TELEVISION BRIEFING / The complete Greene
ARENA (9.30pm BBC2) is firing its biggest gun in its opening programme of a new season, a three- part assessment of the life and work of Graham Greene, showing on consecutive evenings. For this meticulous account, director Donald Sturrock has tracked down footage from all over the world - including a leper colony in the Congo - and collected interviews with William Boyd, John Le Carre and Anthony Burgess, as well as Greene's childhood maid. The first part, 'England Made Me', charts the author's upbringing in Berkhamsted, where his father was headmaster of the public school, and his nascent career as a writer. His widow, Vivien, reluctant to appear on screen, voices her recollections of their first years of marriage. Despite the success of his early adventure novels, Greene never escaped the wish to escape, amusing himself with visits to prostitutes and dangerous foreign travel (not to mention his penchant for games of Russian roulette).
John Leslie of Blue Peter, and Selina Scott, taking a break from interviewing royalty, present ENTERTAINMENT EXPRESS (7.30pm BBC1), a gossipy magazine on showbiz and the media. Tonight, the ever-smiling Fiona Armstrong discusses GMTV. You can judge the tenor of the programme by the trailer: 'Don't entertain the thought of missing it.'
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