Season 1
(1969)
Cast
as Himself - Host
Episodes
The Skin of Our Teeth 9.0
February 23, 1969
In this the first episode Clark travels from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings t…
The Great Thaw 9.0
March 2, 1969
In the second episode Clark tells of the sudden reawakening of European civilisation in the twelfth century . He traces…
Romance and Reality 8.0
March 9, 1969
Beginning at a castle in the Loire, then travelling through the hills of Tuscany and Umbria to the cathedral baptistry …
Man: The Measure of all Things 8.5
March 16, 1969
Visiting Florence, where, Clark argues, European thought gained a new impetus from its rediscovery of its classical pas…
The Hero as Artist 8.3
March 23, 1969
Here Clark takes us back to 16th century Papal Rome noting the convergence of Christianity and antiquity. He discusses …
Protest and Communication 8.0
March 30, 1969
Here Clark takes us back to the Reformation. That is to the Germany of Albrecht Duerer and Martin Luther, the world of …
Grandeur and Obedience 8.0
April 6, 1969
Again in Rome of Michelangelo and Bernini, Clark tells of the Catholic Church's fight against the Protestant north, the…
The Light of Experience 8.0
April 13, 1969
Here Clark tells of new worlds in space and in a drop of water that the telescope and microscope revealed, and the new …
The Pursuit of Happiness 9.0
April 20, 1969
Here Clark talks of the harmonious flow and complex symmetries of the works of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart — and the…
The Smile of Reason 8.0
April 27, 1969
Here Clark discusses the Age of Enlightenment tracing it from the polite conversations in the elegant Parisian salons o…
The Worship of Nature 8.0
May 4, 1969
Belief in the divinity of nature, Clark argues, usurped Christianity's position as the chief creative force in Western …
The Fallacies of Hope 8.5
May 11, 1969
Here Clark argues that the French Revolution led to the dictatorship of Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the ni…
Heroic Materialism 9.0
May 18, 1969
Clark concludes the series with his discussion of materialism and humanitarianism of the past century. This takes us fr…