0:00:03 > 0:00:07It's not often that an exhibition at Tate Britain celebrates
0:00:07 > 0:00:10the work of one man, who wasn't even an artist.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15But Sir Kenneth Clark was no ordinary man.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18His list of achievements was staggering,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22with Clark seemingly occupying every key cultural post going.
0:00:23 > 0:00:24It's dazzling, you know,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28he was keeper of the Ashmolean in his 20s,
0:00:28 > 0:00:31director of the National Gallery at 30,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35head of home publicity at the Ministry of Information in the war,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38chairman of the Arts Council, he was trustee of everything.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41I mean, the amazing thing is he got anything done at all.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45But it was arguably as a television presenter that Clark
0:00:45 > 0:00:46made the greatest impact.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Fired by a deeply-held belief that art was for everyone,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53he was one of the first to embrace the new medium,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56making it his mission to bring art to the masses.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Good television deals with real life, and I think it's a very
0:01:00 > 0:01:03serious matter that it should be said that anyone
0:01:03 > 0:01:07interested in the arts shouldn't concern themselves with television.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Today, he's best remembered for his epic 13-part BBC series
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Civilisation, which was televised in 1969.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Tackling over 1,000 years of history, it was the most
0:01:20 > 0:01:25ambitious series ever made, and hailed by many as a masterpiece.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I'm standing in the Sistine Chapel.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32Above my head is one of the greatest works of man -
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Michelangelo's ceiling.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37But by the early '70s,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40his take on art history was already being challenged
0:01:40 > 0:01:42by a new generation for being elitist
0:01:42 > 0:01:45and out of step with the changing times.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47In the clash between traditionalism
0:01:47 > 0:01:51and radicalism that erupted in the late '60s and early '70s,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55it would always be clear which corner Clark was defending.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59And yet Clark was never a man who could be easily boxed in.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01One of the fascinating things about Clark is
0:02:01 > 0:02:03he is completely contradictory.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07He seems to be condescending, rather grand, rather formal,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12and yet he is genuinely a populariser driven by a belief
0:02:12 > 0:02:17in democratising art and culture, making it available to everybody.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22He was very much of his class, that is to say upper-class, English,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26well-bred, but at the same time, beneath that,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29there were all kinds of passions.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31He adored the arts, they were his life,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and he wanted other people to see why they were so important.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Spanning most of the 20th century,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Clark's story reflects the wider issues in Britain
0:02:41 > 0:02:46at the time, taking in our attitudes to class, gender and society,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50as well as the shifting values placed on high and low culture.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12In 1953, Kenneth Clark bought this castle in Kent,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15which would become his home for the next 30 years.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Filled with the art he collected over a lifetime,
0:03:18 > 0:03:23Saltwood Castle remains a rich archival reserve, a gift
0:03:23 > 0:03:28for any biographer attempting to capture Clark's elusive character.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33'To be appointed the authorised biographer of Kenneth Clark
0:03:33 > 0:03:38'is a daunting, massive task, and one I don't underestimate at all.'
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Because the first thing you realise about Clark is that he doesn't want
0:03:43 > 0:03:46to be caught. He has this genius for disengagement.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48He disengages from people,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50from organisations, from ideas.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53He doesn't want to belong to any tribe.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56I spent a year in the Tate Britain archive,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58and even at the end of all that,
0:03:58 > 0:04:04I'm not entirely sure I understood the figure I am writing about.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07I think here, he's much easier to understand,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09because you feel him everywhere.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16- Hello, Jane.- Hello. - How lovely to see you.- And you!
0:04:16 > 0:04:17Looking lovely here.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20- The daffodils are really good this year, aren't they?- Fantastic.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24'The person who has kept Saltwood up and going
0:04:24 > 0:04:29'and has done an amazing job is Jane Clark, his daughter-in-law.'
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Oh, look, isn't that wonderful?
0:04:32 > 0:04:34'And she was the one who appointed me
0:04:34 > 0:04:40'and she's been marvellous, and she, on her own, single-handedly, keeps
0:04:40 > 0:04:45'the whole place going, and keeps this temple of Clark alive.'
0:04:47 > 0:04:49This is my father-in-law's study,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53where he came every day to do his work.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57But he never actually sat at the desk. He was very keen everyone
0:04:57 > 0:05:01should know that he always sat, as you see, at that window.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06It's very important to keep it... keep it as a sort of...
0:05:06 > 0:05:09not quite a shrine, but just in memory of him.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Really, everything is more or less as he left it.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17In fairness, there's a bit of clutter,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21and actually, wonderfully, in this are still his chocolates -
0:05:21 > 0:05:24long past their sell-by date, but the chocolates have remained.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Sir Kenneth Clark, in an essay that you wrote about your childhood,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33you said that you were brought up in a rich,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36sporting and philistine atmosphere.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40It's not the sort of background that one imagines you would have had.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42What was it like?
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Well, I found it - as I said in that essay - I found it very agreeable.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50I was an only child - only children are supposed to be lonely
0:05:50 > 0:05:52and unhappy - I was extremely happy.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58I was very largely neglected by my parents. I didn't mind that at all.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02I was looked after by a divine Scottish governess.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05And that's all I asked.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Well, we were brought up by my mother,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15told that he had a terribly miserable childhood,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and was very lonely and wasn't really happy at all.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28His later thing that it was all fine, I think, perhaps, was an invention.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34But he didn't suffer from self-pity or self-analysis.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39All these things are new things. He hated self-analysis.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46I think that he probably was periodically very unhappy,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49and lonely. I think "lonely" is the word.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51He didn't have enough children to play with.
