Sir Kenneth Clark’s landmark television series Civilisation turned 40 in 2009. It’s one of the most influential programmes in television history — not just arts television, but TV period. I marked that anniversary with this post looking back at the show and how both it and the book it spawned have aged. (Short version: Really well, mostly. However, its faults are mighty revealing…)

On Monday, The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones reported that the BBC has re-mastered it for HD viewing and will either re-air it or re-release it as an HD DVD. (It’s not clear from his post… but as best I can tell the re-mastered DVD isn’t available yet.) Don’t miss Jones’ take on how the series looks today.