Dr Jeremy Hill, left, tells KATHERINE MACALISTER how he went about the daunting task of selecting artefacts to tell the history of the world.

Where do you start with the history of the world?

No, I mean it. Imagine if someone asked you to write the entire history of the world.

Could you complete it in one lifetime? Would you need an army of helpers? Or would you say no?

Dr Jeremy Hill said yes, but as head of research at the British Museum, he did at least have a fighting chance. And he didn’t have to write the entire history of the world verbatim. His task was A History of the World in 100 Objects for Radio 4.

“But there were boundaries. The object had to be in the British Museum and it had to tell the history of humanity and cover as much of the world as possible,” Jeremy explains.

With six million objects in the British Museum to choose from, Jeremy had his work cut out. And the worst thing was, he was only given one week to come up with a shortlist.

“It was over Christmas, so I spent a week huddled round the fire in the kitchen in 2006 coming up with the first list and hammering out the details,” he laughs. It took him a further two weeks to whittle the list down before work started on the four-year project of turning each entry into a story and weaving them all together. He can tell you all about it himself tomorrow night of course, during his 5pm stint at the Oxford Playhouse.

And it will be a historic day because the 100th object, and final episode of the series, will be unveiled tomorrow morning.

“We were always going to start at the beginning and end in 2010. The series wasn’t necessarily a history of dates and events – there is no Henry VIII or WWI because we didn’t want it to be the history you learned at school.”

But it still begs the question where do you start? “We looked for a rich mix, diverse, and varied from well known objects like the Ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone and 12th century Lewis Chessmen, to some fragments of pottery. The clue was knowing that each object is only as good as the telling of its story, so the key was to get the story right.

“The challenge was that while we have hundreds of pots and stone chalises, we needed variety from every part of the world, and had fewer artefacts from Africa ,for example.

“There were also some eras that were overcompensated – The Italian Renaissance, for example – choose one object for that! But just remember that the most famous art isn’t always the object that tells the best story.”

But after all Jeremy’s hard work, it was Neil MacGregor who actually presented the stories on Radio 4, so did Jeremy mind that Neil took all the glory? “No, it had to be authored,” he says.

“And we have achieved what we wanted – to get people to think about history from a global perspective, while reminding people of the power of the object. More people are also coming to the British Museum, especially UK visitors. And so many museums have now taken our lead.”

So is Jeremy sad it will all be over? “Well it won’t be, because millions have been watching the podcasts and they will be running until 2012.

“And there is a book coming out in 2012. But yes, we are all wondering what we’ll do with ourselves because it was such a massive project.”

* Tickets for Making History: A History of the World in 100 Objects at Oxford Playhouse are available on 01865 305305 or book online at oxfordplayhouse.com Pictured above, statue of Ramesses II, c 1250 BC, Egypt; left, Maya maize god statue, Honduras, 8th century; far left, one of a pair of Kakiemon elephants, Edo period, late 17th century AD; top, Lewis Chessmen, probably made in Norway, about AD 1150-1200. Found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.