Egypt: Rediscovering a Lost World
Part personal drama, part documentary, part history lesson,Egyptis a first class, six-part BBC production that manages to be at once edifying and entertaining. Whereas the History Channel, for example, might tell its tale with a mixture of reenactments, photos, interviews, and such, the makers ofEgyptopt for complete dramatizations focusing on three men and their contributions to archaeology, with each story occupying two episodes. First up is Englishman Howard Carter (Stuart Graham), who spent over 20 years searching for the tomb of King Tutankhamun before finally locating it in the 1920s; his remarkable persistence and considerable accomplishments are undeniable, but Carter comes off as a humorless stiff who did little to endear himself to colleagues, patrons, and anyone else in his orbit. Much more likeable is Giovanni Belzoni (Matthew Kelly), a former circus strongman and most unlikely Egyptologist who, in 1817, entered Abu Simbel, perhaps the most impressive of the many monuments and temples dedicated to Ramesses (sic) II. Finally, there is Jean Francois Champollion (Elliot Cowan), a French linguistics expert who was the first Westerner to decipher hieroglyphs and who made his first and only trip to Egypt in 1822. In the process of detailing these men's various discoveries and accomplishments, the series also offers some detail about their personal relationships, as well as occasional insights (via reenactments) into the lives of their subjects (King Tut, for instance, assumed power at age 8 and soon was married to his own sister). There's a darker side as well. The explorers who blithely claim their discoveries for their respective nations are a chilling reminder of the arrogance of European imperialists; meanwhile, church authorities strictly proscribe Champollion from revealing any information that might challenge its doctrine that the human race began with Adam and Eve a mere few thousand years ago. DVD extras include "Nile: Crocodiles and Kings," a beautifully photographed documentary, along with a timeline and a catalogue of trivia.--Sam Graham