Civilisation (TV series)

Civilisation
Title card from Episode 1, "The Skin of Our Teeth"
Also known as	Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark
Genre	Documentary
Developed by	David Attenborough
Presented by	Sir Kenneth Clark
Composer	Edwin Astley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producers	Michael Gill Peter Montagnon
Running time	650 minutes
Original release
Release	23 February (1969-02-23) – 18 May 1969 (1969-05-18)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Civilisation—in full, Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark—is a 1969 British television documentary series written and presented by the art historian Kenneth Clark.

The thirteen programmes in the series outline the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. The series was produced by the BBC and aired from February to May 1969 on BBC2. Then, and in later transmissions in Britain, the US and other countries it reached an unprecedented number of viewers for an art series. Clark's book of the same title, based on the series, was published in 1969. Its production standards were generally praised and set the pattern for subsequent television documentary series. The New Yorker magazine described it as revelatory for the general viewer.

The BBC's DVD issue in 2005 has remained in the catalogues, and Clark's accompanying 1969 book has never been out of print.