Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King looks back on the BBC’s 1977 series on the history of economic thinking, The Age of Uncertainty.
Written and presented by the highly influential economist and intellectual JK Galbraith, the series tackled the challenge of bringing economics to a mainstream audience head-on, seemingly sparing no expense in its use of actors, elaborate sets and multiple international locations - and even a sumptuous banquet for dogs - to help explain some highly complex thinking.
Lord King, who encountered Galbraith whilst studying at Cambridge, gives an assessment of the series five decades on from its original transmission, sharing his opinion of Galbraith and his methods today and explaining why the series divided critics at the time: attacked by the political right, including Margaret Thatcher and the Daily Telegraph, but held up as an example of the BBC at its best by others.
Former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King looks back on the BBC’s 1977 series on the history of economic thinking, The Age of Uncertainty.
Written and presented by the highly influential economist and intellectual JK Galbraith, the series tackled the challenge of bringing economics to a mainstream audience head-on, seemingly sparing no expense in its use of actors, elaborate sets and multiple international locations - and even a sumptuous banquet for dogs - to help explain some highly complex thinking.
Lord King, who encountered Galbraith whilst studying at Cambridge, gives an assessment of the series five decades on from its original transmission, sharing his opinion of Galbraith and his methods today and explaining why the series divided critics at the time: attacked by the political right, including Margaret Thatcher and the Daily Telegraph, but held up as an example of the BBC at its best by others.
