"I'm not saying 2+2 equals 3 and I'm not saying it equals 5 but...." So says Gregory Chaitin, one of the world's three leading mathematicians, addressing the camera from the deep recesses of the IBM building in Yorktown Heights, New York State. He cheerfully proposes that he has proved nothing is fixed in a shifting universe. However, for others numbers promise pattern and certainty - Rabbi Dr Tali Lowenthal believes everything has numerological significance up to and including the Name of God too holy to be written; to record producer Andy Richards all music comes down to the number 4; to Janet Street-Porter, numbers give a lift to the nomenclature of her TV output; and to Michael Gardner 666 is truly the Mark of the Beast. Most of us take numbers for granted - Arena takes a second look.

Oblomov is a slob. Even Gorbachev is said to have denounced him from the podium: "We must stamp out the Oblomovs from our society." The lazy aristocrat of Goncharov's 19th-century masterpiece has become a Russian folk-hero. After 100 years asleep, Oblomov is re-awoken in modern-day Russia - this time as a lazy party bureaucrat. Perestroika, quite frankly, bores him. He was more at home in Brezhnev's "Period of Stagnation". Oblomov's foul-tempered chauffeur, Zachar, narrates this bizarre tragi-comedy - for the story of Oblomov's vain attempts to raise himself from his bed is the story of Russia. Filmed on location in the Soviet Union.

This is the story of "The Killer", the ultimate wild man of rock, from his phenomenal success at the age of 20 with 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On' to the present. After more than 30 years, Lewis remains unapologetic and unique. A product of the Bible Belt, Lewis's life has been a strange, tormented conflict between his excesses and his religious fears. His cousin, Jimmy Lee Swaggart, devoted many a sermon to the recovery of Jerry Lee 's soul. Lewis has seen the deaths of two wives, two children and a brother, shot his bass player, and been arrested for causing a disturbance outside Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis. Arena tells his story with help from Sam Phillips - the man who first recorded Lewis and Presley - Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jimmy Lee Swaggart, Lewis's wife Myra, Paul Anka, and Chuck Berry.

The great Italian film director, who died in 1977, was the founder of 'neo-realism'. Following the international success of his films dealing with the Second World War - 'Rome, Open City' and 'Paisa' - he turned in the 50s to psychological drama. His affair and subsequent marriage to Ingrid Bergman created a major scandal. Eventually he abandoned the cinema for a series of documentaries on historical figures as part of a great mission to educate the world. Bearing witness to his genius will be his daughter Isabella, son Gil, directors the Taviani Brothers, Carlo Lizzani and Lindsay Anderson. There is also rare footage of Rossellini.

Traditional Jewish humour flourished in adversity. Religious persecution and life in the ghetto nurtured its own kind of bitter comedy which, in 20th-century America, has developed into a recognisable and acclaimed style of humour. Arena examines this rich heritage of comic genius and includes contributions from Milton Berle, Jackie Mason, Joan Rivers, and Billy Crystal.

Salif Keita - the golden voice of Mali - is one of the first African world superstars. He can trace his lineage directly back more than 700 years to its founder, the warrior king Sundiata Keita. Salif Keita's story is an exceptional one - not only for breaking away from these traditions, but for overcoming the stigma of being born albino. Arena returns with Salif to his village birthplace in Djoliba, through the insidiously beautiful surrounding plains and to the mystical cliffs of Bandiagara - all sources of his underlying deep spirituality and his haunting music.

Fred Zinnemann, best known for the classic western 'High Noon', has had a career in movies spanning 65 years. In an exclusive interview with Arena, Zinnemann talks about his life from his early training in Paris, via Berlin, to his arrival in Hollywood in 1929. One of the great Hollywood mavericks, working both in and out of the studio system, he generated a body of work impressive in range and quality, as well as bringing to the screen for the first time such names as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Grace Kelly, Meryl Streep, and John Hurt. With films like 'From Here to Eternity', 'Oklahoma!', 'A Man for All Seasons', 'Day of the Jackal' and 'Julia', Zinnemann became known as the director's director. He talks disarmingly about his failures as well as his successes.

