Once upon a time, architecture on television wasnt just dumbed-down Changing Rooms-style makeovers or will-they-wont-they-succeed, one-off house projects for the one per cent. Architects, buildings and the future of our cities were given significant airtime, often in documentary series that were surprisingly opinionated. Then programme makers began moving towards formats like Grand Designs described by its host Kevin McCloud as more experiential television. But some of those earlier gems can easily be found today. Here we list some of the very best from the archive, all of which still deserve a watch in a spare moment this Christmas. Architecture at the Crossroads (1986)Episode time: 40 mins. Available on: BBC iPlayer and dailymotionIn the mid-1980s, the BBC ran this compelling, groundbreaking 10-part series, which is (partially) still available on iPlayer. There has been nothing really like it since. This is high architecture made accessible for the small screen. AdvertisementNarrated by Andrew Sachs (Manuel from Fawlty Towers), it was a major, well-researched undertaking which offered an unexpectedly critical view of architectural styles, current design fashions and how contemporary buildings met (or didnt) societys needs. The BBCs own blurb says the programme looks at how some young architects are reacting against Modernist sterility with an exuberant return to traditional forms.Provocative episode titles include Doubt and Reassessment and Stop the Bulldozer. In some ways it is a manifesto for the (then in vogue) Postmodernism trend. But many of the messages, including those about reinvention and reuse, are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago. RWI Love This Dirty Town (1969)Episode time: 50 mins. Available on: BBC iPlayer and YouTubeI suppose this is a lament for the death of the city, begins biographer and novelist Margaret Drabble in this hard-hitting 50-minute counterattack on the nations burgeoning, anywhere-place, suburbia.Pictures of sterile, peopleless streets of semi-detached villas are juxtaposed against snapshots of energetic but gritty town centres (mainly swinging 60s London). AdvertisementDrabble and her selected interviewees, including theatre director Joan Littlewood, take remarkably informed swipes at the ham-fisted and paternalistic planners who have driven (she hates cars too) tightly knit urban communities out to empty middle-class ghettos.Though targeted at the utopian dreams of out-of-touch post-war town planners, this humane visual essay remains uncannily prescient.She bangs the drum for high density, mixed-up mixed-use, walkable neighbourhoods and cultural vibrancy many of the things that make up the same backbone of decent urban design today. RWNairn Across Britain: Trans-Pennine Canal (1972)Episode time: 30 mins.Available on: BBC iPlayer and YouTubeIn June 1955, the Architectural Review published Outrage, a now-famous issue edited by architectural critic Ian Nairn. He used the occasion to take a swipe at the UKs unimaginative subtopian sprawl based on a nightmarish road trip that took him from the South to the North. From the late 1960s until 1978 he took his journeys on to television, picking out the places (or parts of places) he especially liked or hated and often offering his thoughts on what could be done to improve them.The series Nairn Across Britain was first aired in 1972 and is packed with his usual wit and venom. In the episode From Leeds into Scotland, he laps up the solid and sane town of Appleby before ripping into addled and characterless Carlisle. Here, during his Trans-Pennine barge adventure, Nairn is clearly exasperated at how post-industrial Northern cities had turned their back on the canal, asking why they hadnt embraced meaningful waterside development. Half a century later his words still seem remarkably far-sighted. RWBuilding Sights: Hauer-King House (1996)Episode time: 10 mins.Available on: BBC iPlayer and YouTubeThe four series of Building Sights ran between 1988 and 1996. They were fun, bite-size architectural love letters, each showcasing a hosts favourite building.The fangirls/fanboys were often top name architects such as Richard Rogers, Eva Jiin and Zaha Hadid but more mainstream stars of their day also gave their own architectural critiques: Damien Hirst noseys around Leeds Brutalist Worsley Medical building; Jools Holland pops out the top of One Canada Square at Canary Wharf; and Janet Street-Porter shows off her bonkers CZWG-designed Clerkenwell home.Some are more successful than others. Norman Fosters off-the-wall ode to a Boeing 747 could be from a different series. Will Alsop, however, has a field day in Future Systems glass-walled Hauer-King House in Islington. He even takes a bath there. Given the Twentieth Century Society is currently trying to list the wedged-shaped greenhouse, theres even more reason to watch the episode. RWWhere We Live now: New town, home town (1979)Episode time: 58 mins.Available on: BBC iPlayerThis documentary written and presented by writer and visionary Colin Ward is ideal viewing for anyone interested in planning and architecture, especially given Starmer and Rayners new towns policy.Ward visits Letchworth, Harlow, Peterlee, Runcorn and the emerging Milton Keynes to ask ordinary residents how successfully these grand visions have turned out. Ward is a fan of new towns, describing them as the one positive achievement of British planning since the war, yet proves himself a balanced critic, able to point out design misses as well as hits.Whats refreshing about the film isnt just the focus on lived experience (what todays architects would call PoE) but the welcome prominence given to the voices of working-class people something that reflects poorly on todays television. Most seem pleased to have escaped the inner city, with peoples quality of life enhanced by local jobs, transport links, walkable neighbourhoods, and that blend of city and country living first envisaged by Ebenezer Howard. WHVisual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (2008)Episode time: 1 hour 23 minutes.Available on: YouTubeMade just a year before legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman died aged 98, this life-story is a sometimes patchy but watchable oddity. Its a televisual coffee table book, crammed with his luscious snaps of US Mid-Century Modern gems.Yet, despite the rollcall of star name architect clients (including Frank Gehry) and narration from Dustin Hoffman, the documentary, directed by Eric Bricker, is let down by amateurish graphics while the interviews look like theyve been done on acamcorder.Even so, Shulman, an early environmentalist, comes across as both good-humoured and humane. His stunning photographs he explains the famous night shot of Pierre Koenigs clifftop Stahl house overlooking Los Angeles shaped international taste and helped make the architects he featured. It is a story, too, about the buildings themselves, some of which are now shadows of their acetate perfection. A flawed but still fascinating film. RWChristmas viewing 2024-12-20Richard Waitecomment and share TagsChristmas viewing