Original version

To allow the historical schedules to be captured and assist in analytics and associating audience data with rights stakeholders

BBC History Channel

Civilisations

Documentaries

Factual

Factual: History

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Thousands of years of visual culture explored on the BBC and beyond.

Series 1

BBC Two Scotland

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

Civilisations: Series 1

Simon Schama

Denys Blakeway

Michael Jackson

Melanie Fall

Joanna Marshall

Tim Niel

Helena Hunt

Nutopia

Civilisations: Series 1: Episode 9: The Vital Spark

The Vital Spark

Episode 9

Episode 9: The Vital Spark

BBC Two - Civilisations, Series 1, The Vital Spark

Simon Schama explores the fate of art in the machine- and profit-driven world.

Documentary. Simon Schama explores the fate of art in the machine- and profit-driven world, looking at the rise of art as a tradeable commodity.

Simon Schama begins Civilisations with this premise: that it is in art - the play of the creative imagination - that humanity expresses its most essential self: the power to break the tyranny of the humdrum, the grind of everyday. Art makes life worth living and is the great window into human potential. And societies become civilised to the extent that they take culture as seriously as the prosecution of power or the accumulation of wealth. But in the century of total war and industrial slaughter, was (and is) that enough? 

The cause of humanity went up in the smoke of the Nazi crematoria. Horror and terror brushed beauty aside and stamped on its pretensions. In the modern world, art has become increasingly commodified. Simon's last programme explores the fate of art in the machine- and profit-driven world. It looks at the rise of art as a tradeable commodity and turns on one central question. Should art create a realm separate from the modern world, a place where we can escape and pull the ladder up after us? Or should it plunge headlong into the chaos and cacophony while transforming the way we see it and live in it?

Using the works of both dead and contemporary artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, Simon seeks answers to these profound questions. His conclusion is imbued with hope: despite all the travails of the present, by engaging with the here-and-now, art still offers civilisation an insight into the incomprehensibility of the world and a way to transcend its horrors with the enduring creativity of the human spirit.

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Civilisations

Series 1

Episode 9: The Vital Spark

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC History Channel