The World Before Us
The 1970s saw the start of the co-production block buster. The formula works like this - a TV production company with lots of good ideas but no money looks for a marriage of convenience with a production company with lots of money but not much else. Partner "A" gets the money to make a major production really well. Partner "B" gets to be associated with a high quality production, and bags of kudos. Oh, and both partners make pots of cash by selling the finished co-production to other broadcasters around the world who have neither (a) money or (b) ideas.
Of course, there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip, and frequently partner "A"'s ideas turned out to be mad, bad or dangerous to know (or a mixture of all three) while partner "B"'s money turned out to be not enough, not available or unfortunately connected with organised crime.
But, the co-productions that worked were honeys. The ideas partner (frequently the BBC or PBS) was able to produce a series that enriched and enlightened the lives of all who watched. As critic Clive James says in his book The Crystal Bucket, it was obvious from the first episode of Life On Earth, featuring the indefatigable David Attenborough (now Sir David Attenborough), that thousands of new biologists would all be conceived at once, like a population bulge. The BBC series drew on expertise from wildlife documentary makers from New Zealand to New Jersey. It spawned a number of spinoffs in later decades which were equally successful.
In the same blockbusting vein as Life on Earth came Alistair Cooke's America, featuring the doyen of broadcasting in a series about his adopted country. (Interestingly, the series did better abroad than it did in the UK. It's true, a prophet IS without honour in his own land). The Ascent of Man featuring Dr. Jacob Bronowski drained the man to the brink of breakdown - but was a magnificent achievement.
To give some idea of the expense of producing such a series, here's a breakdown of the 13-part series Civilisation, which starred the art historian and critic Kenneth Clark in a history of Western Civilisation. The series cost £200,000 to make (in the 1970s you could make a couple of respectable movies for that amount of money). It took two years to film, with the crew travelling the equivalent of three-and-a-half times round the world. The series was filmed in 117 locations in 11 countries, and shot enough film to make six full-length movies. Now you know why partner "B" is so important.
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