About this season
The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural world.
Episodes (3)
1. A Short History of Tall Buildings - Episode 1
Aired 11 May 2005 • 50 min
It begins with the extraordinary story of the technology that made it all possible: steel cage construction and the lift. Elisha Otis’s demonstration of his safety lift was the star turn at the New York Worlds Fair in 1854, run by the great American showman, PT Barnum. This streak of showmanship and element of popular entertainment runs through the New York skyscraper’s golden age.
2. A Short History of Tall Buildings - Episode 2
Aired 18 May 2005 • 50 min
The skyscraper goes global, as Alan Yentob continues to chart the history of tall buildings, examining the cultural legacy of the tower and the rise of a new super class of sky-high buildings.
3. A Short History of Tall Buildings - Episode 3
Aired 25 May 2005 • 50 min
There are now more tall buildings in the Far East than in North America – the traditional home of the skyscraper – while China, the world’s largest country and fastest-growing economy, is building cities at a rate unprecedented in the history of mankind.