A History Of The World In 100 Objects...

I love my status as a Brit and there are many great things to be proud of being a Brit: a long tradition of democracy, freedom of speech, that whole sense of fair play thing, a breath-taking literary and scientific heritage...

The list goes on and on and I haven't even started to wax lyrical on the Battle of Britain or Coronation Street yet.

But in this age of a media populated by dumbed-down celebrity tales and real-life documentary schlock, the BBC remains a shining beacon of hope ready to tackle the would-be barbarians and philistines who'd otherwise invade the airwaves and TV screen and fill them with programme ideas that, quite frankly, would make Alan Partridge's bone-headed suggestion of Monkey Tennis to Tony Hayers seem like bona-fide ratings winners.

Of course, even the mighty Beeb sometimes gets it wrong and produces work of breath-taking crassness: see the recent sitcom Big Top with Amanda Holden if you can stand more than a few minutes without wanting to gouge your eyes out with chop sticks and fill the holes with molten lead so you never have to watch anything so bad again.

But more often than not the Beeb is bang on the money and it's sometimes so spectacularly right that you just want to pick it up in your arms and hold it like a lover you never want to let go.

A case in point is A History Of The World In 100 Objects, a series of 15-minute shows currently on Radio 4. Each show takes one of 100 objects that has been selected from the British Museum and explains the significance of that object in its period and also examines how it demonstrates the evolution of human beings.

Narrated by Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, it's a wonderful series and reminds you that radio and TV can be entertaining, informative, fascinating and educational.

Objects range from a Clovis spearhead to a battery to the Great Wave Off Kanagawa (above) and the show runs in chronological order. Each of the 100 shows is also available to download as a free podcast.

It's truly wonderful stuff and should win every award going, from the Nobel Prize to BBC Sports Personality Of The Year.

It's 15 minutes a day for five days a week spread over 20 weeks. Go on... treat yourself...