Synopsis
Andrew Marr traces 70,000 years of history, beginning with the earliest humans. From Africa, they spread around the world, adapting and surviving against the odds.
- Programme: Andrew Marr's History of the World
- Episode: 1: Survival
- Channel: BBC One
- Broadcast year: 2012
- History
Licence: ERA Licence required
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Andrew Marr's History of the World

0: Learning Zone | Andrew Marr's History of the World
0: Learning Zone | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew Marr presents a selection of stories from his History of the World, specially rewritten for key stage 3 pupils. ...

2: Age of Empire | Andrew Marr's History of the World
2: Age of Empire | Andrew Marr's History of the World
In this episode, Andrew Marr tells the story of the first empires which laid the foundations for the modern world.

3: The Word and the Sword | Andrew Marr's History of the World
3: The Word and the Sword | Andrew Marr's History of the World
In this episode, Andrew Marr examines the spiritual revolutions that shook the world between 300 BC and 700 AD.

4: Into the Light | Andrew Marr's History of the World
4: Into the Light | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew reaches the Middle Ages, when Vikings explored and pillaged from Northern Europe to North America.

5: Age of Plunder | Andrew Marr's History of the World
5: Age of Plunder | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew tells the story of Europe's rise from piracy to private enterprise, starting with Columbus's discovery of America.

6: Revolution | Andrew Marr's History of the World
6: Revolution | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew explores the Age of Revolution, when people across the world rose up in the name of freedom and equality.

7: Age of Industry | Andrew Marr's History of the World
7: Age of Industry | Andrew Marr's History of the World
In this episode, Andrew Marr tells how Britain's Industrial Revolution created the modern world.

8: Age of Extremes | Andrew Marr's History of the World
8: Age of Extremes | Andrew Marr's History of the World
In this episode, Andrew Marr brings the story right up to date with the twentieth century.

Adolf Hitler's rise to power | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Adolf Hitler's rise to power | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew Marr discusses Hitler's rise to power from the end of the first world war.
More resources about Pre-history

1: Beginnings | Michael Wood: The Story of India
1: Beginnings | Michael Wood: The Story of India
Michael Wood journeys through the subcontinent, tracing the diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes. He charts the...

Amanirenas | Africa's Great Civilisations
Amanirenas | Africa's Great Civilisations
Henry Louis Gates Jr investigates Amanirenas, the Queen of the Kingdom of Kush.

Bronze Age Britain | Learning Zone
Bronze Age Britain | Learning Zone
Life in Bronze Age Britain through the eyes of one family as they learn how copper and tin is mined, and make bronze using a furnace.

Bronze Age Stonehenge gold | Learning Zone
Bronze Age Stonehenge gold | Learning Zone
There are also lots of barrow burials around Stonehenge and one of them, Bush Barrow Man, is used to find out about Bronze Age times.

Bronze Age: making metal | Learning Zone
Bronze Age: making metal | Learning Zone
Raksha visits Butser Ancient Farm to make a bronze age axe head exactly the way Bronze Age man would have done so.

Bronze Age: wool | Learning Zone
Bronze Age: wool | Learning Zone
Raksha visits the Bronze Age at an ancient farm and learns how to make woollen cloth.

Early humans and the development of culture | Africa's Great Civilisations
Early humans and the development of culture | Africa's Great Civilisations
Henry Louis Gates Jr investigates early human migration from Africa and the development of culture...

Europe's first farmers | Europe: A Natural History
Europe's first farmers | Europe: A Natural History
An exploration of the first farmers in Mesopotamia.

Flint | The Great British Countryside
Flint | The Great British Countryside
Julia Bradbury investigates flint and the ancient craft of arrowhead making that it was used for.

Iron Age Britain | Learning Zone
Iron Age Britain | Learning Zone
Life in Iron Age Britain through the eyes of one family, as the impact of the new, and cheaper, stronger, metal on their life is explored in...

Iron Age: daily life | Learning Zone
Iron Age: daily life | Learning Zone
Raksha visits re-enactors who build roundhouses and try to live as they think Iron Age people did.

Iron Age: iron | Learning Zone
Iron Age: iron | Learning Zone
People tried to keep the process of making iron secret to preserve their power. It was often regarded as magic.

Iron Age: tribes | Learning Zone
Iron Age: tribes | Learning Zone
Raksha explores Maiden Castle; the biggest Iron Age Hill Fort in Britain.

Iron technologies | Africa's Great Civilisations
Iron technologies | Africa's Great Civilisations
Henry Louis Gates investigates the early uses of Iron and the impacts it had on early societies in Africa.

Land of Giants | Walking with Beasts
Land of Giants | Walking with Beasts
25 million years ago in the Oligocene Epoch lived the Indricotheres. Weighing 15 tonnes and standing 7 metres tall, they were the larges...

Mammoth Journey | Walking with Beasts
Mammoth Journey | Walking with Beasts
Last in the series follows a herd of mammoths as they make their way south for winter, running a gauntlet of ice-age hunters including ...

New Dawn | Walking with Beasts
New Dawn | Walking with Beasts
The series following on from Walking with Dinosaurs. begins 49 million years ago. The world is heavily forested and birds rule the planet, pre...

New Stone Age | Learning Zone
New Stone Age | Learning Zone
Life in Neolithic Britain through the eyes of one family as they attempt to hunt and farm enough food to live on.

Next of Kin | Walking with Beasts
Next of Kin | Walking with Beasts
We travel back 3 million years to Ethiopia, where Australopithecus, one of the first upright apes, lived in danger of being hunted by sabre...

S1E1: The Cult | The Battle for Britain's Soul
S1E1: The Cult | The Battle for Britain's Soul
With disease and famine a constant threat, superstitious Iron-Age Britons sought to appease their pagan gods through ritual sa...
More from Andrew Marr

2: Cities on the Edge | Andrew Marr's Megacities
2: Cities on the Edge | Andrew Marr's Megacities
Andrew Marr takes a look at safety and security, two of the biggest challenges faced by each and every metropolis, visiting ...

3: Man Made Britain | Britain from Above
3: Man Made Britain | Britain from Above
Andrew Marr discovers how some of Britain's greenest landscapes were shaped by humans.

2: A Brave New World | New Elizabethans with Andrew Marr
2: A Brave New World | New Elizabethans with Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr explores how Britain since 1952 has coped with the loss of empire, America's cultural and political hege...

Adolf Hitler's rise to power | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Adolf Hitler's rise to power | Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew Marr discusses Hitler's rise to power from the end of the first world war.

1: Body and Soul | Andrew Marr on Darwin's Dangerous Idea
1: Body and Soul | Andrew Marr on Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Andrew Marr explores how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has taken on a life of its own far beyon...

5: Little Britain | Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
5: Little Britain | Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
The Wall Street Crash and the rise of fascist politics in Europe caused chaos in 1930s Britain.

2: The Land of Lost Consent | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
2: The Land of Lost Consent | Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
The 1950s were a period of apparent calm, order and prosperity for Britain, but much of the populace wa...