Pharoah, Hollywood, and The BBC

Having estranged ourselves as a family from television broadcasting some ten plus years ago, I recall the evocative experience of walking past a wing of BBC studios administrative offices numerous times last summer, as we took Israel to auditions in a nearby suite.

Imagery of Alistair Cooke and Masterpiece Theatre; Monty Python's Flying Circus . . .a host of other programming employed by PBS that expanded our [then] plugged in world of home entertainment would swirl up from the recesses of my memory to the forefront of my thinking.

They were ancient, crusty memories. Nothing new, fresh, nor relevant to my current experience was available. Obviously, by presence of offices, the BBC was well and good, pressing forward into new cinematic frontiers, even as I pondered the past.

I can't quite say I discovered a cartouche, nor a sarcophagus . . .no. Rather, and perhaps, I've stumbled upon a monument of exhaustive proportions - a temple, a tomb that even yet tells a story, coming alive again, such as Ramses managed to do as his glorious building programs were unearthed by Giovanni Belzoni; the hieroglyphs unlocked by Joseph Champillion - the BBC production house being a front runner in excellence in today's television industry.

When I requested the DVD from the library, Egypt, I thought I had obtained a basic documentary on the wise of a National Geographic production. What we discovered I had actually unearthed was a nine hour dramatization, depicting the lives and discoveries of Howard Carter and more. So well researched were the characters, we've walked away from this series feeling as though we've connected with the person of Carter. The person of Belzoni. The person of Champillion. The person of the Nile, and the crocodiles thereof.

Um, no. Wait.

Let's NOT personify the Nile. Nor the crocs.

With fresh phone calls from LA and auditions in our inbox after a hiatus at home, I can't help but thread a cord through my fresh, seemingly coincidental, awareness of the industry and ponder what lie ahead.