Bursting at the Seams

Tuesday, 16 December at 08:00pm on ABC

Billed as one of the greatest shows on earth, where else can you experience stories from every culture ever to inhabit the planet? All under one gigantic roof, it’s London’s history hot spot – the British Museum.

For the first time, led by the extraordinary people who work here, we go beyond the museum’s stately galleries to discover a labyrinth of millions of artefacts and to see new exhibitions in the making.

As well as caring for over 7 million historic treasures, the British Museum has a 250-year-old, grade one listed building to look after. From the top of the great glass roof to the pit beneath the main gates, this program tracks how the BM is constantly being fixed, restored and upgraded to keep London’s history hot spot up to the mark.

Beneath the main gates, engineers-turned-detectives restore its unique mechanism, an invasion of pigeons gets short shrift from a hawk, but some jobs can only be done by the abseiling maintenance men.

The Museum: Bursting At The Seams will be repeated on ABC2 – Sunday, December 28 at 7:00pm