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Season 1999
1999x1
The 40-Year Face-Off (1): Eisenhower, Kennedy and Khrushchev - How It All Began
Episode overview
Newsreel footage from 1962, when Fidel Castro's arrangement with then-Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to install nuclear-weapon sites triggered off the Cuban missile crisis.
Newsreel footage from 1962, when Fidel Castro's arrangement with then-Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to install nuclear-weapon sites triggered off the Cuban missile crisis.
Cuba's baseball prowess has been long estabished. Fidel Castro himself was once scouted by a US team, and in 1992 Cuba surpassed even the Americans to win the first Olympic baseball gold
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Cuba's baseball prowess has been long estabished. Fidel Castro himself was once scouted by a US team, and in 1992 Cuba surpassed even the Americans to win the first Olympic baseball gold medal. With many top Cuban players offered lucrative US contracts, this film shows how the patriotic fervour whipped up by the Cuban national sport has acted as a barometer for the country's political relations with the USA.
1999x3
The 40-Year Face-Off (3): LBJ, Nixon and Brezhnev - the Middle Years
Episode overview
Cuba's place in world politics, from mid-sixties to mid-eighties.
Cuba's place in world politics, from mid-sixties to mid-eighties.
1999x4
The 40-Year Face-Off (4): Reagan and Gorbachev - Castro, Cuba and the Fall of Communism
Episode overview
The effects of the demise of the dominant political ethos in the east.
The effects of the demise of the dominant political ethos in the east.
1999x5
The 40-Year Face-Off (5): Who Owns Che? The Importance of Not Being Emesto
Episode overview
Since his death in 1967, the face of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara has stared down from posters and banners around the world, the most reproduced image since the Mona Lisa. This
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Since his death in 1967, the face of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara has stared down from posters and banners around the world, the most reproduced image since the Mona Lisa. This programme, written by Reggie Nadelson, explores the industry he unwittingly spawned.
1999x6
The 40-Year Face-Off (6): The Clinton Years - Cuba Today and Tomorrow
Episode overview
Cuba's relations with the United States in recent times.
Cuba's relations with the United States in recent times.
In Salman Rushdie 's new novel 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', singer Vina Aspara is caught up in an earthquake on Valentine's Day 1989, and never seen again. On that day Rushdie's own
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In Salman Rushdie 's new novel 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', singer Vina Aspara is caught up in an earthquake on Valentine's Day 1989, and never seen again. On that day Rushdie's own life was in upheaval as Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced the fatwa upon him. Rushdie talks to Francine Stock about the novel. There is also an interview with U2 singer Bono, who has based a song around lyrics from the book, and performs it with guitarist the Edge.
The Iron Curtain ran north to south through Europe and divided the world for 50 years. American writer and broadcaster Reggie Nadelson joins former Soviet Union spin doctor Vladimir
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The Iron Curtain ran north to south through Europe and divided the world for 50 years. American writer and broadcaster Reggie Nadelson joins former Soviet Union spin doctor Vladimir Pozner in an attempt to retrace the chilling and strange route of history's most astonishing border.
The legendary 18th-century lover has been immortalised in books, films and on television, but are these fictionalised accounts historically accurate? Novelist Josephine Hart investigates
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The legendary 18th-century lover has been immortalised in books, films and on television, but are these fictionalised accounts historically accurate? Novelist Josephine Hart investigates the truth behind the many myths surrounding this enigmatic figure, and finds that, during his lifetime, he was famed for much more than sexual exploits. She provides evidence that Casanova was a charming man with a razor wit and fluent in three languages. Not only that, but he was also an astrologer, Freemason, businessman, writer, winner and loser of fortunes, and, last but not least, prison escapee.
In 1957, Jayne Mansfield was riding high as the most photographed woman in the world. Yet, ten years later, she was reduced to stripping in seedy nightclubs to finance a serious alcohol
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In 1957, Jayne Mansfield was riding high as the most photographed woman in the world. Yet, ten years later, she was reduced to stripping in seedy nightclubs to finance a serious alcohol problem and support her five children from three broken marriages. The first of three programmes on blonde bombshells from the arts strand hears from friends and relatives as it reassesses the star's roller-coaster life and career.
This second blonde-bombshell profile focuses on Britain's home-grown prototype, Diana Dors. The Rada-trained actress emerged as a sex symbol in the fifties through a run of low-budget
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This second blonde-bombshell profile focuses on Britain's home-grown prototype, Diana Dors. The Rada-trained actress emerged as a sex symbol in the fifties through a run of low-budget British comedies. Hollywood success, however, proved elusive and, as her looks faded, Dors was reduced to cabaret appearances in northern clubs, although a series of cameo roles on stage and celluloid hinted at the talent that might have been.
Perhaps best remembered as the shapely blonde who waded into the Trevi Fountain in 'La Dolce Vita', fifties sex symbol Anita Ekberg became a Hollywood icon and a cult figure in European
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Perhaps best remembered as the shapely blonde who waded into the Trevi Fountain in 'La Dolce Vita', fifties sex symbol Anita Ekberg became a Hollywood icon and a cult figure in European cinema. This portrait, which concludes Arena's documentary trilogy about blonde screen sirens, tracks down the reclusive Swede in Italy and traces the path of a career that began to take off when she won a Miss Sweden beauty contest. Ekberg talks candidly about growing old, surviving personal disappointment, and the pressure that comes with being recognised as one of the world's most beautiful women.
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