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The Museum is British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

television documentary series. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

, narrated by Ian McMillan and first broadcast on BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

on Thursdays at 7.30pm from 10th May 2007. It is produced by BBC Wales

BBC Wales

BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...

. It is in 10 half-hour parts.http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/whatson/events/bbc.html There is an accompanying hardback book by Rupert Smith.

Crew

Producer/Directors - Chris Rushton, Anthony Holland
Assistant Producer - Andrew Tait
Researcher - Mish Evans
Technical Assistant - Tom Swingler
Production Manager - Ellen Davies
Executive Producer - Sam Organ
Series Producer - Judith Bunting

Episode guide

Date of first transmission	Title	BBC summary
10 May	Taking Care of the Past	A behind-the-scenes look at the Museum’s busy Conservation Department as they treat the Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a youth, affectionately known as ‘Charlie’, and restore some of the finest ancient Egyptian Art of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic... wall paintings from the tomb of Nebamun Nebamun Nebamun was an Egyptian "scribe and counter of grain" during the New Kingdom. His tomb in Thebes, the location of which is now lost, featured the famous Pond in a Garden fresco, executed a secco.... (image here).
17 May	Bodies of Knowledge	The stories behind some of the 8,000 human remains in the Museum’s collection, including the Lindow Man Lindow man Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England. The body was found on 1 August 1984 by commercial peat-cutters... and mummies. We see how changing attitudes have led to greater awareness of the sensitivities of indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory.... , and witness the historic return of aboriginal Tasmanian Aborigines The Tasmanian Aborigines were the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Before British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Parlevar. A number of historians point to introduced disease as the major cause of the destruction of the full-blooded... ash bundles to representatives of the aboriginal peoples of Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart... .
24 May	The BM Goes East	We head east to China to see the Museum’s Director, Neil MacGregor Neil MacGregor Robert Neil MacGregor, OM, FSA is an art historian and museum director. He was the Editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, the Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, and was appointed Director of the British Museum in 2002... , measure up terracotta soldiers and strike the deal for Autumn 2007’s blockbuster exhibition, The First Emperor. We also follow the BM heavy mob transporting massive Assyria Assyria Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur... n wall reliefs to an exhibition in China.
31 May	Bursting at the Seams	The story of the famous building itself – the never ending challenge of updating the storage facilities, dealing with leaks and power cuts, the hawk that chases the pigeons away, and restoring the historic front gates.
7 June	Putting on a Blockbuster	The preparation and opening of the blockbuster Michelangelo Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art... Drawings exhibition with curator Hugo Chapman and a look at how the Museum handles over 5 million visitors a year with some of its dedicated Visitor Hosts.
14 June	Shopping for Posterity	How the Museum uses limited funds to acquire new objects to complement the existing collections, from the rare 8th-9th-century Coenwulf coin, to remarkable medals and the modern African art installation, La Bouche du Roi La Bouche du Roi (artwork) La Bouche du Roi is an artwork by Romuald Hazoumé , an artist from the Republic of Bénin, West Africa, for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery... .
21 June	Curators of the Here and Now	Two curators developing and fulfilling cutting edge projects – one with a range of contemporary artists from the Middle East and another staging an installation and workshops with prisoners in Pentonville Prison.
Break in transmission for Wimbledon 2007 Wimbledon Championships The 2007 Wimbledon Championships were held between 25 June and 8 July 2007. For the first time there was equal prize money for the men's and women's singles champions. Reconstruction work on Centre Court was in progress and thus it had no roof.... .
12 July	Old Pots and Puzzles	An insight into the constant research taking place across the Museum and how to unravel the mysteries of the past, from the decoding of symbols and imagery on Nasca pots to the mysteries of cuneiform Cuneiform Cuneiform can refer to:Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BCCuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label... tablets and ancient writing.
Break in transmission for 2007 Open Championship 2007 Open Championship The 2007 Open Championship was the 136th Open Championship, played 19-22 July at Carnoustie Golf Links. Pádraig Harrington of Ireland defeated Sergio García of Spain in a playoff to take the title and his first major championship... .
26 July	Things Aren't What They Seem	Fakes and replicas: how to spot them and how to make them. The programme features the painstaking creation of a replica of the head of Amenhotep III Amenhotep III Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died... and a replica Rosetta Stone Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek... .
2 August	Beyond Bloomsbury	The extensive work of the Museum within the community, following the creation of an image of the goddess Durga Durga For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion... in the Great Court Queen Elizabeth II Great Court The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners, from a 1970s design by Colin St John Wilson, to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s... by master craftsmen from India, and its work throughout the UK with partner institutions, including a massively successful touring exhibition on ancient board games and getting hooked on a 1.8 million-year-old handaxe – as curator Jill Cook says, ‘without this stone tool, we wouldn’t have our mobiles.’

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