How Art made the World ,Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

Dr Nigel Spivey is a find, despite having a name that wouldn't look out of place on the Old Boys board at St Custard's alongside Molesworth (from the series of books written, as any fule kno, by Geoffrey Willans, also of St Trinian's fame). Good looking, articulate, intelligent, with a dry wit and a passion for his subject, he fronts this BBC doco as if born to it.

To be honest, the DVD went into the machine with a sense of dread because what I know about art could be written on the bottom of an Etruscan vase. And then, wonder of wonders, within minutes an enchanting hour had passed.

Spivey teaches classical art and archaeology at the University of Cambridge, where he is a fellow of Emmanuel College. Which all sounds terribly English and dusty but this five-part investigation into art history and its effects on the modern day is anything but.

In this first episode he explores why the world has seemingly always been dominated by exaggerated or distorted images of the human body. The script is engrossing, the photography excellent and the computer graphics are cleverly and beautifully done.

I was entranced from start to finish and particularly taken by the tiny but enormously important Venus of Willendorf carving (pictured) and Spivey's confidence in declaring the Riace bronzes (now in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria) to be the "best statues ever made".