"Egypt" (2005) TV series

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

30 October 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character

Cast

Andrew Sachs	...	Narrator (3 episodes, 2005)
Stuart Graham	...	Howard Carter (2 episodes, 2005)
Julian Wadham	...	Lord Carnarvon (2 episodes, 2005)
Caroline Langrishe	...	Lady Carnarvon (2 episodes, 2005)
Alexandra Weaver	...	Evelyn Carnarvon (2 episodes, 2005)
Laurence Fox	...	Leonard (2 episodes, 2005)
Valentine Pelka	...	Pierre Lacau (2 episodes, 2005)
Ali Halifa	...	Carter's Reiss (2 episodes, 2005)
Arkin Chandaril	...	Tutankhamun / ... (2 episodes, 2005)
Neji Nejah	...	Ay (2 episodes, 2005)
Nicola Liberos	...	Ankhesamun / ... (2 episodes, 2005)
Lynsey Baxter	...	Sarah Belzoni (2 episodes, 2005)
Elliot Cowan	...	Champollion (2 episodes, 2005)
Fuman Dar	...	Ramesses II (2 episodes, 2005)
Tania Emery	...	Rosine Blanc / ... (2 episodes, 2005)
Nevan Finegan	...	James Curtin (2 episodes, 2005)
Yousseff Hagag Hagag	...	Hamer The Reiss / ... (2 episodes, 2005)
Hamdy Heykal	...	Henchman (2 episodes, 2005)
Matthew Kelly	...	Giovanni Belzoni (2 episodes, 2005)
Joseph Long	...	Bernard Drovetti (2 episodes, 2005)
Robert Portal	...	Henry Salt (2 episodes, 2005)
Badi Uzzaman	...	Caimakan (2 episodes, 2005)
Aiman Zahabi	...	Kher-Heb (2 episodes, 2005)

Also Known As:

Discovering Ancient Egypt (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

60 min (6 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Aswan, Egypt

Marvellous and Original

Many of us are familiar with the story of the discovery of Tutenkhamun's tomb but Egypt goes into it in much greater detail. Egypt presents the events that led to the story of the curse of Tutenkhamun in a level headed way. I wonder though, how true is the story about Howard Carter having a thing for Lady Evelyn Carnarvon? Mind you, when she's played by the lovely, slightly Keira Knightley-ish Alexandra Weaver who can blame him? Giovanni Belzoni was a colourful larger than life character whose priceless contributions to Egyptology are not well known to the general public. Thanks to him, marvellous Egyptian treasures such as the Head of the Younger Memnon are now in the British Museum. Thanks to CGI, Egypt shows us Abu Simbel exactly as it was found by Belzoni, half buried by the sandstorms of three millenia. CGI also shows us what these monuments looked like when they were newly built and it's very strange as hitherto it was hard to conceive of them as anything other than ruins. Although the discovery of the Rosetta Stone is well known this series tells us about another name not known to many people, Jean Francois Champollion. I used to think that with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone translating the hieroglyphs would have been as straightforward as looking up a language dictionary. Egypt shows us that it wasn't as easy as that. Champollion deciphered their meaning and enabled the reason for the construction of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh to be discovered. I recommend buying the DVD very strongly. As another reviewer says, it can be watched over and over again. It's great.