A breathtakingly ambitious series that tackled over a thousand
years of history, Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation" was the first
color documentary series broadcast in the UK. Eager to show off its
new second channel, the BBC had sent its finest directors and crew
on an 80,000-mile odyssey in search of the finest examples of human
creativity. The resulting thirteen-episode series became a
milestone in television history, pioneering the "Presenter-Hero"
model of authored documentary. For its fans the series gave hope
for the future at a time of civil and political unrest; for its
critics the series elicited only despair at its supposedly elitist
values. Meanwhile, in the United States the series had an even
deeper impact: a flagship for a new public broadcasting service,
and the start of a new transatlantic partnership between the BBC
and PBS.
Forty years on "Civilisation" has become synonymous with the golden
age of the BBC documentary series, even as many television
professionals have come to deride it as patronizing and slow.
Drawing on interviews with members of the original crew and
extensive archival research, Jonathan Conlin goes beyond the
g(u)ilt-edged caricature to reveal a series that combined healthy
skepticism towards traditional ideas of progress with a genuinely
inclusive approach to its audience. Special chapters contrast the
British and American response to "Civilisation" - and consider its
legacy to all those interested in putting art and history on the
small screen.
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