The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Civilisation

Civilisation
Civilisation
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
9781844572700
Palgrave Macmillan
Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40
Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40

Conlin, Jonathan (2009) Civilisation (BFI TV Classics), Basingstoke, GB. Palgrave Macmillan, 154pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

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

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 19 February 2009
Organisations: History

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 79880
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79880
ISBN: 9781844572700
PURE UUID: 74efc1cd-71bf-4c28-8d60-52f633f9239f
ORCID for Jonathan Conlin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0394-4931

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Mar 2010
Last modified: 06 Aug 2022 01:40

Export record

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×