Civilisation (TV programme)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Front cover

Civilisation (full title, Civilisation: A Personal View) was a popular TV series outlining the history of Western society produced by the BBC and aired in 1969 on BBC Two. Kenneth Clark wrote and presented the series and also wrote the book Civilisation: A Personal View published in 1970.

This was one of the first UK documentary series in colour, and one of BBC2's first major productions, at the time of David Attenborough's controllership. The series' groundbreaking format, in which Clark travelled around the world to illustrate his thesis, became a template for such later programmes as The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski, Life on Earth and sequels by David Attenborough, James Burke's Connections and Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

One of the stated aims of the series was that it should showcase colour television. For technical reasons colour television was to come to BBC2 before BBC1.^[1]

Clark attended a public screening of one of the programmes and was received with huge applause and cheers. He was so overwhelmed by this recognition that he hid himself away in the lavatory and wept for fifteen minutes; he had long been respected in academic circles but was utterly taken aback by the response of the public at large.^[1]

Kenneth Clark delivers his closing monologue in the series Civilisation.

Further proof of the programme's popularity was given in anecdotal evidence of Civilisation parties. Since ownership of a colour television set was rare on the series' first broadcast, those that did own one found themselves popular hosts.^[1]

The series was replayed on BBC Four and released on DVD in 2005.