Actor and director Spike Lee joins actress Debbie Allen on a journey in search of the perfect vocal performance. They travel through Brooklyn as different groups duel, jam, and rehearse together without the benefit of an instrument other than their own voices, culminating in an all-star a cappella concert. The film, the directorial debut of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, features contemporary vocal groups such as the Persuasions and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Now in her 80s, Peggy Ramsay is the most powerful and unconventional play agent in Britain. She started her agency in the mid-50s in a converted brothel in the West End and has been responsible for the careers of over 70 writers including David Mercer, Robert Bolt, John Arden, David Rudkin, Edward Bond, Willy Russell and Joe Orton. This film shows her working with playwrights David Hare, Caryl Churchill, Stephen Poliakoff and Christopher Hampton, follows her on an outing to the Barbican, and as she takes a trip to Scarborough to visit Alan Ayckbourn.

The term "English rose" conjures up a variety of images which fall somewhere between the delicate pink roses of high summer and the fair complexion of a young girl. Either way, the term is synonymous with beauty and innocence, and through the centuries has been absorbed into our heritage. Arena goes in search of the perfect English rose in a journey through fact and fairy tale, history, religion and the back garden. Are we looking for a girl or a perfect exhibition bloom?

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African-American and Latin Harlem drag ball scene. Made over seven years, this film offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion houses, from fierce contests for trophies, to house mothers offering sustenance in a world where house members face homophobia and transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. 'Paris is Burning; celebrates the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.

On 4 July 1967, Private Raymond Griffiths was killed in Vietnam. He was 19 years old - the average age of US combat troops in the war. He was one of more than 30,000 American service personnel killed or wounded in eight years of vicious fighting, which also saw the deaths of a million and a half Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. This powerful documentary tells the stories of the GI's in their own words, words they wrote home in letters from Vietnam. They were young and, like all soldiers, they wanted to return home alive.

Cuba's legendary capital, once a playground for the rich, has an extraordinary faded beauty with its grand colonial palaces decaying into crumbling tenements. Since the popular revolution 30 years ago, Cuba has been viewed by the west as the acceptable face of communism, with Dr Fidel Castro seen as a folk hero and a benevolent dictator. But Cuban writers and artists in exile tell a different story - one of unspoken repression and intolerance. This Arena special goes behind the once great city's public face, persuading its inhabitants to speak intimately about their lives and revealing a Havana previously unseen.

Niccolo Machiavelli's infamous 'The Prince' is a short book about power - how to get it and how to hang on to it. But if 'he' were changed to 'she' throughout, would Machiavelli's masterpiece provide an insight into the remarkable success of a considerable number of women today, not least this century's longest surviving Prime Minister? Arena tests this phenomenon against the world's greatest power manual and wonders what has happened to feminism at the end of the 80s.

Krzysztof Kieślowski is the foremost director to have emerged in Poland since Andrzej Wadja. His two most recent features, 'A Short Film About Killing' and 'A Short Film About Love', shocked western audiences and critics with their pessimism and brutality. Shot during the final months of communist rule, they are actually two in an extraordinary cycle of films made for Polish television. Each uses one of the Ten Commandments to explore the morality of Polish society - their subjects range from suicide to stamp-collecting, from incest to home computers. Arena talks to Kieślowski about these parables of contemporary life and his role as a modern-day Moses.

Paris's love affair with the black world stretches from the Cubists' discovery of African sculpture at the beginning of the century to the present day appreciation of rap and African popular music. This programme celebrates black culture and its lasting contribution to the artistic life of a great city.

Tonight's programme looks at the Soviet cinema since perestroika, and examines the work of some of its most important film directors who are working again after years of enforced silence. Through film clips and interviews, Arena discusses the work and problems of directors Rustam Khamdamov, Kira Muratova, and Sergei Paradzhanov, and one of the first westerners to work on a Russian production, French film star Jeanne Moreau. Will they be able to sell their concept to a population brought up on undemanding mass cinema?