0:06:51 > 0:06:52I think this was the problem,
0:06:52 > 0:06:57he didn't have siblings or friends of his parents' children -
0:06:57 > 0:07:00there was just nobody for him to relate to. And I think
0:07:00 > 0:07:04this explains why he spent the rest of his life with what Henry Moore
0:07:04 > 0:07:09called "the glass shield". There was always this sense of him
0:07:09 > 0:07:10being slightly aloof,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and I'm sure that's to do with his solitary childhood.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19His was a pretty peculiar background.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23I mean, his father, very rich and drank too much,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27and lived for sporting things, but he did buy pictures.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32His mother, he described her as rather Quakerish and prim,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34and frightened of emotion.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37So he would have to evolve something from those two
0:07:37 > 0:07:40amazingly contrasting personalities,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45and he did it partly by his emotional outlet through the arts.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I started to enjoy works of art at a very early age.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52It was what is called, I believe, a freak aptitude.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56My grandmother gave me a book on the Louvre when I was seven years old.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00I have it, still. And from then on I went on loving works of art.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05I think, in this rather solitary childhood, I think
0:08:05 > 0:08:08art was an awakening for him.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12He lived, breathed, slept, thought art.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Art was a complete obsession for him.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22The other great love of Clark's life was his wife, Jane,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26whom he'd met whilst reading history at Oxford University in 1925.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33This series of photos of my mother-in-law show her,
0:08:33 > 0:08:35and she was wonderfully elegant,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37she had the most beautiful clothes by Schiaparelli.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40In fact, I was very lucky, because when I was first married,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I was slim enough to get into a wonderful evening gown
0:08:42 > 0:08:45she had with a terrific brocaded bodice.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50She had an amazing eye.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55And he relied on Jane's judgment of works of art.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Bonded by a mutual love of art, Jane would become Clark's soul mate.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05But their 50-year marriage would not be without its problems.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10I think what's very important to say is that Jane, his wife,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12was the love of his life.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14She was central to everything.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18But there's a point in their marriage where I think
0:09:18 > 0:09:20she starts to be unhappy.
0:09:20 > 0:09:27I think she's prescribed these drugs which we now know contained cocaine,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29and she starts drinking.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33At this point, I think the girlfriends come in,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and I think they start giving him this uncritical love
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and support that Jane is not giving him at that point.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47In public, though, their problems were set aside,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51with Jane stepping up to her role as the beautiful and dutiful
0:09:51 > 0:09:54wife of her young, charismatic and very successful husband.
0:09:57 > 0:09:58By the early 1930s,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Clark had become a hugely respected art historian,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06keeper of both the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the King's Pictures.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10And Jane would prove vital to the success of what Clark would
0:10:10 > 0:10:13later dub "The Great Clark Boom" years.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18I think people liked her very much. She was much easier than K.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22People found K Olympian, aloof, they were terrified of him,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24whereas they found her easy and charming,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and I think that she was the glue.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31People came for dinner because it was always Jane and K.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36This elegant Georgian town house was where the Clarks
0:10:36 > 0:10:40entertained their guests, surrounded by Clark's impressive
0:10:40 > 0:10:42and rapidly growing art collection.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48You see the wonderful photographs of it that show
0:10:48 > 0:10:51the great paintings from his collection and drawings.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Every surface has a carefully arranged group of objects.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02One of the unique things about Clark is that he is doing this as
0:11:02 > 0:11:06a great expert, he's one of the few art historians of his generation,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10so he brings this immense specialist knowledge to his collecting,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14but he wants to have a way of life in which these beautiful things
0:11:14 > 0:11:20are a part of it and he clearly sees that as everybody's right.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29In 1934, the perfect opportunity for Clark to share his love of art
0:11:29 > 0:11:33with the general public presented itself when, aged just 30,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37he was appointed the youngest ever director of the National Gallery.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39The National Gallery gives him
0:11:39 > 0:11:42this extraordinary bit of national kit to play for,
0:11:42 > 0:11:45and he begins to reinvigorate it,
0:11:45 > 0:11:50because he brings a real love of pictures,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54a real love of art, and a love of communicating about it.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00It's the first step in the creation of this public figure
0:12:00 > 0:12:02that's going to emerge later.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10Even when the outbreak of war in 1939 threatened a total
0:12:10 > 0:12:16cultural blackout, Clark managed to make the National Gallery
0:12:16 > 0:12:19a shining beacon of hope for the nation.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25As a top civil servant, Clark was exempt from National Service,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28but he proved to be invaluable on the Home Front.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31When the war came, there was a real sense
0:12:31 > 0:12:35that the cultural treasures of the nation were profoundly threatened
0:12:35 > 0:12:37by the bombings of the Luftwaffe...
0:12:40 > 0:12:43..and Clark arranged for the collection to be taken
0:12:43 > 0:12:45to a huge cave in Wales.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52In a covert, complicated operation, Clark oversaw
0:12:52 > 0:12:56the evacuation of all the National Gallery's treasures, which were
0:12:56 > 0:13:00stored in specially air-conditioned shelters deep under the ground.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02And then, rather brilliantly,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06he arranged for one painting a month to be brought back to London
0:13:06 > 0:13:11and presented in the gallery as a kind of little symbol of resistance.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15The Second World War turns him
0:13:15 > 0:13:19from a rarefied social butterfly with a beautiful wife
0:13:19 > 0:13:24and a beautiful house into something much more robust
0:13:24 > 0:13:29and strong and interesting. It gives him a sense of a wider purpose.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Putting culture at the heart
0:13:32 > 0:13:36of what is a national struggle for survival.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Soon after war broke out, Clark was invited by the government
0:13:43 > 0:13:46to head up the Ministry of Information's Film Division.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49This is an incendiary bomb that burns very
0:13:49 > 0:13:52violently for the first minute, but after that, it can be tackled.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56During the war, he's at the Ministry of Information,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00and he's in charge of how to think about home publicity.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02What are we fighting for?
0:14:02 > 0:14:05And he marshals the arts into battle.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09He tries to think that we were fighting for certain values
0:14:09 > 0:14:11that are best expressed through the arts,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14and he does it absolutely brilliantly.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Never one to follow rank, Clark was nevertheless quick to spot the
0:14:21 > 0:14:26potential of film to get his message across, and made sure an initiative
0:14:26 > 0:14:30he'd set up - the War Artists Advisory Committee - was the focus
0:14:30 > 0:14:35of a key propaganda film of the time, Jill Craigie's Out Of Chaos.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39ARCHIVE: Sir Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42suggested that artists should be employed to record the war
0:14:42 > 0:14:44and the government backed up his proposal.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47They set up a committee to choose artists who could make
0:14:47 > 0:14:48a record of the war.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Not simply a record of the facts,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54but a record of what the war felt like.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56Let's begin with Paul Nash.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01He wanted his pictures to make images on the popular mind,
0:15:01 > 0:15:06images encouraging to ourselves, but depressing to the enemy.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12For Clark, Out Of Chaos was much more than just a morale-booster.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16It was a manifesto, a chance to express all his most
0:15:16 > 0:15:20deep-seated beliefs about the role and function of art.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22In 1935, he writes an article
0:15:22 > 0:15:24called The Future Of Painting,
0:15:24 > 0:15:29where he criticises on the one hand the Surrealists...
