Arena — Season 1, Episode 373: The English Rose
Documentary • 90 min • 3 seasons, 689 episodes • ★ 7.2/10
Episode synopsis
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? Contributors include Jack Harkness, OBE, breeder and rose grower; Don Charlton, rose-growing champion; Barbara Daly, make-up artist and creator of 'the face' of Princess Diana for her wedding; Cyril Fletcher and Jane Asher, both of whom have given their names to famous roses.
About Arena
Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.