You name it, its history has been on British TV, with this one, glaring exception. The long list of antecedents includes histories of Western civilisation by Kenneth Clarke, of science by Joseph Bronowski, of Australia by Robert Hughes, of the Spanish Civil War, Vietnam, America, Africa. Ever since John Terraines remarkable television history of World War One in the Sixties, the history series has been one of British televisions most estimable hallmarks. Its curious that in a television industry obsessed with the history of everything, the most obvious project of all has been hitherto absent. It will be a received wisdom which will collate histories that came before it and no doubt set a tone for those to follow. It will the first-ever series to be shown simultaneously on BBC1 and BBC2 and it will be watched in millions of sitting-rooms. Made by the BBC, the series will become, with time, the popular history of Britain. It will be the first-ever television history of the British Isles. B efore this pre-millennium year is out, an important document will be ready to enter the archive of Britains history of itself.
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