Arena (1975)

Ken Russell's Elgar (1984x12)

Air date: Mar 20, 1984

Tonight, in the anniversary year of Edward Elgar's death, Arena plays host to Ken Russell's classic music documentary. Made in 1962 for the 100th edition of the arts magazine 'Monitor', it marked the arrival of the dramatised arts documentary and proved to be one of the most popular television films ever made. An unashamedly romantic evocation of the composer's life and inspiration in the Malvern Hills, the film nevertheless foreshadowed Russell's later, more contentious work, with his darkly ironic counterpoint of 'Land of Hope and Glory' with the battle scenes and graveyards of the First World War.