0:15:31 > 0:15:34..and on the other, abstract artists, for claiming
0:15:34 > 0:15:38to be the future. He is saying neither of them will represent
0:15:38 > 0:15:44the future of painting because they are too elitist and specialised.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Good art, for him, is accessible to everybody,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and so needs to be rooted in the observable world.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55- ARCHIVE:- Here is the quarry and here is the artist.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58He wants to get the feel of the place.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02In Clark's view, the three contemporary artists
0:16:02 > 0:16:06who best connected with the common experience were Graham Sutherland,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09John Piper and Henry Moore.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13- ARCHIVE:- One of the most moving scenes of the Blitz
0:16:13 > 0:16:17was the sight of the tube shelters. On almost any night during a raid,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20this figure might have been seen wandering about.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Henry Moore, the sculptor.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Moore tells this typical story of how he stumbled across the subject.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33He was in London during a raid and goes down into the tube
0:16:33 > 0:16:36and comes across the people who are sheltering there.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41But I think there is some evidence it wasn't this accidental discovery.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46The minutes of the War Artists Advisory Committee show them
0:16:46 > 0:16:49discussing the people in the underground as a subject
0:16:49 > 0:16:51that should be recorded.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57And the very next meeting, a month later, Clark comes along and says,
0:16:57 > 0:17:02"I saw Henry Moore the other day and he's started doing the pictures."
0:17:03 > 0:17:05That may be a happy coincidence.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09But there is the sense, possibly, that Clark maybe encouraged
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Moore to think about the subject.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16It perfectly fits Clark's idea of patronage, that he knows Moore
0:17:16 > 0:17:20is an artist interested in tight, claustrophobic spaces
0:17:20 > 0:17:24and the human figure, so it would be a typical Clarkian
0:17:24 > 0:17:28move to encourage him to look at the people in the underground.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33- ARCHIVE:- This is the National Gallery on a Saturday afternoon.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35It's amazing to find it so crowded.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40It used not to look like this in the old days of peace.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42The work of Moore, Sutherland
0:17:42 > 0:17:46and Piper provided the centrepieces of the War Artists Advisory
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Committee exhibitions that Clark staged at the National Gallery.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55The fact that those works are shown in the National Gallery means
0:17:55 > 0:18:00that by the end of the war, those artists are household names.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Oh, yes, John Piper, of course.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06What interesting tone value, don't you think?
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Moore, Sutherland, Piper. The triumvirate, if you like,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12whom he really does kind of make.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16He clearly has in his mind a kind of hierarchy,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and he knows that these three are head and shoulders above the rest.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Clark's influence grew enormously during the war.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30He became a beneficent figure.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35As a young artist, if you could get Clark's blessing on your work,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37that would hugely advance your career.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40So he was like an unofficial Pope of the art world.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46The other side of that is that if you are making art
0:18:46 > 0:18:53he doesn't favour or support, then it can be disadvantageous.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Certainly in the war, artists like Ben Nicholson,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00who in the 1930s was probably the best-known avant-garde artist
0:19:00 > 0:19:04in Britain, was completely ignored and left out of all the war artist
0:19:04 > 0:19:10schemes recording Britain, and that caused great financial hardship.
0:19:12 > 0:19:13Ladies and gentlemen.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21I am very proud to be able to congratulate Harlow,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26on behalf of all those who believe in civilisation,
0:19:26 > 0:19:31on maintaining the great tradition of urban civilisation
0:19:31 > 0:19:36by their decision to make, in the centre of their new town...
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Make a work of art the centre of their new town.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45It was perhaps Henry Moore out of all Clark's favoured artists
0:19:45 > 0:19:48who would benefit most from Clark's patronage through the years.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53But the relationship was not all one-sided.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00I think that K probably felt that my father was his best friend.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03But they were very different characters.
0:20:05 > 0:20:12K was stiff, and formal and distant, incredibly polite,
0:20:12 > 0:20:17whereas my father was a complete extrovert and naturally
0:20:17 > 0:20:21gregarious, loved people, had a real curiosity in people.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24I don't know if K actually liked people.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30My father was able to get in touch very easily
0:20:30 > 0:20:32with his subconscious.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35The way he was able to talk about things
0:20:35 > 0:20:38and express things in a very physical way
0:20:38 > 0:20:42possibly complemented K's extreme intellectuality.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50When the war ended, Clark retreated from the front line,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54giving up his directorship of the National Gallery to take up
0:20:54 > 0:20:58the top academic post of Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01where he gave a series of famous lectures.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06I had been to one Slade lecture, and that was the first time
0:21:06 > 0:21:10I ever saw him in the flesh. He was the most marvellous lecturer.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15He was the greatest lecturer, people thought, of the age.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Lecturing was what he did, he was like a magician lecturing.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24But for Clark, preaching to the already-converted from Oxford's
0:21:24 > 0:21:28elitist spires was never going to be challenging enough.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34He recognises that being a scholar buried in the archives
0:21:34 > 0:21:39for his life isn't what he was born to do, that too much of him
0:21:39 > 0:21:43enjoys being a public figure and that too much of him
0:21:43 > 0:21:47knows he can be very effective as a public figure.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51- ARCHIVE:- This is the British Broadcasting Corporation.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Throughout the 1940s, Clark was repeatedly invited to give
0:21:55 > 0:21:59talks on BBC Radio, where he became a star guest.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03The BBC, as it did with all members of the great and good,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06pursued him relentlessly to give interesting talks
0:22:06 > 0:22:10for three guineas, and that is because it is always looking
0:22:10 > 0:22:14for people who know stuff and can communicate.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Five seconds. Stand by two.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Superimpose. Mix through. Cue on two!
