Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Presented by | Dan Cruickshank |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Producer(s) | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Distributor | BBC |
Release | |
Original network | BBC Two |
Picture format | 16:9 576i |
Audio format | Stereo |
Original release | 30 October | – 4 December 2005
Chronology | |
Related shows | Egypt |
External links | |
Website |
Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank is a BBC Television documentary series in which Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.
The series was commissioned to accompany the docudrama series Egypt which ran concurrently on BBC One.
Sam Wollaston writing in The Guardian complemented the series as "a more scholarly appendage to the BBC1 show," stating that "Cruickshank was charming, breathless and enthusiastic, whispering every sentence to the camera as if he's telling you, and only you, an amazing secret," before going on to comment that his favourite scene involved a donkey, "as favourite scenes often do."David Chater writing in The Times complimented Cruickshank's "inimitable style".
David Liddiment writing in The Guardian compliments the cleverly twinning of this more cerebral series with the docudrama on BBC One but he points out that this was done during the final stages of the BBC's charter renewal review and insists that the corporation should keep up standards after this process is completed.
Cruickshank finds out about the mysterious people who built the spectacular underground tombs of the Pharaohs.
Cruickshank flies over the Valley of the Kings where the pharaohs hid their tombs over 3,500 years ago. Over 60 tombs are dug into the walls of the valley where the bodies and riches inside could be guarded from tomb robbers. Descending into the massive KV5, built by Rameses II for his sons, Cruickshank is able to admire the precise engineering skills of its builders. In the Tomb of Horemheb, sealed before it could be completed, he admires the unfinished work of the tomb artists. At Deir el-Medina he sees where the generations of builder, painters, sculptors and engineers who built the tombs lived with their families kept separate from the rest of the world.