It was the kind of series that would not have felt out of place in the 1950s

Kenneth Clark's Civilization. This was to be expensively produced, erudite in an unashamedly patrician manner, and blithely uninterested in anything other than the highest cultural artefacts of western art. Technical polish and colour film aside, it was the kind of series that would not have felt out of place in the 1950s.

D. Hendy, Life on Air: a history of Radio Four (2007), 20