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Bagpuss or the Bouncing Bomb - who will
win the viewers' vote to go into The People's Museum?
From Bagpuss to the bouncing bomb, Freud's sofa to Wellington's boots - every
museum in the country has its very own hidden treasures, but all too often
these historic gems remain unappreciated, gathering dust, unnoticed by the
wider public.
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Now, for the first time, they are being gathered together in a unique television experiment which asks viewers: which of these works of national importance should be voted into The
People's Museum?
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Transmitting at 3.30pm from Monday 15 May, The People's Museum is a new daytime
series for 91Èȱ¬
TWO produced by Reef Television.
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Coinciding with Museums and Galleries Month, this far-reaching programme travels across Britain to unearth the hidden or little known treasures tucked away in local and regional museums, galleries and stately homes - treasures such as Einstein's blackboard in Oxford, the world's first lifeboat in Redcar, Robert the Bruce's toe bone housed in Glasgow, Shakespeare's first folio in Leeds and even a swatch of Napoleon's wallpaper exhibited in Manchester.
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Led by Flog It presenter Paul
Martin, our reporters uncover hundreds of extraordinary
items that represent fascinating local and national history as well as unique
personal stories.
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In the programme, they nominate their favourites - the items that have either captured their imaginations or changed our world in some way.
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But it is the public who have the final say. They can vote for an overall winner
and place their favourite top 20 items into The People's Museum which exists
both in the TV programme itself and on line at bbc.co.uk/history.
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Paul Martin said: "We have some fascinating artefacts with fabulous stories attached
and for the first time ever the great British public will get the chance to vote
for their favourite.
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"Will it be Shackleton's Compass, The Enigma Machine,
Newton's notebook, a Dodo, or the original manuscript of Frankenstein?
It is down to the public to watch and decide on the nation's favourite."
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Series producer Stephen Taylor Woodrow said: "This highly interactive, regionally-focused project also aims to re-ignite interest in local museums and galleries and give people a chance to find out more about treasures they are unlikely to have seen or even heard of, even though they may be just down the road."
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All items selected for The People's Museum will also be on display for the public to view during Museums & Galleries Month, giving people a unique chance to see some items which may previously have been in storage or archive for years.
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Notes to Editors
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Presenter Paul Martin and reporters, Jonathan
Foyle,
Jules Hudson, Mohini Sule, Edwina
Silver and Ian Blandford are
available for interview.
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Museums and Galleries Month (29 April-4 June 2006)
is the biggest celebration of its kind in the world, highlighting
the wealth of opportunities for entertainment, cultural enrichment
and education that UK's museums and art galleries have to offer.
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With a theme this year of Making
Connections: Past, Present and Future, MGM2006 launches throughout the UK with a big
Welcome Weekend (29 April-1
May) followed by hundreds of events in museums and galleries around
the country. Ìý
Visit www.mgm.org.uk or www.24hourmuseum.org.uk for
further details about MGM2006 and events happening in your area.
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