Post by Teddy Bear on Jul 1, 2014 16:10:25 GMT
There's a saying that those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it.
The BBC, lacking any originality, go worse by planning to remake a series on history that was done in 1969.
Historian David Starkey describes this proposal as 'sad, bad, and lazy'. But then, if he looks at BBC programming over the last decade+, he will see that's their history.
The BBC, lacking any originality, go worse by planning to remake a series on history that was done in 1969.
Historian David Starkey describes this proposal as 'sad, bad, and lazy'. But then, if he looks at BBC programming over the last decade+, he will see that's their history.
TV historian Dr David Starkey attacks BBC remake of Civilisation as 'bad and lazy'
By Sebastian Shakespeare
BBC Director-General Tony Hall’s plan to remake the late Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series Civilisation, on the history of Western art, has prompted TV historian Dr David Starkey to launch an outspoken attack on the Corporation’s lack of imagination and ideas.
Describing Hall’s project as ‘sad, bad and lazy’, the curmudgeonly Starkey tells me: ‘I will stick my neck out and say this is extraordinarily sad.
'A remake suggests a culture which has run out of its own steam.'
‘I believe that for the BBC to go back and remake Civilisation is a bad and lazy idea,' he added.
‘The fact that Hollywood is remaking old films indicates that it has lost its originality.
‘Civilisation was a wonderful series, but it was a creature of its time.
'You think of Kenneth Clark himself, exquisite, tweedy, elevated — he wasn’t really aristocratic, he was in trade — but never mind that.
‘His carefully filed finger-nail approach to culture was very much of its time.
'To say that we would benefit from the remake of this series is an absurdity.’
Adds Starkey: ‘For the BBC to be taken seriously again, it will have to have exactly the sort of creativity it had in days of Huw Weldon.
‘Civilisation was something new. Remakes are not the golden age of anything, they are the silver and the bronze.
'What the BBC needs to come up with is something new.’
Starkey, who has been widely tipped to front the series, then rules himself out as a prospective presenter.
‘I’m afraid it won’t be me because I am getting on a bit. As a betting man, I would put my odds at 100-1 and, to be honest, I would not like to do it.’
Just last month, Starkey, 69, attacked demands that a woman such as Cambridge professor Mary Beard or classicist Bettany Hughes present the remake, saying the idea that ‘just because someone is a woman they will have something interesting to say is preposterous’.
Starkey believes that unless a presenter with a strong original voice is chosen, the series risks becoming ‘Civilisation by BBC committee’.
Now, it seems, he has lost his faith in the enterprise. His withdrawal leaves the way open for ex-Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman to throw his hat in the ring.
By Sebastian Shakespeare
BBC Director-General Tony Hall’s plan to remake the late Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series Civilisation, on the history of Western art, has prompted TV historian Dr David Starkey to launch an outspoken attack on the Corporation’s lack of imagination and ideas.
Describing Hall’s project as ‘sad, bad and lazy’, the curmudgeonly Starkey tells me: ‘I will stick my neck out and say this is extraordinarily sad.
'A remake suggests a culture which has run out of its own steam.'
‘I believe that for the BBC to go back and remake Civilisation is a bad and lazy idea,' he added.
‘The fact that Hollywood is remaking old films indicates that it has lost its originality.
‘Civilisation was a wonderful series, but it was a creature of its time.
'You think of Kenneth Clark himself, exquisite, tweedy, elevated — he wasn’t really aristocratic, he was in trade — but never mind that.
‘His carefully filed finger-nail approach to culture was very much of its time.
'To say that we would benefit from the remake of this series is an absurdity.’
Adds Starkey: ‘For the BBC to be taken seriously again, it will have to have exactly the sort of creativity it had in days of Huw Weldon.
‘Civilisation was something new. Remakes are not the golden age of anything, they are the silver and the bronze.
'What the BBC needs to come up with is something new.’
Starkey, who has been widely tipped to front the series, then rules himself out as a prospective presenter.
‘I’m afraid it won’t be me because I am getting on a bit. As a betting man, I would put my odds at 100-1 and, to be honest, I would not like to do it.’
Just last month, Starkey, 69, attacked demands that a woman such as Cambridge professor Mary Beard or classicist Bettany Hughes present the remake, saying the idea that ‘just because someone is a woman they will have something interesting to say is preposterous’.
Starkey believes that unless a presenter with a strong original voice is chosen, the series risks becoming ‘Civilisation by BBC committee’.
Now, it seems, he has lost his faith in the enterprise. His withdrawal leaves the way open for ex-Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman to throw his hat in the ring.