A History of Ancient Britain- @9pm, Wednesdays BBC2- 9 out of 10

There appears to be something of a checklist when it comes to history programmes these days that producers, directors and narrators all seek to adhere to when making these shows, like a shopping list for scene setting.

For example, a host must talk to the camera whilst walking forward in a busy high street, talk to the camera in a library or lab or museum, take on some bizarre quasi-hardman challenges such as abseiling down a cliff face or walking in some heavy snow or living 24 hours in a Mesolithic lifestyle to prove how rugged he is and there must be long establishing shots from helicopter over a rocky outcrop of land or lots of field and the host must talk about our ancestors hard lives whilst the camera pans over people in a high street for some low level contrast and so on.

However, just because something is clichéd doesn't mean to say that it isn't very good, just take a look at the Rocky movies.

Bad example perhaps. But the fact is A History of Britain is rather good.

Hosted by Neil Oliver, a member of the more rugged band of historians with his Scottish accent and long hair, the show traces the period of British history that is perhaps the most mysterious, Ancient Britain. The first show deals with Britain from around 500,000 years ago to around 8,000 years ago, encompassing the Ice Age and the emergence of modern human beings on this island of ours.

Whilst not offering a complete history, as the simple fact is that so little archaeological evidence has been found in Britain of human existence that it would be impossible to trace a definite arch of human history from much beyond 6000BC, the show is both entertaining and informative.

I didn't know it was only 9,000 years ago that Britain was occupied full time by humanity and even then, only by 1,000 people or so and it is genuinely fascinating how a few fragments of bones found in a cave in Wales or in Cheddar Gorge can be dated, discovered what species of humans they were and even what kind of lives they led and how they died.

As well as the history of people explored, geographical history of Britain is traced such as how glaciers impacted upon the landscape of Scotland and Northern England so heavily and how one of the largest tsunamis in the history of the world tore Britain from Mainland Europe around 6,300 years ago.

Always nice when the host of a show can be seen that he seriously enjoys the subject he is talking about and the amazing links he places between events and how he makes you think about them, such as amazing discovery of human footprints in Gwent left 6,000 years ago and the fact how oblivious they were to the tsunami that hit the east of the same landmass they were on at around the same time.

Seriously, give it a watch, not least of all for the way Oliver says "Scotland" in a reverential manner and the wonderful landscape shots taken of Britain's beautiful countryside.