The BBC and British Museum announce ‘A History of the World’ -
a unique and unprecedented partnership focusing on world history
for 2010
The BBC and the British Museum have joined
forces in an original and unprecedented public service partnership,
focusing on world history. At its heart is a landmark series on BBC
Radio 4, ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ which will
broadcast from 18 January 2010.
This series is a narrative global history told
through the British Museum’s unparalleled world collection. The
series will tap in to the unique power of objects to tell stories
and make connections across the globe. To produce the series the
BBC and the British Museum have come together in an ambitious
partnership to ensure the widest possible access and engagement
across radio, television and online.
‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ is
written and narrated by the British Museum Director, Neil MacGregor
and produced by BBC Radio 4. The 15-minute programmes will be
broadcast in the key timeslot of 09.45 from Monday to Friday
(repeat at 19.45). Each programme will focus on one object
from the Museum’s extensive collection and will include additional
voices from a range of contributors including Bob Geldof, Wole
Soyinka, Grayson Perry, Madhur Jaffrey and Seamus Heaney – and many
others.
Each week of programmes will be tied to a
particular theme, such as ‘after the ice age’ or ‘meeting the
gods’. Objects have been selected to cover the broadest possible
chronological and geographical period, and tell a history of the
world from two million years ago to the present day. The 100
programmes will be broadcast in three tranches throughout 2010.
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British
Museum, said;
“This partnership between the BBC and the
British Museum is the fulfilment of an Enlightenment dream.
Parliament set up the British Museum to allow all ‘studious and
curious persons’ both ‘native and foreign born’ to construct their
own history of the world and to find their place in it. Thanks to
the incomparable reach of the BBC – radio, television, World
Service and web – as the series develops, everybody across the UK
and across the world will be able to participate, using not just
the things in museums, but their own objects as well, to tell their
history of the world”.
Mark Damazer, Controller of Radio 4, said;
“The partnership with the British Museum has
brought to Radio 4 the most exciting history project in my five
years as Radio 4 Controller. The idea of a 'History of The World'
told through objects is audacious and it has been endlessly
stimulating to see two creative organisations - animated by public
service - coming together to produce what I believe will be
thrilling programmes - not only on Radio 4 , but now across the
BBC.”
The Radio 4 series has become the starting
point for an extraordinarily far-reaching project. Both the BBC and
the British Museum were keen to broaden the concept of ‘A History
of the World’ and seize the potential for a wider programme of
activity focusing on world history. The project will also seek to
encourage listeners to explore not only the global collections of
the British Museum but to engage and participate with museums
across the country to discover the power of objects.
The project has expanded to include:
- A 13-part CBBC series entitled ‘Relic:
Guardians of the Museum’ broadcasting from January 2010
- Large scale activity across the BBC Nations
and English Regions, with 350 museum venues around the UK
contributing.
- Omnibus editions broadcast on the BBC World
Service
- Holding all of these elements together is an
exciting and interactive digital proposition, live from January
2010. www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld
(holding page will be up from 25 November 2009)
- Audiences encouraged to offer objects they
own to create a unique digital museum online.
The legacy of ‘A History of the World’ will be
secured through the website and through the work across the Nations
and English Regions.
For further information please contact:
British Museum
Hannah Boulton – 020 7323 8522 / hboulton@britishmuseum.org
BBC
Sian Davis – 020 7765 2629/ sian.davis@bbc.co.uk
Additional information
BBC Radio 4 - A History of the
World in 100 Objects
From 18th January 2010 at 9.45-10.00am
(repeated at 7.45pm and 00.30). The 100 part series will be split
in to three tranches throughout 2010. An omnibus is planned for
when the weekly episodes are off air. The series is produced by BBC
Audio & Music Factual for Radio 4.
'A History of the World in 100 Objects' is,
unusually, a global history told through, and about, objects. Each
of the 100 episodes in the series focuses on a different object
from the British Museum’s collection. Writer and presenter Neil
MacGregor tells the fascinating stories behind the chosen item,
which may be anything from a mundane tool to a great work of art,
but which must be man-made. The series is chronological, beginning
with some of the earliest objects from Tanzania dating to almost
two million years ago, and running up to the present day. The final
100th object has yet to be chosen but will be a contemporary item
that will be acquired by the British Museum.
