Arena

Name: Arena
Genre: Arts and culture, Documentary
Released: 1975
Cast: Gavin Millar, Gavin Millar, Kenneth Tynan, Kenneth Tynan, John Walters

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1975

Arts and culture
Documentary

Summary

Arts strand first broadcast by the BBC in 1975, featuring documentaries about some of the world's greatest artists and musicians.

Buddy Holly

Summary

Documentary looking at the short but memorable career of rock 'n' roll star Buddy Holly. Friends and contemporaries including the Crickets, the Everly Brothers, Keith Richards and Paul McCartney pay tribute to the legendary rocker, who died along with Richie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash in 1959. Part of Buddy Holly Night

Review

Paul Whitelaw

One of the founding fathers of rock ’n’ roll, Buddy Holly’s all too brief life and career are honoured to mark the 90th anniversary of his birth.

The tribute kicks off with an insightful documentary from the BBC’s Arena strand first shown in 1985, featuring contributions from members of his backing band, the Crickets, his contemporaries the Everly Brothers, and fans such as Paul McCartney and Keith Richards, both of whom hail Holly as one of their biggest formative influences.

It’s followed by another Arena documentary, Peggy Sue: Tales of Rock ’n’ Roll from 1993, in which Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham, the inspiration behind Holly’s classic song, goes on a revealing trip down memory lane.