ARENA AT 50: BBC ANNOUNCES NEW FILMS ON THE BEATLES, JMV TURNER AND LS LOWRY

The legacy of the BBC’s long running arts strand is unrivalled, with Martin Scorsese once noting that ‘Arena is home to some of the greatest non-fiction film making in the past nearly 40 years’.

Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor, BBC Arts said: “I am so proud to have had a hand on the tiller of Arena - it is the programme that opened my teenage eyes to authored documentary filmmaking and is widely regarded as the world's greatest creative documentary strand. It has championed art and culture in its myriad manifestations for half a century and has been home to many outstanding directors.”

The Beatle and The Bass (w/t)

For over 50 years, the disappearance of Paul McCartney’s original Höfner bass guitar has been one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most enduring mysteries. The Beatle and The Bass (w/t) tells the extraordinary story of this iconic instrument, and the fan-powered quest to find it.

Paul McCartney said: "I think anything that's nicked, you want back, especially if it has sentimental value. It just went off into the universe and it left us thinking, where did it go? There must be an answer."

The film is a rock ‘n’ roll detective story featuring new interviews with Paul McCartney and many others who are personally connected to the bass. From Paul’s brother Mike McCartney, friend and artist Klaus Voormann, and roadies and collaborators such as Elvis Costello, to the fans, experts and journalists behind The Lost Bass Project, their memories are by turns funny, moving and surprising that help tell a compelling story about fandom, creativity, love, loss, memory and the transformative power of music.

Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks

This groundbreaking documentary unlocks the hidden psychology of J.M.W. Turner through his 37,000 private sketches, drawings, and watercolours – an extraordinary archive that reveals the man behind the masterpieces.

For the first time on television, these pages – Including erotic sketches previously thought to have been destroyed – are used as a window into Turner’s inner world, exposing his private thoughts, creative obsessions and emotional life. Rarely writing about himself, Turner left behind few clues to his personality. But in his sketchbooks, his restless imagination and vulnerabilities come vividly to life.

Helping unlock Turner’s life story is legendary actor Timothy Spall, who famously portrayed the artist in Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner. He is joined by Britain’s most renown living artist Tracey Emin, artist and filmmaker Sir John Akomfrah, Rolling Stone’s Ronnie Wood, psychotherapist Orna Guralnik, naturalist Chris Packham, and an array of leading art historians.

Together, they guide viewers through Turner’s life and art, revealing how his 37,000 sketches not only chart his creative evolution but also provide an unprecedented psychological portrait of a man both visionary and vulnerable.

Lowry: The Lost Tapes

50 years after L.S. Lowry’s death, this landmark documentary will bring to light a newly discovered treasure trove of unheard audio tapes recorded with the artist during the final four years of his life.

From the comfort of his own living room and inner sanctuary, we’ll hear from Lowry himself, his real voice lip-synced by one of our greatest actors. Taking us from the beginning of his life to the very end, he will reveal the formative memories and experiences that shaped him as an artist, and as a person.

This immersive documentary will foreground the touching, charming exchange between the enigmatic Lowry and his often surprising interviewer, a young researcher called Angela. But Lowry’s personal narrative also tells a bigger story, of a seismically changing Greater Manchester, where he lived, worked and painted so prolifically.

More details will be announced in due course.