The Ascent of Man
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The Ascent of Man (1973) is a BBC documentary series, produced in association with Time-Life Films, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski.
The title alludes to The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. Over the course of 13 episodes Bronowski travelled around the world in order to trace the development of human society through its understanding of science rather than art. Although it was not written specifically as a refutation of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969), in which Clark argued that art was a major driving force in cultural evolution, the two series can be seen as a dialogue between two fundamentally opposed philosophies. Both series had been commissioned by David Attenborough, then controller of BBC 2, although he had moved on by the time The Ascent of Man aired.
The book of the series, The Ascent of Man: A Personal View by J. Bronowski, is an almost word-for-word transcript from the original television episodes, diverging from Bronowski's original narration only where the lack of images might make its meaning unclear.
Just over a year after the series appeared , Bronowski died. Some claimed that the stress of working on the series had proved too much for him.
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Reruns in the UK
In the late 1990s Douglas Adams recorded new introductions and afterwords for a rerun of the series on the British satellite channel UK Horizons. This was billed as the first complete rerun of the series in more than a decade. However, each episode was cut by up to five minutes to make room for the new material and for commercial breaks.
In about 2000 it was reported that the BBC had been approached by Channel 5 which wanted to screen the series in prime time, but the BBC refused to lease the rights.
Shortly afterward BBC TWO began a rerun as part of its Learning Zone block, in late night and early morning time slots, and cut by five minutes per episode. The reason for the cuts in this case is unclear, since BBC TWO of course has no commercials.
In fact the complete series has not been broadcast uncut in Britain since 1986, although the BBC Knowledge channel (the forerunner of BBC FOUR) screened some selected complete episodes.
Video release
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United States
The series is available from several suppliers - including Ambrose Video Publishing (http://www.ambrosevideo.com) (video (http://www.ambrosevideo.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=575) or DVD (http://www.ambrosevideo.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=860)) and Documentary-Video (http://www.documentary-video.com) (video (http://www.documentary-video.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=575) or DVD (http://www.documentary-video.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=860)) - for delivery within the United States only.
United Kingdom
The series was belatedly released on PAL VHS and on Region 2 & 4 PAL DVD in the UK in 2005 and is available by mail order from http://www.ddvideo.co.uk/ . It received a general release on April 18 2005. This version does not include the pieces by Douglas Adams; the only extra feature apart from a comprehensive illustrated booklet on the making of the series is a short reminiscence by David Attenborough.
External Links
- BFI Screenonline page for the series (http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/549805/index.html)