Civilisations (TV Series)
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''Civilisations'' is a 2018 British
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
television documentary series produced by the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
in association with
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
as a follow-up to the original 1969 landmark series ''Civilisation'' by
Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...
. Individual episodes are presented by
Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama ( ; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia Uni ...
, Mary Beard, and
David Olusoga David Adetayo Olusoga (born January 1970) is a British-Nigerian historian, writer, broadcaster and BAFTA winning film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. Olusoga has presented historical documentaries on th ...
, with music composed by Tandis Jenhudson. The PBS release differs in several respects, including series narration by
Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber ( ; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Schreiber's early film roles incl ...
.Civilizations vs Civilisations
PBS Public Editor, 20 April 2018.


Production

On 25 March 2014, Tony Hall,
Director-General of the BBC The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC. The post-holder was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period 1927 to 2007) and then the ...
, announced a commitment to a new version of Lord Clark's original ''Civilisation''. The new ''Civilisations'' series was officially announced by the BBC on 20 December 2015. While Clark's original ''Civilisation'' focused on the influence of
western European Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
art, ''Civilisations'' presents a global perspective on the role that art has played in shaping civilisations across the world, filming across 6 continents, and in 31 countries. The series is a co-production with
The Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
, who provided academic input into the programmes.


Civilisations AR

As a companion to the series, the BBC released ''Civilisations AR'', an
augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...
smartphone app that enabled users to view and explore art and historical artefacts from around the world. It was developed internally by a BBC Research and Development team based in London, in collaboration with Nexus Studios. The app's exhibits include: * An
Egyptian mummy The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave goods ...
from the
Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...
Museum *
Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
's '' The Kiss'' from the
National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
* The Umbrian ''Madonna and Child'' from the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...


Civilisations Festival

The ''Civilisations Festival'' was a season of events organised by the BBC in partnership with museums, galleries, libraries and archives across the UK, created to coincide with the airing of the ''Civilisations'' programme. It runs from 2 to 11 March 2018 and the trailer for the festival was released on 8 February 2018.


Civilisations books

Profile Books Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current events, current affairs, travel and popular science. Profile Books is distribu ...
issued two tie-in volumes adapted by Mary Beard and David Olusoga from their episodes; respectively, these books are ''Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith'' () and ''Civilisations: First Contact / The Cult of Progress'' ().


Original broadcast (BBC)


Preview

The series was launched at a preview event at the
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
in London on 6 February 2018.
Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...
, who commissioned the original series with Kenneth Clark, made a special guest appearance, saying he "cannot wait to see the series". He also stated that the BBC could not simply have reproduced the approach of the original series, stating "Society has changed. We have an international society, a multi-ethnic society. You can't just do it in the way we did it." The first trailer was released on 7 February 2018.


Episodes

''Civilisations'' premiered on 1 March 2018 on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
and
BBC Two HD BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and d ...
.


Reception

'' The List'' gave the series 4 of out 5 stars, based on viewings of the first two episodes: "it's a visual feast as the cameras sweep across ruined cities and townships or focuses in for tight close-ups to emphasise the exquisite details of relics, pottery and sculpture. Even more inspiring is the breadth of knowledge, beautiful nuggets of information and insights into ancient worlds. Accessible and intelligent, ''Civilisations'' conveys a message of globalism, revelling in the variety of our species' ingenuity on an international scale." ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' in its review of the ninth and final episode concluded: "as nine discrete lectures, delivered by three of our most captivating cultural commentators, interrogating how we view art and what it means to us today, this has been a fascinating project that was undoubtedly worth the effort."
Mark Lawson Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme '' Front Row'' between 1998 and 2014. He is also a '' Guardian'' ...
approved of the series but noted that the "format of TV as lecture theatre" had not changed since the 1969 original. He wrote: "the BBC has spectacularly and intelligently remade its 1969 hit in a way that reflects shifts in cultural and art historical thinking. Less apparent is any sense of fresh reflection about how and why art should be put on TV." BBC's arts editor
Will Gompertz William Edward Gompertz (born 1965) is an English journalist, author and art critic. He was formerly the BBC's arts editor before moving to a position as the Barbican Centre's Artistic Director from 1 June 2021. Family and education Gompertz ...
described the series as "patchwork programmes with rambling narratives that promise much but deliver little in way of fresh insight or surprising connections." He commented that although the scripts were "far from being literary masterpieces, the camerawork is of the highest quality throughout
ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...
plenty of delicious visual treats". He concluded: "a well-intentioned, well-funded series that has top TV talent in all departments but which ended up being less than the sum of its parts." Andrew Ferguson reviewed and contrasted ''Civilisations'' with its 1969 original. Ferguson recommended the series and praised the "stunning" imagery. However, he criticised the departure from Clark's chronological approach and a tendency to dwell on the function of featured works of art, particularly if the piece is considered to have preserved the power of an elite class. He wrote: “In the hands of our narrators, art is reduced to an instrument of oppression. If you are uncomfortable with this approach—seeing the glories of human creativity reduced to tools for class warfare—too bad." The ''
London Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is print ...
'' also provided a comparison with the original series: "Is ''Civilisations'' better than ''Civilisation''? It’s different, it’s got modern sensibilities and different perspectives. But it lacks Clark’s authority: his judgments carried weight, though they were challenged in a later series by
John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...
. It also lacks the coherence of his single story of Western culture and, yep, cultural relativism is the name of the game. But it reminds us of humanity’s boundless creativity." ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' art critic
Sebastian Smee Sebastian Smee is an Australian-born Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for ''The Washington Post'' and the author of several books on art history. Education and career Educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide, St Peter's College, Adelaide, Smee ...
described the PBS series as "compulsory viewing for a new generation of viewers". Smee rejected any comparison with the original: "In truth, the comparison is invidious. ''Civilisation'' was great, but the series is 50 years old, and looks it. Today, neither Lord Clark’s benign pomposity nor his open disdain for contemporary culture would fly. His focus, too, on the West seems perverse in our globalized era, when we all have become more conscious of the complexity of interactions between cultures throughout history."


Soundtrack

Former BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Tandis Jenhudson composed the original music for the series, as well as the main title theme (which features soprano Caroline Kennedy). A digital soundtrack will be released on 23 September 2018 and his score will also form the soundtrack of the BBC ''Civilisations AR''
augmented-reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted display. This experie ...
app on both
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
and Android.


US broadcast (PBS)

Released as ''Civilizations'' by
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
in the United States, the individual programmes have distinct treatments and narrative arc, with
Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber ( ; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Schreiber's early film roles incl ...
as the series narrator. While maintaining the principal contributions of Schama, Beard, and Olusoga, joining them are international artists and experts including
religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...
scholar Jamal J. Elias, INAH anthropologist Rebecca Gonzalez-Lauck, art critic Jonathan Jones,
Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...
professor Salima Ikram, Asian Art Museum director Jay Xu, and history professor
Maya Jasanoff Maya R. Jasanoff (born 1974) is an American scholar of history studies who serves as Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, where she focuses on the history of Britain and the British Empire. Early life Jasanoff grew up in Ithaca ...
.CIVILIZATIONS, a PBS and BBC Co-Production, to Premiere Spring 2018
/ref>


Episodes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Civilisations (Tv Series) 2018 British television series debuts 2018 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series BBC high definition shows 2010s British television miniseries BBC television documentaries about history Documentary television series about art British English-language television shows PBS original programming