This award-winning programme gives a definitive portrait of one of the truly great writers of the 20th century. Graham Greene was an intensely private man who shunned publicity and remained, even to friends and family, an enigmatic, mysterious and elusive figure.

After his death in l99l - with the full co-operation of the Greene Estate - Arena had the golden opportunity for the first time to chart the course of his eventful life as journalist, film critic, dramatist, lover, novelist and spy. His work is read by Sir Alec Guinness and narration is by Robert Powell.

 Interview: Hear Greene talk to the BBC in 1969

We follow him from his English roots in Berkhamsted, where his father was headmaster of his school, through to his nervous breakdown at Oxford, where he worked as a spy for the German government and fell in love with his future wife, Vivien. He converted to Catholicism and started to write. After Brighton Rock he set off for Mexico on the journey that secured his literary reputation.

Distinguished contributors include Sir Peter Quennell, Anthony Burgess, William Boyd and John Le Carre.

The hidden years of Greene's life are traced through the breakdown of his marriage, when he became involved in various turbulent affairs. In l940 Kim Philby recruited him as a spy, and in a unique interview Philby talks about their time together in the Secret Service. By l959 Greene retreated to a leper colony in the then Belgian Congo. Archive is shown of Greene in the Congo with Dr Michel Lechat, who inspired him to write A Burnt Out Case. Other contributors include his wife Vivien Greene, Michael Meyer, Auberon Waugh and Jocelyn Rickards.

 Quiz: How much do you know about Graham Greene?

During the last 30 years of his life Greene was passionately engaged in controversial issues, becoming involved with guerrillas in Central America, fighting the Mafia in Nice, defending Kim Philby and promoting the link between Catholicism and Communism in the Soviet Union. From his base at Antibes he constantly sought new frontiers - always provocative, always productive - "a piece of grit in the State machinery", as he put it.

There is film of his secretive mistress, Yvonne Cloetta, and of Greene himself in France, in Prague, in the Soviet Union, and talking about Hungary, Vietnam, his fears and his passions. Further distinguished contributors include Jeffrey Bernard, Koo Stark and Father Leopoldo Duran.

 ARENA: GRAHAM GREENE CENTENARY HOMEPAGE

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