The Ascent of Man

The Ascent of Man (1973) was a groundbreaking BBC documentary series, produced in association with Time-Life Films, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. The 13-part series was shot on 16mm film. Executive Producer was Adrian Malone, film directors Dick Gilling, Mick Jackson, David Kennard, David Paterson (Malone and Kennard later emigrated to Hollywood, where they produced A Personal Voyage with the help of a few home-grown Americans. Jackson followed them, and now directs feature films).

The title alludes to The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. Over the course of thirteen episodes, Bronowski travelled around the world in order to trace the development of human society through its understanding of science rather than art. Although it was not written specifically as a refutation of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969), in which Clark argued that art was a major driving force in cultural evolution, the two series can be seen as a dialogue between two fundamentally opposed philosophies. Both series had been commissioned by David Attenborough, then controller of BBC 2, although he had moved on by the time The Ascent of Man aired.

The book of the series, The Ascent of Man: A Personal View by J. Bronowski, is an almost word-for-word transcript from the original television episodes, diverging from Bronowski's original narration only where the lack of images might make its meaning unclear.

Just over a year after the series appeared, Bronowski died. Some claimed that the stress of working on the series had proved too much for him.

Series outline

"Lower than the Angels - (describes evolution of the head)"
"The Harvest of the Seasons - (the pace of cultural evolution)"
"The Grain in the Stone - (blood group evidence of migration)"
"The Hidden Structure - (fire)"
"Music of the Spheres - (the language of numbers)"
"The Starry Messenger - (the cycle of seasons)"
"The Majestic Clockwork - (explores Kepler's laws)"
"The Drive for Power - (the power of Everyday technology)"
"The Ladder of Creation - (are other formulas of life possible?)"
"World within World - (the story of the periodic table)"
"Knowledge or Certainty - (There is no absolute knowledge)"
"Generation upon Generation - (cloning of identical forms)"
"The Long Childhood - (The commitment of man) "

Reruns in the UK

In the late 1990s Douglas Adams recorded new introductions and afterwords for a rerun of the series on the British satellite channel UK Horizons. This was billed as the first complete rerun of the series in more than a decade. However, each episode was cut by up to five minutes to make room for the new material and for commercial breaks.

In about 2000 it was reported that the BBC had been approached by Channel 5 which wanted to screen the series in prime time, but the BBC refused to lease the rights.

Shortly afterward BBC Two began a rerun as part of its Learning Zone block, in late night and early morning time slots, and cut by five minutes per episode. The reason for the cuts in this case is unclear, since BBC Two has no commercials.

In fact the complete series has not been broadcast uncut in Britain since 1986, although the BBC Knowledge channel (the forerunner of BBC Four) screened some selected complete episodes.

Video release

United States

The series is available from several suppliers - including Ambrose Video Publishing (video or DVD) and Documentary-Video (video or DVD) - for delivery within the United States only.

United Kingdom

The series was belatedly released on PAL VHS and on Region 2 & 4 PAL DVD in the UK in early 2005, initially on mail order only. It received a general release on April 18 2005. This version does not include the pieces by Douglas Adams; the only extra feature, apart from a comprehensive illustrated booklet on the making of the series, is a short reminiscence by David Attenborough.

External links