Radio Times

Review by:

David Butcher

Andrew Marr is teeing up his eight-part history of humanity: “There will be challenges, triumphs and surprises — all the essentials of the story,” he teases, “except, of course, how it ends...” It’s very Marr: neatly put, thought-provoking, and sets the tone for the rest of his series.

Marr is the master of the striking detail: at one stage he holds in his palm a sliver of animal bone 17,000 years old. This was the breakthrough that helped us through the last ice age: a needle. The story is full of these pithy moments, but it’s also, sadly, full of dramatic reconstructions so ponderous and daft they risk trivialising the whole story.

Mute actors with mud in their hair trudge through wastelands. The bit where early humans attack a Neanderthal is a low point.

About this programme

1/8. The journalist examines 70,000 years of human history, tracing the global migrations that followed man's early beginnings in Africa and the agrarian and urban developments that led to the first civilisations. Marr considers extraordinary handprints found in European caves, contemplates the ingenuity required to invent devices that are still with us today and reveals how everyday life in ancient Egypt bears more than a passing resemblance to that experienced by characters in a contemporary soap opera.

Cast and crew

Cast

Presenter

Andrew Marr

Crew

Director

Neil Rawles

Executive Producer

Chris Granlund

Producer

Neil Rawles

Series Producer

Kathryn Taylor

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