The series explores the key developments in
human history, from ancient cultures and more recent events - some
objects will be familiar, others equally fascinating but less well
known. Neil MacGregor tells of parallel developments that took
place throughout our global history, which highlight often
unexpected connections and universal themes. Any given week in the
series will give listeners a sense of the cultural achievements
across the world during a particular time period.
BBC CBBC - Relic:
Guardians of the Museum
BBC ONE, for 13 weeks from January 21st at
4.30pm. To be repeated on CBBC later in the year.
The BBC continues its partnership with the
British Museum in ‘Relic: Guardians of the Museum’ - a new 13-part
series for CBBC in which teams of children face the challenge of a
lifetime. The children visit the Museum at night to unlock the
mysteries behind 13 of the objects featured in, and inspired by,
the Radio 4 series.
Accompanied on their journey through the
Museum by Agatha, a mysterious and ghostly tour guide, the
adventurers must complete challenges and confront visions from the
past in their quest for answers. While avoiding the “dark forces”
that roam the galleries at night, they will discover the history
behind some of the Museum’s most famous exhibits, including the
mystery of the Easter Island Statue; how the Rosetta Stone unlocked
the secrets of Ancient Egypt and the premonition that led to the
discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial. Racing against time, their
success will be rewarded by “Guardianship of the Museum”, but if
they fail they face incarceration forever within the Museum
walls.
CBBC online (www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc) will be
producing a website to accompany the TV series, containing further
information about the objects featured within the show.
BBC Online
The ‘A History of the World’ website is the
hub of the project, drawing together all the major strands. The
site will offer a unique combination of opportunities to listen,
watch and take part in ‘A History of the World’, with the Radio 4
programmes available to listen to or download. Through video and a
'zoom in' facility, users will be able to examine photos of the 100
objects in intricate detail. And fascinating insights from curators
and experts will be available across each object's page, to give
users the historical context of each item.
As well as the British Museum’s 100 objects
from the Radio 4 series, hundreds more have been contributed from
over 350 museum venues across the UK, all telling a history of the
world from their local perspective. Many more will join up as the
project gains momentum through 2010, with these partnerships
reflected across the BBC Local websites. Every day throughout 2010
a changing selection of objects, information and programmes will be
available on mobile phones. CBBC and BBC Schools will offer a range
of activities, lesson plans and history trails for both children
and teachers.
In an exciting initiative, listeners and
viewers will be encouraged to offer pictures of objects they own
and explain how these objects can help tell a history of the world.
The ambition is to create a unique digital museum online of objects
that tell history through the eyes of museums and audiences across
the UK.
BBC World Service
World Service English
The BBC
World Service daily global arts programme 'The Strand' (broadcast
Monday - Saturdays) will broadcast selected edited versions of
episodes from the Radio 4 series 'A History of the World in 100
Objects'. The programmes will also include guests from the
British Museum’s international partner museums and BBC World
Service’s language services. The programmes will focus on
the global impact of the objects featured. An omnibus edition featuring the five
weekly objects, will be broadcast on the World Service on Saturdays
from 1-2pm GMT in all regions from January 23rd.
The British Museum and BBC
Learning
BBC Learning will help primary schools to
become involved in ‘A History of the World’ by providing exciting
lesson plans, generated jointly with the British Museum, relating
to 13 objects from ‘A History of the World’. These lessons,
designed to engage children in learning about history through
objects, will be supported with at least one printable worksheet
per item. Audio, online and video resources will also be sourced
for each object. A parallel offering will focus on the local
element of the project, providing re-usable templates for local
museums and schools to work with. The resources will be available
from January 2010.
A History of the World Culture Show
Special
The programme will be scheduled to tie in with
the start of the ‘A History of the World’ project in January 2010
World News presenter Mishal Husain gives BBC TWO viewers an insight
to the ‘A History of the World’ project as a whole, featuring
interviews with key players and a taster of what the audiences can
expect on radio, online, on screen and around the UK. Contributors
include: British Museum Director Neil MacGregor; Sir David
Attenborough, who features in the Radio 4 series; Mark Kermode,
reporting from the Isle of Man on their local objects; Scottish
historian Neil Oliver, who will look at the objects from his home
turf; Matthew Collings, who will speak to some of the specialists
at the British Museum; and Martin Ellis, Curator of Decorative Arts
in Birmingham as well as curators of museums from around the
country, who will be talking about the highlights from their own
local collections. And the search for the 100th object for the
Radio 4 series, yet to be chosen, is discussed on the show with the
Today programme's John Humphrys, playwright Stephen Poliakoff and
industrial designer Sir James Dyson, to name but a few.
