the  two  long-running  arts  strands,  except  that  the  former  was  on  BBC1  and  the  latter  on  BBC2.

Arena  started  in  1975  and  was  originally  split  into  two  separate  strands  on  alternate  weeks , one  dealing  with  the  theatre  and  one  with  art  and  design . A  third  strand  for  cinema  started the  following  year  and  there  were  new  ones  for  "Television" and  "Rock" in  1978  which  were only  used  for  one  episode  each. This  demarcation  was  scrapped  in  1979.

The  first  Arena  episode  I  can  definitely  recall  watching  is  the  one  on  21  May  1980  which featured  the  work  of  satirists  Peter  Fluck  and  Roger  Law  who  of  course  went  on  to  do Spitting  Image. At  this  point  their   work  was  in  plasticene  with  completely  static  figures  to be used  for  magazine  covers  and  illustrations.

As  with  other  long-running  strands  I  will  add  to  this  as  we  go  along  -

Superman  ( 26  December  1981 )

As  the  title  suggests , this  episode  looked  at  the  origins  and  cultural  impact  of  the  original  American  superhero, beginning  by  interviewing  its  creators  Joe  Schuster  and   Jerry  Siegel. It  mixed  footage  from  the  various  incarnations  with  talking  head  contributions  from  the  obvious  ( Christopher  Reeve, Margot  Kidder ) to  little-known  academics  and   alternative  comic  champions.  It  didn't  avoid  the  darker  aspects  of  the  tale  such  as  the  name's  origin  with  Nietzsche  or  the  suicide  of  1950s  TV  Superman  George  Reeves. And  of  course  we  know  the  story  had  another  dark  twist  to  come. The  part  I  recall  best  is  British  strong  man   Dave  Prowse  grousing  about  not   getting  the  part  because  he  wasn't  an  American   ( as  his  West  Country  burr  would  have  made  obvious )  and  then  being  asked  to  buff   up  Christopher  Reeve  for  the  role "so  he  looks  just  like  you ".

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