Arena — Season 1, Episode 564: Alec Guinness, a Secret Man
Documentary • 90 min • 3 seasons, 689 episodes • ★ 7.2/10
Episode synopsis
The acting career of Alec Guinness spanned more than five decades. Although readily identifiable in character, the real man avoided the trappings of fame, preferring a secluded life in the country with his wife Merula. This film profile, the first comprehensive one of its kind, has access to his private journals and letters, and research material from Piers Paul Read , Guinness's biographer.
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.