IN MY VIEW C
URSE you, M-Net. Since you’ve folded three channels into one, forcing me to wait weeks for shows to finish airing before new ones appear to feature, I’ll have to throw a rock to help me pick something less obvious.
And speaking of curses, if you didn’t catch Tutankhamun when it aired last year, now’s your chance to make up for it
(itv, channel 123, Thursday, 21:00). It’s a mini-series dramatising the search for the tomb of the eponymous pharaoh by archaeologist Howard Carter (played by Max Irons) and his financier Lord George Carnarvon (Sam Neill).
Just a word of warning, if you’re anything like me, this show might have you surfing the net for hours afterwards absorbing all the info on ancient Egypt you can find.
The series is in four parts, each of which details a milestone in the search. The first episode shows Carter and Carnarvon teaming up to explore the Valley of Kings, but their plans are derailed by World War 1. In episode two they get back on track and risk everything to find the tomb. In episode three Carnarvon is desperate to sell the story to someone to recoup his dwindled fortune, and in the final episode Carnarvon dies and his daughter Evelyn (Amy Wren) joins Carter in trying to salvage the whole mess.
Interestingly, the death of Carnarvon in real life, which resulted from a mosquito bite that became infected after being nicked by a razor, started a widespread rumour about the Curse of Tutankhamun. All-in-all about a dozen people died shortly after visiting the tomb, enough to spook those of a superstitious mindset.
In actuality, it was cherry-picking of the facts, since the vast majority of people who visited the tomb did not die shortly afterwards — including Carter himself, who found and opened the tomb in the first place. He died a decade later. Maybe the “curse” was in no hurry.
Here’s a subject I generally avoid because I know nothing about it, and if I tried to write as if I did, I’d a make a damn fool of myself. The show is called Eco Fashion, and it’s been running for quite a while on Fashion One (channel 178, Sunday, 19:30).
The online guide for this episode lists it as season three, episode four, which focuses on Alexandra Polyarus and her eponymous fashion brand, Polyarus. The description mentions that their clothing is made from recycled materials “such as car tires and more” — which evokes images from postapocalyptic Mad Max movies or the Fallout games, in which the characters strap rusty saucepans, hubcaps, skulls and metal signs to their bodies using roadkill pelts.
But as amusing as that would be, this is a bit more serious. Polyarus also makes handbags and other accessories and apparently hopes to teach the world’s upper crust about sustainability.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. At best it might be in vogue for a moment, but I’m sure they’ll be back to their retail snobbery right quick.
And lastly, here’s something a bit more within my sphere of interest. On Discovery Family (channel 136) on Thursday at
20:10, we have Secret Space Escapes. This episode deals with the fire aboard the Russian space station Mir. The episode cuts frequently to interviews with US astronaut Jerry Lineger, who was rocketed up to Mir in the late ’90s to swap places with US astronaut John Blaha.
Most of us probably think of space flight, or in this case habitation, in sci-fi movie terms: clean, sleek and hi-tech. Lineger’s accounts are a fascinating contrast to this, painting a picture of a cramped, grimy, creaking tub with frequent system failures — after all, the station was only built for a five-year mission, but ended up serving 15.
It’s got to be disconcerting to get a whiff of a nasty chemical smell and realise something is leaking on board, and it’s not like you can open a window for some fresh air. Because of this, the crew came to rely on their solid chemical oxygen supply, which eventually led to the fire.