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Arena is the BBC's multi award-winning arts strand. Founded in 1975, Arena has produced over 500 documentaries and films for the BBC and world audiences covering a diverse array of subjects. In November 2006, they aired a film profile of Pete Doherty.
The BBC described the documentary;Pete Doherty has become the British press’s favourite rock renegade. His life is exhaustively documented in terms of his addiction problems and his relationship with Kate Moss.
Arena follows Pete Doherty and Babyshambles over the last six months, starting with a night in his flat, followed by a tour of the UK and Europe, the recording of an EP, and Doherty entering The Priory to try to tackle his drug addiction. As well as interviews with friends, the film features intimate conversations with Doherty himself.
The music ranges from Pete Doherty's own and Libertines/Babyshambles material to versions of Dirty Old Town, (with Shane McGowan), The Clash's Janie Jones and Radiohead's High and Dry.No-one throws the press into a frenzy like Pete Doherty. Arena spent six months with the Babyshambles star uncovering the musician behind the drug addiction headlines."
After numerous attempts to convince him to start a serious rehab, in early 2005 Doherty's father decided he was tired of broken promises and vowed not to see his son again until he was clean of drugs. The sensitivity surrounding this issue became apparent in the Arena documentary which included footage of him talking about this aspect of his personal life. He was visibly upset and had to politely ask the interviewer at one point to stop filming.
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