His story

An anthropological history of mankind from the earliest records seems like an impressive undertaking for a television programme, and if anyone can do it, Andrew Marr can. Spread over eight episodes, this series kicks off with the tribes of Africa migrating and one tribe in particular making it over to Europe. Interesting things, ancient historical re-enactments, as what with language being a bit of an unknown quantity noises can become incredibly communicative. Just remember that next time you lose your voice after a raucous night out embracing the lyrical wonder of PiL.

From early man to the disappearance of Neanderthals (no, they really are not our ancestors anymore), on to the revolutionary development of the needle, through to farming, sickness, hierarchies and belief systems, this doesn’t even take us to the Romans arriving and so much feels packed in. Its brief but well-placed brush strokes sketch out an entirety of centuries, picking out consistencies in universal myths to suggest possible facts – like that huge flood thing that keeps popping up, and how it resulted in the emergence of arguably China’s first hero, who was both a civil engineer and a civil servant.

“Clearly, supernatural Mummy’s curses notwithstanding”

Not surprisingly, given our knowledge of human history recent and stretching further back, both sex and violence are represented, ensuring the programme a post-watershed time slot. It sort of says more about contemporary anthropology, the degree of how graphic these re-enactments need to be. It’s interesting how we currently choose to see our own history, considering how in the early part of the 20th century when we were doing a fair bit of archeological digging (think newsreels and the number of episodic dramas that saw pith helmets and curses dooming tomb raiders), we saw them as more peaceful and civilised on the whole. Clearly, supernatural Mummy’s curses notwithstanding.

Here’s the thing: those newsreels, snippets of epic films starring either Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas or Russell Crowe, and rumours that wouldn’t hold water in any schoolyard gossip circle, have been huge contributors to my general knowledge on the history of man. Sure, there have been the odd legitimate contributions, but to get an overall arc, to introduce a chronology, fill in that gap between sitting around a different fire every night as a hunter/traveller pack, and the evolution of towns and cities is a pretty enlightening thing. I’m intrigued by what comes next. I’m not sure if this is a history of the world – that covers an awful and vague lot – but this is definitely an engaging history of man. It gives you a bit of context, as well as wonder as to what might come next.

Andrew Marr’s History Of The World, BBC1, Sunday 23 September 2012
Victoria Nangle