 Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, "Civilisation" set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries, which were informally known as "tombstone" or "sledgehammer" projects.Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man" (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke's "".Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series.