Arena — Season 1, Episode 478: The Ring - a South London Tale
Documentary • 90 min • 3 seasons, 689 episodes • ★ 7.2/10
Episode synopsis
For centuries, bare-knuckle boxing has been going on behind closed doors. Nigel Finch's unusual film investigates this illegal activity by following one hopeful as he prepares for a fight against the "Cyclone", the Northern Ireland bare-knuckle boxing champion (unlicensed). Softly spoken Paul Lynch does not conform to the tough image of a street fighter. But he says "it's show business... it's in my blood." Lynch has already found some fame as the world's two-armed, one-armed and one-fingered press-up champion. Now, in a corrugated-iron barn a short sprint from the Irish border, he has the chance for recognition in his own community. Ultimately, the film probably gives as much of an insight into the making of an arts documentary as it does into bare-knuckle boxing.
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.