Civilisation

Kenneth Clark at Notre-Dame de Paris during the production of episode one of Civilisation 'The Skin of our Teeth'.

Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark began on 23 February 1969. The ground-breaking arts documentary series was written and presented by art historian Kenneth Clark as his personal view of Western civilisation. Shown on BBC Two in thirteen parts, it provided a brilliant demonstration of the benefit of colour television. The first episode only attracted one million viewers, but by the end of the first run Civilisation was being recognised as a television masterpiece, celebrated in a leader column in The Times newspaper.

Civilisation was one of the commissions David Attenborough made as Controller of BBC Two, rising above fears that static paintings were a bad subject for television. To bring the subject to life Clark spent three years making it, shooting on 35mm film in thirteen countries. The first part – 'The Skin of Our Teeth' – saw Clark pop up in Paris, Nimes, Iona, Oslo, Poitier and Ravenna. Clark also wrote the best-selling book which accompanied the series.

Civilisation's success started a trend for presenter-led factual series which continues to this day, from The Ascent of Man and Alistair Cooke's America to Simon Schama's A History of Britain, as well as Attenborough's Life on Earth. Ahead of the anniversary the BBC produced a new series– Civilisations - in 2018, which took a much broader view and gave voice to the opinions of three separate presenters; Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga.