1978x1 - Cinema: Francois Truffaut

October 11, 1978

Star Wars - the biggest and fastest money-maker in the history of the movies - has opened in Britain at last. What on earth - or in heaven - has caused the phenomenal success of this galactic romp-cum-morality tale? Gavin Millar talks to the producer Gary Kurtz, the designer John Barry and to Mark Hamill who plays the young hero Luke Skywalker.

1978x3 - Cinema: Hooray for Hollywood?

October 25, 1978

' But please, this is a farce! ' The story of The Cherry Orchard CHEKHOV: '... It hasn't turned out a drama but as a comedy, in places even a farce.' STANISLAVSKY: ' ... I wept like a woman, I tried to control myself but I could not. I hear you say, " but please, this is a farce! " No, for the ordinary person, this is a tragedy.' With the advent of two major new productions of The Cherry Orchard, at the National Theatre and Riverside Studios, Arena: Theatre addresses itself to the recurring debate about Chekhov the ' comic' dramatist.

1978x4 - Cinema: The Thirty-nine Steps and this year's London Film Festival

November 22, 1978

A British film The Duellists starring Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel and Albert Finney won the Special Jury Award at Cannes last year and it opened in London last week. It is a finely photographed period film set in the beautiful Dordogne but the most admirable thing about it may be that it is as faithful an adaptation of Conrad as any the screen has seen - and there have been many, from a 1926 silent version of Nostromo to Richard Brooks’s Lord Jim and Hitchcock's Sabotage.

1978x5 - Cinema: A report from Bombay

December 6, 1978

This month features three current exhibitions: Carrington: the letters and paintings of a gifted and tragic artist. ‘She was alive at every point, and the variety of her feelings wore her out. All her life she remained a giver, not a receiver.’ (Michael Holroyd) Robert Motherwell: the work of one of the giants of contemporary art, with extracts from an Omnibus interview with the artist. Michael McKinnon: exploring the new landscape of space-age technology in stunning visual images. Plus our Commercial Break

1978x6 - Cinema: Robert Altman

December 20, 1978

The man who in 1936 shot Jean Renoir’s Partie de Campagne, the lyrical masterpiece of petit-bourgeois life in the 90s, nowadays finds himself tackling the somewhat different territory of James Bond. Arena: Cinema talks to Claude Renoir about all sides of his long, fascinating career as a top feature film cameraman.

1978x7 - The Museum of Drawers

January 8, 1979

This month Arena Theatre looks at the hard facts and the familiar cliches behind a new British Musical revival. A bitter-sweet story - with song and dance-as told by ex-‘trouper’ Glyn Worsnip. With sneak previews from The Travelling Music Show, Kings and Clowns, Kismet, and featuring Bruce Forsyth, Lionel Bart, Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricusse, Frank Finlay, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber

1978x8 - On Photography

January 15, 1979

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - with UFOs-was shot last year in Hollywood on a strictly closed set. No TV cameras were allowed in to see what Steven Spielberg , the young director of Jaws, was cooking-up this time. But Arena: Cinema sneaked in on the last day of shooting to watch Spielberg at work and to talk to him about the movie which looks like being the science fiction - science fact? - sensation of 1978.

1978x9 - Cinema

January 15, 1979

This week includes Carl Andre: The Man Behind the Bricks, a film about the controversial American artist, whose brick ‘sculpture’ caused a storm of protest when first exhibited at the Tate Gallery two years ago. Prior to a major one-man show at the Whitechapel Gallery, Arena meets him in London and New York. Madame Stravinsky, actress, designer and now a painter - Vera Stravinsky, widow of the great Russian composer, talks to Ronald Harwood about her remarkable life. Plus our usual Commercial Break.

1978x10 - Who Is Poly Styrene?

January 20, 1979

George Melly makes an unusual journey to the 1978 Surrealist Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London.

1978x11 - Athol Fugard: A Lesson from Aloes

January 29, 1979

Examines the current controversy over the blurring of boundaries between drama and documentary. Looks at the conventions programme makers use who make drama documentaries and faction programmes.

1978x12 - Cinema: John Carpenter and star Donald Pleasence on Location in Los Angeles plus Blue

January 31, 1979

A special edition of ARENA: ROCK featuring rock group The Tubes.

1978x13 - Maler's Requiem

February 5, 1979

TV Documentary on the actress. It shows her in rehearsal, in performance, and talking about her commitment to an acting career.

1978x14 - Cinema: Piaf

February 12, 1979

1978x15 - Cinema: John Barry

February 14, 1979

1978x16 - Other Writers Will Tell You Different....

February 26, 1979

1978x17 - Cinema: Isabelle Huppert

February 28, 1979

1978x18 - Ubu

March 5, 1979

1978x19 - My Way

March 12, 1979

1978x20 - Cinema: Don Siegel

March 14, 1979

1978x21 - La Dame aux Gladiolas

March 19, 1979

1978x22 - 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men ': Alabama 40 Years On

March 26, 1979

1978x23 - Cinema: Kung Fu, Run Run Shaw and Bruce Lee

March 28, 1979

1978x24 - Tell Us the Truth

April 2, 1979

Rock band Sham 69 have a large and loyal following of working-class kids, who call themselves 'The Sham Army'. They have a reputation for causing trouble and Sham concerts have often been disrupted and brought to an end by fighting.

1978x25 - The King and I

April 9, 1979

1978x26 - Their Lips are Sealed

April 15, 1979

1978x27 - Pictures of the Mind

April 14, 1979