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
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 viewWays of Seeing
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 timeFake or Fortune?
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 followCivilisations
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 oneThe Private Life of a Masterpiece
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