The three specific ones that I have in mind (all from the '70s or very late '60s - that marvelous era of optimistic missionary highbrow broadcasting) are:
Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man
Kenneth Clark's Civilisation; and
Alastair Cooke's America.
and of course the generic category of David Attenborough natural history series, beginning with Life on Earth
What other examples are there of that kind of broad-sweep, learned, distinctively individual and engagingly presented highbrow educational documentary series?
Of course, the very personal nature of the perspectives reflected in the above three series (especially Clark and Cooke) will mean that some will be annoyed by them. And as an ignoramus on most matters of the arts -certainly the visual arts - I'm reporting a common view of Civilisation rather than daring any opinion of my own. Edit: I remember being bewildered as a boy by the Monty Python Papperbook piss-take of the publicity still photo of Kenneth Clark with the (Python!) caption "Are you civilised? Have you been civilised recently?"
Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man
Kenneth Clark's Civilisation; and
Alastair Cooke's America.
and of course the generic category of David Attenborough natural history series, beginning with Life on Earth
What other examples are there of that kind of broad-sweep, learned, distinctively individual and engagingly presented highbrow educational documentary series?
Of course, the very personal nature of the perspectives reflected in the above three series (especially Clark and Cooke) will mean that some will be annoyed by them. And as an ignoramus on most matters of the arts -certainly the visual arts - I'm reporting a common view of Civilisation rather than daring any opinion of my own. Edit: I remember being bewildered as a boy by the Monty Python Papperbook piss-take of the publicity still photo of Kenneth Clark with the (Python!) caption "Are you civilised? Have you been civilised recently?"
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