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Airdate: The Romantics and Us

Harriet Walter & Christopher Eccleston offer a little arts history for your edification....

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A little arts history for your edification tonight, is The Romantics and Us on ABC TV Plus.

With contributions from Harriet Walter, Christopher Eccleston, the hip-hop artist Testament and the French street artist PBoy, in this first episode in the series, Simon Schama explores the elixir of rebellion and the idea – so powerful in the words and images of William Blake – that imaginative passion can conquer mechanical logic, and can create an art for the people.

Simon starts by looking at the great icon of popular revolt created by Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. Painted after the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris, which finally brought an end to the Bourbon Monarchy in France, Simon unpacks the legacy of this universal image of popular revolt across the ages.

In particular, he sees how it had its greatest impact in the Youth Uprisings of 1968, which Simon witnessed as a young Professor in Paris. This was a revolution in culture, politics and morals that put that deeply Romantic idea – the power of the imagination – at the centre of a renewed ‘Romantic’ battle to change the world. This idea – the faith in the power of art and the human imagination – began with one of the forefathers of Romanticism, the visionary poet and artist William Blake; so Simon then follows his trail in his native city of London.

Production credits: BBC Studios.

9pm tonight on ABC TV Plus.

2 Responses

  1. The point of starting shows at 9pm is to try and catch people looking for something to watch after MAFS finishes. I can’t see this being it. They don’t think there will be much of an overlap with Fisk’s audience either. Fortunately there is a repeat at 11:30am Sunday.

    1. Dr Who Xmas special on before it-if it was a standard length Who ep, it would have started 8.45 ish-pity ABC aren’t repeating ‘Desperate Romantics’ though.

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