The Ascent of Man (1973) was a groundbreaking BBC documentary series, produced in association with Time-Life Films, produced by Adrian Malone, and written and presented by Jacob Bronowski.

Overview

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 Carl Sagan's Cosmos. 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. It was written specifically to complement Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969), in which Clark argued that art was a major driving force in cultural evolution. Bronowski wrote in his 1951 book "The Commonsense of Science" : "It has been one of the most destructive modern prejudices that art and science are different and somehow incompatible interests". Both series had been commissioned by David Attenborough, then controller of BBC2, although he had moved on by the time The Ascent of Man was 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. A few details of the film version were omitted from the book: notably, Part 11, "Knowledge or Certainty," begins by showing the face of Stefan Borgrajewicz as an elderly man who had known suffering; at the end, after Bronowski shows us the ruins of Hiroshima and the ash-strewn pond of Auschwitz, we see a photograph of a younger man, with the name "BOR-GRAJEWICZ, Stefan" and the number 125558, which may be his official record in the archives of Auschwitz.

Just over a year after the series appeared, Bronowski died of a heart attack aged 66.

Series outline

1. "Lower than the Angels" (describes evolution of the head)
2. "The Harvest of the Seasons" (agriculture and the first settlements)
3. "The Grain in the Stone" (tools, early human migration)
4. "The Hidden Structure" (fire, metals and alchemy)
5. "Music of the Spheres" (the language of numbers)
6. "The Starry Messenger" (Galileo's universe)
7. "The Majestic Clockwork" (explores Kepler and Newton's laws)
8. "The Drive for Power" (the Industrial Revolution)
9. "The Ladder of Creation" (Darwin and Wallace's ideas on the origin of species)
   • Darwin Down House
   • Wallace collecting in South America
   • Evolution and biochemistry
   • Origin of life on earth
   • Miller experiment
10. "World within World" (the story of the periodic table)
    • Crystals
    • Mendeleev
    • Creation Bishop Usher
    • Evolution of the elements
    • Atomic Physics
    • Planck, Boltzmann
11. "Knowledge or Certainty" (There is no absolute knowledge)
12. "Generation upon Generation" (cloning of identical forms)
13. "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 and Canada

The series is available from several suppliers - including Ambrose Video Publishing (video or DVD) and Documentary-Video (video or DVD).

United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand

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 Sir David Attenborough, who commissioned the series. This DVD set has also been released in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Television
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Episode summaries from BBC Factual
• A book review

de:Der Aufstieg des Menschen