0:22:21 > 0:22:25When the BBC began its television broadcasting in earnest
0:22:25 > 0:22:29in the early 1950s, everyone assumed Clark would return
0:22:29 > 0:22:32to Auntie to continue his art education for the masses.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37But in 1954, he surprised everyone by becoming the first
0:22:37 > 0:22:40chairman of the new Independent Television Authority.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45My lords, ladies and gentlemen,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48on behalf of the Independent Television Authority,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51it is my privilege to welcome you all tonight,
0:22:51 > 0:22:56and my welcome extends beyond the 500 guests
0:22:56 > 0:23:02that we are delighted to see here to the million and more who can see us.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06We thought Ken Clark was a BBC man.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09For him to go to what was then,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12to some of the more engrained public service broadcasters,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15the infidel,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18the commercial television,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20was a surprise.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27I think there was a sense that he'd gone over to the dark side,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32and that he was going to devalue in some way or reject
0:23:32 > 0:23:35all of the sort of high art
0:23:35 > 0:23:39and values that he seems to have stood for before.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44It is very difficult for people who have grown up with it to realise
0:23:44 > 0:23:48that the only commercial television anybody here knew about
0:23:48 > 0:23:50was American television.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54I know I have benefitted from using Antizyme toothpaste.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56..bursts into luxuriantly rich lathers...
0:23:56 > 0:23:58There's nothing like Saran-Wrap!
0:23:58 > 0:24:03All the people who had been brought up with the BBC here were appalled by it.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08It was vulgar, it was trashy, it was inaccurate -
0:24:08 > 0:24:10it was rubbish, actually.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12And it's non-habit-forming!
0:24:16 > 0:24:20So the establishment here thought it would all be like that
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and it was partly down to K that it wasn't.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31One of the reasons why he takes it, I think, is that he was
0:24:31 > 0:24:34always against monopolies of all kinds.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39He thought monopolies were simply a bad thing, and at that point
0:24:39 > 0:24:44the BBC had a monopoly of TV, and he wanted to see that challenged.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51We neglected to notice that he also had a very strong social
0:24:51 > 0:24:57conscience, that he thought that pictures and architecture
0:24:57 > 0:25:01enriched everyone, not just an educated elite.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Sir Kenneth Clark, let's be frank about this,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07you as one of the experts on the arts in this
0:25:07 > 0:25:11country are in some quarters considered to have sold
0:25:11 > 0:25:15the past by encouraging, by your work, the development of television.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Now, what is your reply to this charge, which is fairly widespread?
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Well, it makes me very angry, really.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26I think it shows a complete lack of imagination.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29And it suggests, which is the most infuriating part,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33that people who have an interest in the arts are a kind of
0:25:33 > 0:25:38segregated part of the population, a kind of Indian preserve who
0:25:38 > 0:25:43have no connection with the mass of people and with ordinary life.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And I think it's a very serious matter that it should be said
0:25:47 > 0:25:50that anyone with any interest in the arts shouldn't concern
0:25:50 > 0:25:52themselves with television.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57If Clark had shocked the BBC mandarins by becoming
0:25:57 > 0:26:02the first ITA chairman, then he also surprised the Tory government
0:26:02 > 0:26:05who'd appointed him by not conforming to type.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Quite what the Tory's expected from him, nobody knows,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12but they very rapidly realised that Clark was actually
0:26:12 > 0:26:14not going to toe the party line,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19he wasn't going to toe any line, and was going to be his own man.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23He wasn't a right wing person at all,
0:26:23 > 0:26:30and there was a time very early on, when he was at the Arts Council -
0:26:30 > 0:26:35apparently someone in Kent had asked Lady Clark for a subscription
0:26:35 > 0:26:37to the local Conservative Party,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39and she'd said, "No, my husband
0:26:39 > 0:26:42"is a quasi-civil service establishment, and he can't be shown
0:26:42 > 0:26:44"to have political preferences."
0:26:46 > 0:26:51And K said to me, "So, the word has gone round that the castle is red.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53"Not so far from the truth after all!"
0:26:55 > 0:26:58So that was quite revealing,
0:26:58 > 0:27:00although he had plenty of friends on both sides of the House.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06He wasn't a toff, although he was friends with a lot of toffs
0:27:06 > 0:27:11and conservatives, politicians. He said the greatest thing
0:27:11 > 0:27:17the English ever did was elect a Labour government after the war.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21He was always Labour. Always.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27In the summer of 1957,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Clark's chairmanship of the ITA came to an end,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and he immediately signed a contract to act as consultant
0:27:33 > 0:27:37and presenter for Lew Grade's new ATV company.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41It was an unlikely pairing, but one that worked.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44I think he loved people like Lew Grade a great deal
0:27:44 > 0:27:48because he was so different to him. Because he was so repressed,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52in a sense, I think he loved these people who had, if you like,
0:27:52 > 0:27:57the confidence of being outrageous. So Lew and he got on very well.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Lew adored the way he talked about art.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04He would say, "Tell me about art, Kenneth."
0:28:06 > 0:28:10- ARCHIVE:- ATV presents "Is Art Necessary?"
0:28:10 > 0:28:12The leader of our exploration is Sir Kenneth Clark,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15who might really be called
0:28:15 > 0:28:17one of the world's greatest experts on art.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Under the provocative title "Is Art Necessary?",
0:28:21 > 0:28:25Clark devised a series of wide-ranging programmes,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28targeted at a broad audience, but tackling complex
0:28:28 > 0:28:30ideas on aesthetics.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34The first one, he decides, will take on the idea of beauty.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39Because beauty is pretty abstract and a slightly difficult concept,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44he has what he thinks is rather a good idea - to begin with,
0:28:44 > 0:28:51his son Alan's Great Dane, and with people saying, "Isn't he beautiful?"
0:28:51 > 0:28:54and trying to break that down and understand what
0:28:54 > 0:28:56they mean by saying that.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03- ARCHIVE: Isn't he beautiful?- Isn't he beautiful?- Isn't he beautiful?
0:29:03 > 0:29:07Beautiful. Beautiful. It's a good old word, you know?
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Not much used by modern critics of art,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12but they all seem to know what they meant by it, didn't they?