The Nations and English
Regions
The British Museum, BBC Cymru Wales, BBC
Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC English Regions have joined
forces with 350 museums and institutions across the country as part
of ‘A History of the World’. This will be the most ambitious
nationwide museum partnership ever created. The partnerships will
result in a unique range of programming and content telling the
history of our nations and regions and their links with the rest of
the world through the objects on display.
BBC Cymru Wales
BBC Cymru Wales has chosen 50 objects
representing 5 areas across Wales on the website and will be
broadcasting a series of four half-hour television programmes,
‘Wales and the History of the World’, telling the story of Wales’
influence on the world and the world’s influence on Wales. The
films are presented by rugby broadcaster and journalist, Eddie
Butler and are themed, covering Welsh “firsts”, trade and industry,
conflict, and identity and belief. In addition, BBC Radio
Wales will be covering ‘A History of the World’ with features on
the Roy Noble afternoon show.
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland has selected 60 objects from
Scottish museums representing six areas across the country. BBC
Radio Scotland’s daily arts programme, ‘The Radio Café’ will
feature six special editions on one or more objects selected from
the museums, with discussion representing different areas of
Scotland and aspects of our distinctive history and issues.
‘The Radio Café’ will also feature a special edition on the
Lewis Chessmen, one of the objects chosen for the Radio 4 series,
and preview a major exhibition featuring the Chessmen from the
British Museum and National Museums Scotland that will tour
Scotland.
‘Past Lives’, BBC Radio Scotland's interactive
history magazine programme, will have six editions from February to
March featuring some of the personal objects suggested by the
public and discussion of those object’s significance with museum
experts.
BBC Northern Ireland
Plans are at an advanced stage for a
multi-media ‘A History of the World’ experience. Radio, tv and
online will deliver a host of material including a secret history
of Sir Hans Sloane, the County Down man whose eccentric collecting
habits led to the foundation of the British Museum.
BBC Radio Ulster’s A History of the World
champion is mid-morning presenter Gerry Anderson. He’ll be leading
the charge to find history behind the doors of the Irish
public.
The Saturday morning show, Your Place and
Mine, will unearth the history behind other objects from
around Northern Ireland.
Two radio documentaries have been
commissioned.
English Regions
The 44 BBC Local websites across English
Regions have partnered with museums in their area to produce a list
of 10 objects each that tell the story of the area’s history. These
will feature on the websites from mid-January 2010 to coincide with
the launch of the BBC Radio 4 series. A series of 12
specially-commissioned half hour regional films for BBC ONE will
each highlight and reflect a period of great historical change in
the region - articulated through landscape, people and iconic
historical objects.
BBC Local Radio and regional television will
also broadcast features and interviews telling the stories behind
the 10 objects and their contribution to the History of the World.
Listeners and viewers will be asked to suggest further
objects and can actively participate by uploading images of their
own objects that have a local or global appeal. At the end of
February 2010 it is hoped that each BBC Local website will have an
additional “People’s 10 Objects” telling the history of their
region and its global connections.
BBC Project manager for the Nations and
English Regions, Seamus Boyd, said:
“A truly fascinating range of objects has been
chosen across the nations and English regions. Some of them may
have great monetary value, others little or none, but they're
priceless in how they bring to life moments from history. This
initial collection is just the blueprint to which we hope viewers
and listeners will add their own objects and help to create a truly
unique and vibrant tapestry of the past.”
Contacts for the Nations and English
Regions press teams:
BBC Cymru Wales
Jenny
Walford
Communications Manager
BBC Cymru Wales
Telephone: 029 2032 2373
Email: jenny.walford@bbc.co.uk
BBC Scotland
Suzanne Vickers
BBC Scotland Press and Publicity
Telephone: 0141 422 6380
Email: suzanne.vickers@bbc.co.uk
BBC Northern Ireland
Una Carlin
Manager, Press Office
Telephone:
Email: una.carlin@bbc.co.uk
English Regions
Natasha Lee
Press and PR Officer
Telephone: 0117 974 7472
Email: natasha.lee@bbc.co.uk