Kenneth Clark's Civilisation

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Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark
Civilisation — in full Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark — is an influential television documentary series outlining the history of Western art, architecture, and philosophy since the Dark Ages. The series was produced by the BBC and aired in 1969 on BBC Two. Both the television material and an accompanying book were written by art historian Kenneth Clark (1903-1983) [Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Sir Clark, Baron Clark], who also presented the series.

Production

Civilisation 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. One of Attenborough's aims of the series was that it should showcase colour television. For technical reasons colour television was to come to BBC2 before BBC1 and, as a channel aimed at minority audiences, it was appropriate to commission a major series about the Arts.

The series was directed by Michael Gill, and co-produced by Gill and Peter Montagnon. At first, Clark's patrician attitudes annoyed Gill and the project was almost abandoned. However Gill eventually formed a great respect for Clark's aesthetic judgment. During the filming on location, they formed a close and enduring friendship.

The series was replayed on BBC Four and released on DVD in 2005. The DVD release included a short interview with David Attenborough about the commissioning and production of the series.

Reception

Clark attended an early 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.

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.

The series had difficulty at first in finding a home on American television, but success was assured after the National Gallery of Art in Washington put it on at lunchtime in the gallery theatre. This seated 300 people, but on the first day 24,000 turned up!

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, Alistair Cooke's America, and Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

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