{"id":2175369,"date":"2025-11-24T19:07:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2175369"},"modified":"2025-11-24T19:07:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:07:32","slug":"civilisations-is-an-intelligent-history-series-if-you-ignore-the-bbcs-condescending-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/civilisations-is-an-intelligent-history-series-if-you-ignore-the-bbcs-condescending-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Civilisations is an intelligent history series, if you ignore the BBC\u2019s condescending tone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The first thing to say about Civilisations: Rise and Fall<\/em><\/a> (BBC Two) is that it has nothing to do with Sir Kenneth Clark\u2019s 1969 series Civilisation<\/em>, despite the BBC telling us otherwise. In marketing-speak to make you wince, the corporation describes this new series as \u201cthe next iteration of the Civilisations <\/em>brand\u201d, and follows on from a not-terribly-well-received 2018 Civilisations<\/em><\/a> that featured BBC favourites Prof Mary Beard<\/a>, David Olusoga and Simon Schama.<\/p>\n

This one is a four-part series about the fall of four empires: Ancient Rome, Cleopatra\u2019s Egypt, the Aztecs and 19th century Japan, and bears little relation to the previous programmes.<\/p>\n

The second thing to say is that it has much to recommend it, despite the BBC\u2019s best efforts to make you switch off.<\/p>\n

Examples of the bad stuff? The episode on Egypt features, as one of the experts, Alastair Campbell<\/a>. No, there isn\u2019t a renowned Egyptologist named Alastair Campbell. This is the usual one, Tony Blair\u2019s old spin doctor, and he wastes no time likening the Ptolemaic dynasty to the Murdochs. Yawn.<\/p>\n

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