Rock & Roll

This ten-hour series for public television traces the history of rock from its renegade beginnings to its technology-driven present. Executive producer Elizabeth Deane for WGBH-TV, and Hugh Thomson, series producer for the BBC, with senior producer David Espar and the series’ chief consultant, popular music expert Robert Palmer, tell the story of rock through the first-hand experiences of influential artists, engineers, session musicians and others who were on the scene as the music’s great moments were created. Imaginative cinematography and exceptional editing combine with superb narration by Liev Schreiber to reveal the influences and connections between the roots of rock in black rhythm and blues and such modern expressions as rap, techno and house music. The core of the program, of course, is the music, brought vividly to life through rigorous archival research, restoration and modern mixing and rerecording. For producing a television series which captures the excitement of its subject, a Peabody Award is presented to WGBH-TV, Boston, and the BBC for Rock & Roll.