ABSTRACT
This chapter examines television images of Ancient Egypt in the UK because the early production of television documentaries was directly affected by the structure of governance in the country concerned, and the UK was the original home of the quality documentary. Ancient Egypt was an obvious choice for any historically based documentaries from the outset of television development, simply because of the relative familiarity of the population with things Egyptian – the pyramids, Tutankhamun, and early civilization were all ideal subjects. People's familiarity with Ancient Egypt provides an invaluable component in historic/strategic games, yet the images of splendour, treasure and mystery make Egypt an ideal backdrop to the science fiction/fantasy style of game. The small screen in the age of the internet and the increasing sophistication of image reproduction has seen the explosion of ancient Egyptian images in a myriad of websites, releasing a stream of ever more imaginative and unlikely views on Ancient Egypt.