0:29:14 > 0:29:17It was an ambitious start to his presenting career,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21but one that, as Clark himself readily admitted,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23turned out to be a spectacular failure.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28So you really can control the proportions of a bull terrier.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31That's, of course, what people through the Renaissance always wanted
0:29:31 > 0:29:34to do with the human figure, and what Leonardo da Vinci tried to do
0:29:34 > 0:29:38with horses, and got into great trouble, had to go down to the 900th
0:29:38 > 0:29:40part of a horse in order to get his proportions right.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43I'm glad that the bull terrier was more accommodating!
0:29:45 > 0:29:48'It is pretty much a disaster.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52'It is shapeless, it doesn't know what it is trying to do.'
0:29:52 > 0:29:56- Let's have a look, if we can, at those horses.- There they are, yes.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59You can see him in his chair, leaning back,
0:29:59 > 0:30:04and sort of talking "de haut en bas" to the audience.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06It is a very, very uncomfortable programme.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10- I don't expect many of our viewers have a warthog on the hearth.- No.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12And in his autobiography he says he thought
0:30:12 > 0:30:14he was going to be fired after this first programme.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21But Lew Grade wasn't going to give up on Clark that easily,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25and backed his new presenter as he continued to tackle ever more
0:30:25 > 0:30:27complex and contentious issues.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34Many people think it involves a room something like this.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Very light colour,
0:30:36 > 0:30:42furniture perched on rather thin legs.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44All very straight and simple.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47One has the feeling that if a large, heavy man came in
0:30:47 > 0:30:51and sat down suddenly, the furniture would collapse.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Or if one opened a bottle of stout, or as they would say in the BBC,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57a bottle of Guinness, he'd make a terrible mess.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01When you look at a programme like "What Is Good Taste?" now,
0:31:01 > 0:31:06there's a sense in which it looks rather ridiculous to us today, and
0:31:06 > 0:31:12speaks of a set of values that feels completely alien to where we are.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Should that be understood as condescending?
0:31:15 > 0:31:16I don't really think it should.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19I think it should be understood as an uneasy
0:31:19 > 0:31:25and far from successful attempt to visualise quite a complicated idea
0:31:25 > 0:31:28for a broad audience.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33What is bad taste?
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Well, many people would suppose
0:31:35 > 0:31:38it's something like the room that I'm in now.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49I must honestly say that in some ways
0:31:49 > 0:31:54I find it rather cosier than the other room. I can relax in it.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57I can open a bottle of stout in this room without trepidation.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59And as a matter of fact,
0:31:59 > 0:32:04more people I like live in a room like this than in the other room.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07I think what he's saying there is that it's more humane.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12He recognises that bad taste often has a humanity about it,
0:32:12 > 0:32:17and good taste can be terribly visceral and cold
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and you know, he was trying to say
0:32:20 > 0:32:24that ducks up the wall show humanity and heart and soul.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29That programme caused quite a lot of umbrage
0:32:29 > 0:32:30but it would cause more now
0:32:30 > 0:32:33because you mustn't be judgmental about anything
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and he certainly was. "Oh, frightful," he'd say.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42That clock is supposed to be a piece of beautifully carved
0:32:42 > 0:32:47and chaste ormolu, in the French Louis XV style.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52When in fact, it's moulded and all the ornament is dull
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and meaningless and stupid.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58But he certainly wasn't a social snob.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02He really enjoyed people from every walk of life.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Papa was adorable to everybody. Everybody adored him,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12and from the highest to the lowest, he was totally non-snobbish
0:33:12 > 0:33:17about people. He was just as adorable to the charlady to whom he
0:33:17 > 0:33:22would give wonderful lectures on art, as he was to the grandest person.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28Having introduced complex abstract ideas into people's living rooms,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Clark then set about testing the nation's views
0:33:31 > 0:33:33on abstract art itself.
0:33:33 > 0:33:39Art may be all right to some people, but I don't know very much about it, I'm afraid.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42I don't understand abstract art as well as I do the theatre.
0:33:42 > 0:33:48Well, I'm not a lover of it. I'm not a lover of it at all.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51In his attempts to educate the viewing public about the value
0:33:51 > 0:33:56of modern art, Clark clearly faced an uphill struggle.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59But when the Tate staged a retrospective of Picasso's work
0:33:59 > 0:34:02in 1960, he was brave enough to venture away
0:34:02 > 0:34:05from his area of expertise and take up the challenge
0:34:05 > 0:34:09of explaining Picasso to a broadly sceptical audience.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13Picasso, although one of the most compelling of artists,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15is also one of the most incomprehensible.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20He is quoted as saying, "Why should people try to understand me?
0:34:20 > 0:34:23"They don't try to understand the song of a bird."
0:34:23 > 0:34:25Well, that sounds all right but actually,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28it won't do because Picasso isn't a bird.
0:34:28 > 0:34:29He's a human being.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34What is extraordinary about it and it really struck me as forcibly
0:34:34 > 0:34:40was that his mode of address to the audience is
0:34:40 > 0:34:46so refreshingly humane and direct.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50When we go round the exhibition, we can't help asking questions.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56Now, I ought to confess that I'm not the ideal person to answer them,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00because I very often don't understand Picasso myself.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03He starts from a very extraordinary premise,
0:35:03 > 0:35:05"You may not like all of this".
0:35:05 > 0:35:09But he makes it clear you can get a lot out of paintings that
0:35:09 > 0:35:13were neither pretty, and sometimes were neither pretty nor good,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17actually, and that is a very sophisticated lesson.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20In his attack on the human body,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23he isn't content merely to make graphic simplifications
0:35:23 > 0:35:28as a whole, he takes the individual bits
0:35:28 > 0:35:32and simplifies them and models them and put them together in new ways.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36They are monstrous, but they are very impressive in the way
0:35:36 > 0:35:38the shapes are related to one another.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Although filmed against the clock, it was a tour de force on Clark's
0:35:45 > 0:35:49part, who had finally mastered the art of television presenting.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53We had from 6 o'clock in the morning till 1 o'clock lunchtime.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55And that was how the programme was done.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57We couldn't rehearse it, or anything like that,
0:35:57 > 0:35:59but K was marvellous, he really was.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Of course in a way, it's an abstract picture
0:36:03 > 0:36:07and it is on the way to Cubism. And so are we.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11By the time he's doing the Picasso at the Tate he's learnt the trade.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14There's this perfect choreography
0:36:14 > 0:36:16between his body, the words, and the art.
