Dr Michael Scott

Earlier this morning I got an update from Dr Michael Scott who presents history on television and radio like no one else. His latest project with the BBC is

Spin the Globe

A series that takes famous dates in British history and finds out what was happening at the same time in other corners of the world.

As a law student, dates are being crammed in to my brain like never before. I didn’t study history to GCSE or A-Level, I did do Classical Civilisation for GCSE – and it was in relation to the Greeks that I first heard of Dr Michael Scott.

I’ll leave you with his words on the new series. I hope you will join me in listening to it on BBC Radio 4, or alternatively on BBC iPlayer soon afterwards.

I – like I’m sure all of you – have certain key dates in history scorched into my head from countless school lessons, history books and commemorations. 1066, 1605, 1815, 1914. But while we know what was happening in one part of the world at that time, how many of us have any idea what else was happening around the world at the same time? Spin the Globe seeks to offer a different way of doing history. Each week we take one of these crucial dates in history as our starting point, explore it with an expert, but then crucially spin the globe to see what else was happening around the world. We seek out the experts who can tell us about what was happening in Russia, China and South America (and this is what led me to interview Len Goodman, top judge on Strictly Come Dancing, in his dressing room at Planet Strictly, because it turns out that the foxtrot was invented in New York in 1914!) It has been a wonderful journey full of surprising discoveries making this series – and I very much hope you enjoy it too!—Dr Michael Scott

Listen to Spin the Globe here. (bbc.co.uk) First broadcast is on 12 November 2013.