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Media / On the Box
On the Box

Art history,
with the sofa on.

Television series about art — episodic, often BBC, and built for a Sunday evening rather than a cinema trip.

Civilisation

Kenneth Clark · BBC, 1969

The one that invented the genre. Thirteen episodes of Clark walking through Western art and architecture, opinionated and unhurried, in a way nobody would be allowed to make now.

Good for: the whole story, from one point of view

Ways of Seeing

John Berger · BBC, 1972

Four half-hour episodes that took Civilisation's confidence apart on purpose — Berger's central claim being that how we're taught to look at paintings is never neutral. The book came after.

Good for: an answer to Clark, thirty minutes at a time

Fake or Fortune?

Fiona Bruce & Philip Mould · BBC, 2011–present

Still running, still the most-watched arts show on British television. Each episode chases down whether a painting found in an attic is a masterpiece or a very good guess.

Good for: forensics you can actually follow

Civilisations

Simon Schama, Mary Beard & David Olusoga · BBC, 2018

The deliberately pluralised reboot — three presenters, a genuinely global lens, and none of the single-viewpoint confidence of the 1969 original. A useful pair to watch back to back.

Good for: a second, wider opinion on the first one

The Private Life of a Masterpiece

BBC, 2003–2010

One painting per episode — its making, its owners, its scandals and its near-destructions. A slower, single-object cousin of Fake or Fortune's mystery format.

Good for: one obsession per evening
Know a better one? Tell us about it.
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