0:36:16 > 0:36:23This is very important - he can do 30 minutes of live TV without any
0:36:23 > 0:36:27break and that's extraordinary. And no hesitation and no repetitions.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31A lot of that was because he loved working with Michael Reddington.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33We got on very well indeed.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36I was an actor when I was very young
0:36:36 > 0:36:42and I used to draw on the acting experience to help him
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and to encourage him really.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49You feel he wants to tear everything apart,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52twist it and jam it on upside down.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55He talked marvellously and so clearly, that Peter Black,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59who was the TV critic of the Daily Mail, phoned me up one day and said,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Michael, "I've never heard such language on television,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03"it's absolutely wonderful."
0:37:03 > 0:37:07He went to compare those programmes to Churchill's speeches in the war.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10K laughed at that but nevertheless, it was a wonderful comment to make.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24In 1966, Clark took one step closer to returning to the BBC
0:37:24 > 0:37:27to make his greatest television enterprise that would finally
0:37:27 > 0:37:30turn him into a household name.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33But before that, he had an appointment with the Queen.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Broadcast on Christmas Day, The Royal Palaces Of Britain,
0:37:41 > 0:37:46was one of the first co-productions between the BBC and ITV and
0:37:46 > 0:37:50the first time the Royal family had let the cameras in, thanks to Clark.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Right the way through his life
0:37:52 > 0:37:56he has had a close relationship with the British Royal family.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00He was a surveyor of the King's pictures in the 1930s.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04And he's got on very well with the whole family, right the way through.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10He is able to secure access to these buildings
0:38:10 > 0:38:15and these places, with the understanding he will show
0:38:15 > 0:38:22a cut of this film to the Queen and Prince Philip before it is completed.
0:38:22 > 0:38:28And here we are in the state dining room, one of a series of vast rooms
0:38:28 > 0:38:32in which the official entertaining at Buckingham Palace takes place.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34Let's walk through them.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Shot in sumptuous 35mm colour film,
0:38:39 > 0:38:43the programme was hailed as a technical triumph.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47But it cast a shadow over Clark's previously unblemished friendship
0:38:47 > 0:38:48with the royal family.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51I think he realised that to make a programme on royal palaces
0:38:51 > 0:38:56the problem was not to perjure yourself and sit there saying
0:38:56 > 0:39:01unctuous things about royalty for an hour and he was far too much his
0:39:01 > 0:39:08own man and an accurate historian not to see that much of the history was
0:39:08 > 0:39:13less than interesting or less than perfect. So he made the programme
0:39:13 > 0:39:17and there was a rather impish quality about part of some of his remarks.
0:39:17 > 0:39:23It's sad that lovers of art don't make more acceptable kings,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25well kings of England anyway.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28But after all, it was less as a connoisseur of painting,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30than as a patron of the decorative arts,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35that George IV left his stamp on the royal palaces.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39He wasn't in the least put off the purchase of French furniture.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43The very beginning of what one might call the Ritz Hotel style.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Clearly the royal family don't like it, it's not clear in detail
0:39:48 > 0:39:53what they react to, but they feel Clark hasn't got the tone right,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56perhaps he hasn't been sufficiently respectful.
0:39:56 > 0:40:02It looks pretty respectful to us today, but he has a sly wit
0:40:02 > 0:40:08about some of the earlier royals and clearly, it doesn't go down well.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14Nonetheless, what this film does is introduce him
0:40:14 > 0:40:21to a number of the key technical team and the technology of 35mm filming,
0:40:21 > 0:40:27in colour which will be so crucial in the making of Civilisation.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31The Royal Palaces Of Britain would be Clark's last venture with ATV.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35And when his contract with Lew Grade expired a few days after the
0:40:35 > 0:40:39programme was broadcast, the BBC was poised to reel their man back in.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41FANFARE
0:40:43 > 0:40:47In 1966, David Attenborough, then controller of BBC Two,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51had been charged with introducing colour television to his new channel
0:40:51 > 0:40:54and was looking for an ambitious series to launch it.
0:40:56 > 0:40:57My idea was a history,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01where you saw all the great things man had created,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03whether that was pictures or architecture, or whatever,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07and accompanying with the right contemporary music,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09and put that for 13 hours.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11The question is, who would do it?
0:41:11 > 0:41:14When I asked myself that question it was a no-brainer,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17K Clark was head and shoulders above anybody else.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Attenborough invited Clark for a lavish lunch at Television Centre
0:41:24 > 0:41:25and pitched him his idea.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28I sketched the idea as to what I had,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and he said, though I don't recall it myself,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33he said, I used the word "Civilisation".
0:41:33 > 0:41:37And then, according to his account, he went off into a reverie and
0:41:37 > 0:41:42was already scribbling titles on the paper napkins as to how it could go.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47But though Clark was clearly taken with Attenborough's proposal,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52he had some stringent conditions he wanted the BBC to sign up to
0:41:52 > 0:41:53before he signed any contract.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57This is one of his notebooks.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03He says, "Warn BBC. Not Marxist.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08"Not a history of economics, nor of political ideas.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13"Of ethics, only in a rather specialised sense.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16"Religion will play a bigger part than economics."
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Well, well. Pretty accurate. I mean...
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Did he expect it to be Marxist, I wonder?
0:42:28 > 0:42:30He's basically trying to warn them
0:42:30 > 0:42:33because up to that point, the BBC arts
0:42:33 > 0:42:35has been very much what he called very much
0:42:35 > 0:42:42a New Statesman view and he's very worried that he can't provide this.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Things like Monitor, are very, very avant-garde and he's basically
0:42:46 > 0:42:50trying to warn them he's not going to do something very avant-garde.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54But for Clark, by then 64-years-old, the prospect of presenting
0:42:54 > 0:42:57a 13 part series on everything he had immersed himself in
0:42:57 > 0:43:01over the previous 50 years proved too tempting to pass up.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04And on the 22 of May 1967,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Clark and his film crew embarked on their epic, whirlwind tour.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Over the course of two years, they travelled 80,000 miles,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17visited 11 countries,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and filmed in 117 locations.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25200,000 ft of colour 35mm film was shot -
0:43:25 > 0:43:28enough to make six feature films.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32With a budget of £130,000, the equivalent of £2 million today,
0:43:32 > 0:43:37it was the most expensive series the BBC had ever made.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44It jolly well nearly bust my bank as it were, as a network controller,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46but what a fantastic opportunity,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50and how culpable it would have been if I had not taken advantage of it.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Clark opened his series with a simple
0:44:00 > 0:44:02but daringly provocative question.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05What is civilisation?
