New York, 1951: Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds, Brilliant Programme

Kerouac, Monk, Pollock, Brando; the Beats and Be-Bop.

James Fox's excellent programme, BBC iPlayer

"Dr James Fox tells the story of New York in 1951, where the world we know today was born. This was the year when Jackson Pollock brought a new dynamism to American painting, when the dazzling jazz style known as bebop hit its stride and when Jack Kerouac defined the Beat Generation with his book On the Road. It was where a young Marlon Brando took cinema by storm, a dapper Brit named David Ogilvy reinvented advertising and modern television arrived with the triumphant debut of a show called I Love Lucy".

I was delighted to hear snatches of Howlin' Wolf (although more Memphis and Chicago), Jack Kerouac and some funky and foxy jazz on the soundtrack.