When Lenin told the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain that its survival depended on having a daily paper, he could not have forseen that after 60 years of heroic struggle the 'Daily Worker', renamed in 1966 the 'Morning Star', would come perilously close to extinction because today's leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, had cancelled half its subscription. Beatrix Campbell, who worked on the paper for ten years during the turbulent 60s and 70s, talks to the people who sustained it during its glorious triumphs and constant crises, and in its pages finds a unique reflection of the history and culture of Britain.

Considered by many to be our greatest living stand-up comedian, the incomparable Francis Alick Howerd holds a special place in the hearts of the British public. Born during a snowstorm, the shy young Howerd managed to construct a unique comedy persona from his stammering, stumbling manner. A spectacular debut on radio's post-war hit 'Variety Bandbox' was followed by celebrated forays into film, theatre and even opera, although perhaps he is still best remembered as the devious slave Lurcio from television's 'Up Pompeii'. Of late, he has become popular with an entirely new generation of young adults, whom he calls his 'Frankie Pankies'. Tonight Arena examines the style of this inimitable performer with the help of friends and colleagues including Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight, June Whitfield and Ned Sherrin.

Profile celebrating the centenary of the famous author Agatha Christie’s birth. Looking at her life, her character and the key moments in her childhood that influenced her writing.

A new musical, 'Township Fever', is about to open on Broadway. Written by Mbongeni Ngema, the co-author of 'Woza Albert', it is vibrant and funny, but also quite shocking and controversial - because it goes right into the heart of the violence in South Africa. This Screenplay/Arena film explores how the musical was created and features striking extracts from it.

Today's hypermarket is an Aladdin's cave compared to the grocery store of 30 years ago. Food Night looks at the ever-increasing gulf between what appears on the supermarket shelf and the original ingredients.

A salute to four great thinkers. If Rossini had not preferred food to music there would have been no Tornados Rossini. If Nellie Melba had not become so fat through eating too many of the Peach Melbas created for her by Escoffier, he would not have had to remedy the situation by inventing Melba Toast. If he hadn't lost his all on that last turn of the cards, would the Earl of Sandwich have found inspiration for a snack? Today, would a champion of the people like Garibaldi have to share the honours with a biscuit called the 'Mandela'? Bernard Bresslaw, aided by David Troughton and Christopher Ryan, brings these food heroes to life.

Food has had a part to play in religion, politics, science and war, and throughout history has underlined the social divide between prince and peasant. Today food remains as divisive as ever.

Some lessons in manners from the silver screen - 'Five Easy Pieces', 'Tampopo', 'Oliver Twist' and more.

This film explores the application of kosher dietary laws which have helped to preserve the separate identity of the Jewish people.

Louisiana State Penitentiary recently released a list of the last meals ordered by prisoners about to be executed. One man, whose crime was shooting a grocery store attendant, requested Jalapeño peppers, two boxes of Frosties, and a pint of milk. Food Night examines the custom of using food as a final consolation and last rite for those condemned to death.

With the help of potato experts from all over the world, Food Night pays homage to this nutritious, delicious, maligned and sometimes despised vegetable - the paradoxical potato.

A chance to sample some favourites from the kitchens of such legends as Fanny Cradock , Zena Skinner and Delia Smith.

Mealworms served in a cherry tomato, grasshoppers rolled in bacon - these are just a few of the nourishing dishes served up in this film which explores repulsion and revulsion in food taste.

Left to your own devices, what do you eat, when do you eat it and how much of it do you eat?

As Christmas approaches, time to contemplate self-denial.

As the evening's climax, Arena assembles a forum of distinguished politicians, economists, nutritionists, moralists and senders and receivers of aid to debate the international politics of food.

A spectacular musical celebration of life, capturing evolution in all its glorious diversity, and the rhythms of nature in all its beauty, delight, and horror. From the raging furnace of volcanoes to frozen glaciers, deserts and humid rainforests, 'Lifepulse' is a dramatic visual journey, starting in primeval chaos and ending with the rise of the primates and of man, who now threatens the environment that nurtured him. A specially composed soundtrack by the Startled Insects is enhanced by the use of natural sounds.