0:44:05 > 0:44:10I don't know. I can't define it in abstract terms. Yet.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12But I think I can recognise it when I see it,
0:44:12 > 0:44:14and I am looking at it now.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20It's, you know, a very famous sequence,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23but it's a beautifully judged sequence.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26He's opening himself up, suggesting a certain
0:44:26 > 0:44:30kind of lack of knowledge, suggesting that in a way that he is on the side
0:44:30 > 0:44:34of the viewer. This is not a man who is going to lecture us for 13 weeks.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39This is a man who is going to explore ideas with us.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43The historian can't help observing how the need for confession
0:44:43 > 0:44:49has returned, even, or especially, in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53But the modern confessor must grope his way in the labyrinth of the
0:44:53 > 0:44:58psyche with all its false turnings and dissolving perspectives.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04A noble aim but a terrifying responsibility.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07No wonder that psychoanalysts have the highest suicide rate
0:45:07 > 0:45:09of any vocation.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13You could give those scripts or indeed those postures or those
0:45:13 > 0:45:17directions to somebody else and it would be terrible.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21It was the fact that K meant every word that he said.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Every word he had thought about very carefully.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30And that had a kind of...
0:45:31 > 0:45:36What is the word I want, pungency. It had, it bit. It had bite to it.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39You knew this man was not putting on an act.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43The colossal palaces of the Pope's relatives were simply
0:45:43 > 0:45:46expressions of private greed and vanity.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51The sense of grandeur is no doubt a human instinct,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54but carried too far it becomes inhuman.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59I wonder if a single thought that has helped forward the human spirit
0:45:59 > 0:46:03has ever been conceived or written down in an enormous room.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13That capacity to come up with a sentence like that.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16It's like spoken speech is drama.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18I wonder if ever a thought was had in a large room,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21it challenges you, it's provocative.
0:46:21 > 0:46:22CHORAL SINGING
0:46:23 > 0:46:25And then, by the time you are still
0:46:25 > 0:46:28working out your reaction to it,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30he is onto another one.
0:46:30 > 0:46:36Civilisation is a fantastic procession of these wonderful
0:46:36 > 0:46:38sentences wonderfully expressed in amazing places.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45The programmes were genuinely a passport
0:46:45 > 0:46:48to curiosity about the arts.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52I had never been abroad.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54My parents had never been abroad,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57so we had no understanding of the foreign.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01I had never heard of the Baroque.
0:47:01 > 0:47:07But suddenly art and culture was pulled.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10It was bigger, it was more interesting.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13It was grand, it was important, and it was mine.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19The evident pleasure Clark took in talking about the buildings
0:47:19 > 0:47:24and art works he knew and loved best, albeit with a wry affection,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26was matched by the happier times he was able to enjoy
0:47:26 > 0:47:30with his wife Jane, who would occasionally join him on location.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35I think it was an Indian summer, it was magical for both of them.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39It was almost like a second honeymoon in a way.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Somehow when they were away on tour as it were,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49I think some of her demons were left behind.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52I dare say there were scenes and things, there never weren't,
0:47:52 > 0:47:57but she certainly enjoyed it and made him happier.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04But for Clark, filming was also a bittersweet experience,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07because everywhere he looked there was a reminder
0:48:07 > 0:48:10that the civilisation he cherished was under threat.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Looking at those great works of Western man,
0:48:14 > 0:48:17and remembering all that he has achieved in philosophy,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21poetry, science, lawmaking, it does seem hard to believe
0:48:21 > 0:48:24that European civilisation can ever vanish.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26And yet, you know, it has happened once,
0:48:26 > 0:48:31when the Barbarians ran over the Roman Empire.
0:48:31 > 0:48:32For two centuries,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36the heart of European civilisation almost stopped beating.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39We got through by the skin of our teeth.
0:48:40 > 0:48:41In the last few years,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45we developed an uneasy feeling that this could happen again.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And advanced thinkers have begun to question
0:48:48 > 0:48:50if civilisation is worth preserving.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54While filming in Paris, Clark
0:48:54 > 0:48:58and his crew were caught up in the violent student riots of May '68.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02And it was clear Clark felt these young radical left-wing protestors
0:49:02 > 0:49:04were the new Barbarians.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08You have to remember the world was in a lot of disarray at that time.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12It was the time of Vietnam, you had race riots in America,
0:49:12 > 0:49:18you had les evenements in Paris. The world wasn't exactly disintegrating,
0:49:18 > 0:49:22but it was a place of definite disarray and turmoil.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26Turmoil is the word, so K was anxious and worried,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31and he thought this almost love of barbarism was a phase.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34He thought people ought to understand what civilisation is
0:49:34 > 0:49:37before they throw it out with the bath water.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Where once he'd prided himself on being a man of the people, Clark now
0:49:42 > 0:49:47seemed hopelessly out of touch and out of step with the changing times.
0:49:48 > 0:49:54At this point I reveal myself in my true colours as a stick in the mud.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57I hold a number of beliefs that have been
0:49:57 > 0:50:00repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06I believe that order is better than chaos.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08Creation better than destruction.
0:50:08 > 0:50:13Above all, I believe in the God-given genius
0:50:13 > 0:50:15of certain individuals.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20And I value a society that makes their existence possible.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26In the last sequence of Civilisation,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28Clark very astutely summarises everything.
