Paris Gourtsoyannis: Civilisations is a triumph, its critics a worry

Professor Mary Beard inside The Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses (Picture: Nutopia)

Complaining about the BBC is at no risk of going out of fashion. Everyone's doing it '“ left and right; Labour, Tories and the SNP; Leavers and Remainers; young and old.

No delusion is more powerful than believing you should decide what’s on TV. Well, here’s a recommendation for anyone who has uttered the words “the kind of thing the BBC should be doing”. Civilisations, the reboot of the classic Kenneth Clark art history programme, is spectacular, and is absolutely the kind of thing the BBC should be doing. Because it is doing it incredibly well.

I call the original “classic” because I keep reading how much better it was. I can’t say because I wasn’t close to being born at the time, but it’s on iPlayer so I will correct that.

The main gripe seems to be that while Clark’s Civilisation focused on Western art, the added “s” in the title and a blockbuster budget has given the new programme, fronted by Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga, a global sweep.