Civilisations is a 2018 British art history television documentary series produced by the BBC in association with PBS as a follow-up to the original 1969 landmark series Civilisation by Kenneth Clark. Individual episodes are presented by Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga, with music composed by Tandis Jenhudson. The PBS release differs in several respects, including series narration by Liev Schreiber.
Production
On 25 March 2014, Tony Hall, Director-General of the BBC, 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 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, who provided academic input into the programmes.
Civilisations AR
As a companion to the series, the BBC released Civilisations AR, an augmented reality 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 from the Torquay Museum Rodin's The Kiss from the National Museum of Wales The Umbrian Madonna and Child from the National Museum of Scotland
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 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 in London on 6 February 2018. Sir David Attenborough, 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 and BBC Two HD.
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 emphasis 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 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 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 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 [with] 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."