0:50:28 > 0:50:35He gives his last credo, which ends on this somewhat pessimistic note.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37I said at the beginning of the series that it's a lack
0:50:37 > 0:50:41of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48just as effectively as by bombs.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55But the trouble is, there is still no centre.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00The moral and intellectual failure of Marxism has left us
0:51:00 > 0:51:05with no alternative to heroic materialism. And that isn't enough.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09One may be optimistic,
0:51:09 > 0:51:14but one can't exactly be joyful at the prospect before us.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22And then you see him walking through his grand library
0:51:22 > 0:51:25and this sort of embodiment of a tradition of knowledge
0:51:25 > 0:51:28and erudition, I suppose.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30And then the last thing that he does is put his hand
0:51:30 > 0:51:33on this beautiful wooden Henry Moore that he owns,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36and he more than puts his hand on it, he sort of caresses it,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39and there is a flick of a smile on his face which seems to
0:51:39 > 0:51:44reflect a sense of reassurance, that however pessimistic
0:51:44 > 0:51:48we might feel about the future, there is still in this carving
0:51:48 > 0:51:52by Henry Moore, the embodiment of culture and civilisation.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58When the first episode of Civilisation was transmitted
0:51:58 > 0:52:02in 1969, it was an immediate critical success
0:52:02 > 0:52:06and quickly became required family viewing.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Word went around, you know. There were very good things in the press
0:52:11 > 0:52:13said about it and there were people
0:52:13 > 0:52:15holding parties, buying television sets, and saying,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17"Come and watch Civilisation this week."
0:52:20 > 0:52:23He got thousands of letters after it
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and they were absolutely incredibly touching, I must say.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31Incredibly moving, from every sort of person all over the world.
0:52:31 > 0:52:32They were wonderful.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Civilisation had clearly resonated with its audience,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39and nowhere more so than in America.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44America was going through a terrible trauma at the time.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48It was the time of Vietnam and it was the first time America
0:52:48 > 0:52:51had had to confront failure and not
0:52:51 > 0:52:54just battle ground failure but moral failure.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00And people who watched the programmes
0:53:00 > 0:53:02had found they meant a huge amount to them
0:53:02 > 0:53:03and given them, I suppose, hope.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07When special screenings of the series were held
0:53:07 > 0:53:10at the National Gallery in Washington,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Clark was invited to receive an honorary medal.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15He was mobbed like a pop star,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19like the Beatles or something. It took everybody by surprise.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23These vast queues of tens of thousands of people.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25Nobody had anticipated this.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31As he walked, people were reaching out to touch him.
0:53:31 > 0:53:38He said "I felt as if I was a bogus doctor in the time of plague,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42"that somehow I had a magic touch, which of course I didn't.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47"I was so devastated by this when I got to the end, instead of
0:53:47 > 0:53:52"going to lunch, I went and locked myself in the lavatory and wept."
0:53:52 > 0:53:53It really shook him,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57because he realised he didn't have the answers they were looking for,
0:53:57 > 0:54:04but I think in a way he did because a kind of universality of art,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07which he felt very, very strongly,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10IS a kind of way through for trouble.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16But though Clark was feted by many as a visionary,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19he was not everyone's taste.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23By the early '70s, people were beginning to question
0:54:23 > 0:54:27the establishment's views on everything, including art.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32This is the time when the Marxist dialectic and when determinism
0:54:32 > 0:54:36and a sociological view of art history is very, very fashionable.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38And K was very aware of that.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41He said it several times, "They are going to hate it, they hate me
0:54:41 > 0:54:43"and they hate the idea of me."
0:54:45 > 0:54:47A lot of what he presents in Civilisation
0:54:47 > 0:54:50and what he stands for, are established values,
0:54:50 > 0:54:57and so they would naturally be subject of critique from the left.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00And I think he probably knew that was coming.
0:55:00 > 0:55:06In 1972, John Berger's BBC series Ways Of Seeing loomed into view,
0:55:06 > 0:55:11challenging all the values held by Clark in Civilisation.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16This is the first four programmes in which I want to question some
0:55:16 > 0:55:21of the assumptions usually made about the tradition of European painting.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Ways Of Seeing question the assumptions in which you
0:55:25 > 0:55:28looked at your own civilisation,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32and didn't take into consideration all sorts of value systems,
0:55:32 > 0:55:36and circumstantial historical things, economic things,
0:55:36 > 0:55:37sexually political things.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42It said, hang on, let's question our tradition
0:55:42 > 0:55:47and look at it against other arguments and see where it takes us.
0:55:48 > 0:55:53A woman in the culture of privileged Europeans is first and foremost
0:55:53 > 0:55:54a sight to be looked at.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00What kind of sight is revealed in the average European oil painting.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05John Berger's wonderful Ways Of Seeing, which is
0:56:05 > 0:56:09very different in manner and a very different in proposition,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12and is extraordinarily radical about feminism, very early on,
0:56:12 > 0:56:19it picks up all sorts of issues, was actually a response to Civilisation.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23You can see it as a criticism, and there was huge criticism,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27because I suppose by the time of Civilisation, Clark is
0:56:27 > 0:56:34at the end of his great intellectual arc and something new is coming up.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37And that is how intellectual life grows.
0:56:37 > 0:56:42It's television as so important,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46that it produces the next stage of the argument.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53Those two series become absolutely emblematic
0:56:53 > 0:56:59of two ways of looking at the world, and Ways Of Seeing gets taken up
0:56:59 > 0:57:05and embraced by people involved in culture in the broadest sense.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09But I think it is only after quite a long period of time, that we can
0:57:09 > 0:57:16begin to recognise that Civilisation has enormous value in and of itself.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19It's profoundly intelligent.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24It's profoundly humanist in the way in which it talks about
0:57:24 > 0:57:26and presents the arts.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36K had this ability to communicate beautifully about what
0:57:36 > 0:57:40he loved and I think that is what's important and what is
0:57:40 > 0:57:46left are these beautiful insights into the artists that he worshipped.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Whether it's on the printed page, or whether it's on television,
0:57:50 > 0:57:55it's that communication which is his legacy, really.
0:57:59 > 0:58:05What I really respect him for is that for better or worse, he pursued
0:58:05 > 0:58:10his absolute passion, which was the belief in the importance of art and
0:58:10 > 0:58:15the right of everybody to have access to art and have that in their lives.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18And I hope this exhibition will remind people
0:58:18 > 0:58:22about Kenneth Clarke, the extent of all the things he did and in
0:58:22 > 0:58:26so many ways, I suppose, he's shaped our culture, our attitude to art.