Distributor:
Roadshow Home Entertainment Certificate: E | 670
minutes | Region 4 Available to buy Extras: No
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Kenneth
Clarke
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
Widely
regarded as one of the best TV
productions ever made,
Civilisation is Kenneth Clarkes
1969 chronicle of human kind
across the centuries. This
former director of the National
Gallery is an unlikely TV legend
but his earlier series from 1967
Great Temples of the World had
laid the ground work.
This
is a decidedly highbrow piece of work that doesn’t rely on camera
tricks or the action that passes for history in today’s effects heavy
documentaries but instead relies on the brilliance of Clark’s script and beautiful artwork and architecture
with which he chooses to illuminate the proceedings. By focusing on art
and architecture and the painters, artists and visionaries who have
helped shape the world Clark proves that man has
risen above the humdrum that marked our earlier existence.
The
series couldn’t have been made at a better time, huge cultural change
had been wrought throughout the sixties and the lack lustre seventies
were about to be upon us, a major hit then and still stunning now
Civilisation is the kind of show they definitely don’t make anymore,
mores the pity. Thanks to Roadshow though, who have put together a
fantastic box set (the entire series is spread over four discs) complete
with lavish 36 page booklet, we have a
chance
to get to know the series once more. Classic material that no self
respecting TV aficionado will want to be without.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
Special
features consist of a photo gallery and an interview with David
Attenborough who was responsible for the output of BBC2 at the time the
show was commissioned.
