''Spirit of the Age'' is a 1975 documentary series of "Eight films on eight centuries of British Architecture". It was broadcast on

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

between 31 October 1975 and 19 December 1975 as the BBC's contribution to the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

's European Architectural Heritage Year. Each episode examined a different era of British architecture was presented by an expert in his field. It was series produced by the arts specialist John Drummond. Its title music was a specially-composed fanfare by the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Arthur Bliss. A book of the same name was published to accompany the television series by BBC Books in 1975, later reprinted in 1992. The series was repeated in May 1976, when a studio discussion "In Search of the Spirit of the Age" featuring Alec Clifton-Taylor and John Julius Norwich was broadcast to introduce the series. The first episode, presented by

Alec Clifton-Taylor Alec Clifton-Taylor (2 August 1907 – 1 April 1985) was an English architectural historian, writer and TV broadcaster. Biography and works Born Alec Clifton Taylor (no hyphen), the son of Stanley Edgar Taylor, corn-merchant, and Ethel Elizab ...

, was his first television presenting experience, but led to '' Six English Towns'' which ran for three series from 1978.

List of episodes

References

{{Use British English, date=August 2020 1975 British television series debuts BBC television documentaries