Monster Moves: Rescuing Ramesses was shown on Tuesday night (March 4th 2008) on channel Five in the UK. I was a bit apprehensive at first but the show turned out far better than I expected.
The show told the story of the UNESCO rescue operation to save the Egyptian monuments from the rising flood waters caused by the building of the Aswan Dam and focuses specifically on the temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel but also visits Philae, Amada, and Kalabsha. The story of the rescue operation is told to accompanying colour archive footage which is very good. The narration is well paced and well explained and the old footage is very good. Interspersed with these scenes is a modern recreation of cutting and moving a giant replica stone head of Ramesses II from one of the four statues that adorns the front portico of Abu Simbel. I'm not entirely sure what the point of these segments was though. How its was done is well documented and it was only forty-years ago. It is not as if they were re-creating how Ramesses' builders built it over 3,000-years ago. Are we supposed to be surprised that sixties-man was capable of this?
See the above page for the entire review.
3 comments:
Andie, Thanks for sharing the news with us deprived people on the other side of the earth.
Any chance of getting a DVD of this show? BBC doesn't come in too good on my rabbit-ears.
George Stilwell
Hello George. I had a look on the Channel 5 website to see if I could find out if it was scheduled for release to overseas channels, or if a DVD was going to be released but there was no mention of the series at all. If the series were to come out on DVD it would probably mean buying the entire series - which is about moving things (only this first episode concerned Egypt). I'll keep an eye open and let you know if they announce anything.
Andie
Andie,
thanks for the link! To answer the question above, the show is a joint production between Channel Five UK, Discovery Channel & TLC (Canada ?), National Geographic USA and National Geographic International. So check whichever one of those is appropriate to your locale. The show also appears under different names for each distributor Monster/Mega/Impossible/Huge Moves.
As for a DVD, it is unlikely to be released by Five although they probably hold the rights in the UK. I would bet on either Disovery Channel or NGC releasing it although I wouldn't hold my breath as seasons 1 and 2 aren't available on DVD.
Mark.
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