ABSTRACT
From its beginnings in 1975, BBC Arena pioneered a new poetics of the TV documentary to lead the comprehension of cultural change to UK domestic audiences of unparalleled size. Whereas documentary film had traditionally been regarded as a prescriptive tool of social knowledge, Arena engaged critically with the networked nature of contemporary cultural pressures in an era marked by the enhanced visibility of crises. The subjects of Arena’s programmes are framed accordingly by concomitant revolutions in cultural identity, refusing those distinctions between popular and learned traceable to Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy (1869) that underscored Reithian principles of public service broadcasting. It’s thus appropriate that Arena’s shows dedicated to canonical and counter-cultural arts figures are complemented by the first serious examinations of the commonplace via such subjects as The Chelsea Hotel, Desert Island Discs, Elvis Presley’s Diets and interpretations of Sinatra’s “My Way.”
