Tony Palmer's 17-part ITV documentary was a work of staggering depth and breadth, which took more than 4 years to create.

In its way it is "The World At War" of popular music. A total of 17 hour-long programmes trace the roots of popular music from Jazz and Blues, through Vaudeville and Music Hall up to Glam Rock and the mid 70s (which is when the series was made).

This means that Punk and Rap/Hip-Hop and 90s brit-pop are absent, but Palmer managed to include just about anybody why was anybody in music up until that point: Irving Berlin, Leadbelly, Memphis Slim, Bo Diddley, The Who, The Stones, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Alexis Korker, Bowie, Marley, everyone is here!

Beatles fans have to wait until episode 14 Mighty Good, for a thoughtful look at how the Fab 4 were regarded more than 3 decades ago, and less than 10 years since the band broke up.

In all it's almost 900 minutes of digitally remastered joy, which hasn't been seen on TV since Prog Rock was king!