Simon Schama's Story of Us

Historian Simon Schama has become one of BBC's go-to people for presenting personal, presitge documentaries: this one focuses on late 20th century British culture. It's inevitably incomplete (and thus overemphasises the importance of those it does include, including those luminaries available for interview) but it's also rather conventional, showing culture as a liberal blend of high-minded taste and the faintest whiff of populist rebellion. The co-option of dissidents as just a different form of national tresure is prevalent throughout. The result is not awful but it is a little dull: Schama concludes by telling us how great art makes us think about ourselves, but his own programme is rather less challenging.