Andrew Marr's History of the World

Episodes

Production

Producer Robin Dashwood on the BBC website provides background to how the series was made, beginning with financial limitations on travel which set them seeking one location "which would furnish us the whole world":

When the three directors and the series producer arrived, we were astonished by what we found. With some skillful set dressing, Cape Town's Cathedral became Notre Dame and Wittenberg Cathedrals, while a car park in front of the Town Hall became revolutionary Paris; stunning beaches stood in for Australia and the Caribbean; sand dunes became the Middle East; and forests became, well, forests from every continent. Most surprisingly, a young offenders' institution became a 19th century Chinese street, complete with circling baboons.}}

Dashwood also notes the diversity of actors available: "Luckily Cape Town is a bit of a melting pot: African, Chinese, European, Middle Eastern you name it, they've got it except [Aborigines]." Though crowds are often shown, this was done with the help of computers: "Budgetary considerations meant we had to make a limited number of performers seem like many more – a crowd of 15 often had to stand in for a crowd of 1500. The magic of computer graphics often filled in the missing 1485 – but it was always a challenge."

Book

• Marr, Andrew (2014). A History of the World. Pan Macmillan. .

References

References

1. BBC official site http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xnr43 retrieved 4 November 2012
2. "Weekly Viewing Summary (see relevant week)". [[BARB]].
3. (October 2012). "'Downton Abbey' overtakes 'X Factor'".
4. (8 October 2012). "Xtra Factor: 2m watch after Poole axe".
5. Plunkett, John. (15 October 2012). "Felix Baumgartner jump: record 8m watch live on YouTube". The Guardian.
6. (22 October 2012). "'Strictly' Sunday results beat X Factor".