How Billy Connolly's banana boots changed the world

Published on Sunday 17 January 2010 21:51

BILLY Connolly's big banana boots. Dolly the Sheep. The oldest football in the world. The history of Scotland is to be told through 60 objects drawn from museums across the nation and including items as diverse as the tooth of a sperm whale and a travel pass from the First World War.

As British Museum director Neil MacGregor presents Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects – drawn from the museum's collection – BBC Scotland has developed a parallel project that aims to tell A history of the world in Scotland.

The BBC plans to create a digital museum of world history via 60 items from museums across Scotland. Objects would have both local and global resonance.

Among the items are Connolly's banana boots, which were made by the renowned artist John Byrne for the play The Great Northern Welly Boot Show in 1972, a satire on the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in. The show led to Connolly's big break.

The boots currently sit in the People's Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow. Yesterday, Angela Robert, project manager for the BBC's A History of the World in Scotland, said members of the public would be encouraged to upload pictures of their own historical objects to a website which goes live today. She said: "Maybe there's something in your loft or that takes pride of place on your mantelpiece – or something in your community that will create a legacy for future generations to understand more about the part Scotland has played in the world.

"It could be a ticket from an international football match or a family heirloom such as a teapot – as long as it has both Scottish and world significance.

"Some of the objects may have monetary value but others little or none – nonetheless, they're priceless in how they bring to life moments from history."

On Saturday in The Scotsman, the historian Michael Fry drew up his own list of 100 items that tell Scotland's story and which also included Dolly and the banana feet. Yesterday, after examining the new list, he said: "It goes to show the richness of Scotland's heritage that, of the 60 items chosen by the BBC and 100 by me, only five were the same – Dolly the sheep, the early banknote, the Bell Rock lighthouse, the Paisley shawl and Billy Connolly's banana boots.

"In fact, the national heritage may be even richer than the BBC had given us credit for. In drawing up my tally of 100 objects, I kept fairly strictly to things produced by Scots within Scotland, or at the very least used by Scots within Scotland.

"The BBC felt free to include items that had been brought home to Scotland from far-flung corners of the earth. There is nothing wrong with this, but I would like somebody to issue a challenge to list 100 items discovered or produced or used by Scots exclusively abroad – that is, items they never got round to bringing home.

"We know this a country which, for its small size, shows an amazing cultural diversity. That further challenge would let us see at first hand how our diversity has enriched the rest of the world, too."

• To help create a digital museum for future generations visit bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld which has been launched today with around 700 objects from across the UK and more being uploaded all the time.