Wednesday, November 10, 2010

TV: Ancient Worlds (UK)

There's a new series on the BBC in the UK at the moment called Ancient Worlds. I managed to miss the first episode of which is showing tonight. Here's the write-up from the Radio Times website.

Wednesday 10 November
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC2 London
Come Together

1/6, series 1

Archaeologist and historian Dr Richard Miles, looking cosy in a fetching multicoloured scarf, is seeking the origins of the first great civilisations of the ancient world: "I'm going to make the case for civilisation itself." Ooh, get him. In one of those portentous documentaries BBC2 does so well, Miles strides through Istanbul and the deserts of Syria and Egypt. He's the master of the brooding, significant stare, and the almost whispered, awe-stricken commentary. It's fascinating stuff, though. In Baghdad, with military helicopters buzzing overhead, Miles explains the bedrock of any civilisation is "good order". He doesn't have many good things to say about ancient Egypt, though; it was xenophobic and obsessed with the cult of death. Or, as Miles puts it, a "glittering dead end [whose] otherness was its great selling point."

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