Concept and creative process
Opening titles for a series in which historian John Roberts investigated the historical legacy of Western civilisation. For the titles Alan Jeapes shot a still photograph of a gilded laurel wreath, the symbol of triumph. He filmed a sequence of it rotating in close-up, with classically elegant typographic titles appearing throughout. At the final credit the camera pulled back to show the whole wreath, which immediately fractured, implying that the 'triumph of the West' in the programme’s title, was anything but perfect.