Arena Season 1, Episode 140

Climb Every Mountain or Nothing Succeeds Like Failure · BBC Four · Wednesday, April 2

"Failure can be fun' is the motto of self-confessed failures David McGillivray and Stephen Pile (above-if RADIO TIMES had only been able to take a picture of him). McGillivray was commissioned to write a book about failure but failed to write it; Pile's Book of Heroic Failures has got into the best-sellers list. This unlucky break has resulted in Pile being thrown out of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain, which he founded. Among others they meet-GEOFF O'NEILL, author of 519 unpublished songs; MIRIAM HARGRAVE , veteran of 39 driving tests; LT-CDR BILL BOAKS , who has lost his deposit at 21 by-elections, and JAN TAIGEN , who scored no points whatsoever in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. Reginald Bosanquet will be reading from the Book of Heroic Failures.