What the Ancients Did for Us

BBC2 - 3 x 60 mins - BBC Specialist Factual

Producer / Director / Writer

I produced and directed three of this series of nine programmes looking at the technological legacy of ancient civilisations around the world.

What the Ancients was a major departure from Adam Hart-Davis’s previous series. It was an hour long and focused on world civilisations. Since Adam couldn’t travel to all the locations we created a home base for him at Bodium Castle in Sussex. We then shot short films at relevant locations around the world to link back to Adam’s further exploration of the technology from his castle laboratory.

I produced the pilot episode, The Greeks, as well programmes on The Mesopotamians (shot in Syria and Bahrain) and The Aztec, Maya & inca (shot in Peru, Mexico and Belize).

In Peru we spent four days following the construction of a grass bridge across the Apurimac river. When the bridge was finished the local community elected myself and presenter, Hermione Cockburn, Godfather and Godmother of the bridge. A great honour - accept of course that the new custodians are then expected to be the first to try it out!

That episode was the highest rating of the series at close to 3.5 million on BBC 2.