SOURCE: Luckett, Richard. “Richard Luckett on the Fate of Television Culture.” Spectator 231 (22 December 1973): 819-20.

In the following review, Luckett offers a detailed account of Clark's The Romantic Rebellion and proclaims it to be more entertaining than informative.

According to Lord Clark: “Television is the ideal medium with which to arouse people's interest in art.” The statement is disturbing, even from a former chairman of the Independent Television Authority. Television is no doubt an excellent medium for arousing interest in art, to the extent that it is also an excellent medium for selling baked beans or politicians: it reaches the largest possible audience. Of the supine millions whose powers of action, reflection and communication are nightly sapped by their subjugation to the small screen, it is probable that a few, stirred by intimations of a world beyond the box, may actually be made aware of the existence of works...