TV’S HISTORY PIONEER
FROM INDIANA Jonesstyle underground caverns to the Silk Roads of Azerbaijan,tv historian Bettany Hughes has packed in enough exploring for several lifetimes. And she remains amazed by the human kindness she comes across, recalling how a remote mystic sect she encountered on her latest travels offered their condolences – and a toast – to the late Queen Elizabeth.
Bettany was in deepest Albania when she came across members of the Sufi sect of Islam. She said: “We were welcomed by this remote group.
“We couldn’t have been made more welcome and, as it turned out, the Queen had just died. And these people, in this remote Sufi Bektashi community, all stood up and toasted the Queen.
“They said, ‘We’re sorry for your loss’. It really was a lovely moment.
“We hadn’t even mentioned it, either.
“They just sort of took it on themselves.
“They said, ‘So you must be sad. Let’s stand up and remember the Queen’.
“And we did. It was really genuinely touching.”
Bettany was filming for the second series of Treasures Of The World on Channel 4, after series one proved to be a global hit.
She said her latest travels had revealed a “Dunkirk spirit” running throughout history, with our ancestors refusing to succumb to the various challenges they faced.
Having visited Arabia, Turkey, Cyprus, Oman, Albania, Jordan and along the Silk Roads of Azerbaijan, she said: “What I came back with was this positive warm feeling that throughout history, even though there were terrible times and challenges thrown in our way, we are a very resilient species.
“Although we make stupid mistakes a lot of the time, we are also very good at looking for the beauty in life.
“It’s almost a Dunkirk spirit we find right across the world.
“It’s just people refusing to be defeated by what life is throwing at them.”
Her role even took her close to modern-day action, with the invasion of Ukraine underway.
She said: “At one point in Azerbaijan we were a few miles from the Russian border.
“And another time we were a couple of miles from Iran when everything was kicking off, so it just really focuses the mind. “Nine times out of 10 with the histories I’m covering, these borders aren’t there. That is when you see civilisations working: when we have influence and ideas coming from all points of the compass.
“It was a reminder of that, of the terrible irony of us looking at these beautiful places and poems generated by people coming together when the world is fracturing.”
In the first episode she visits central Turkey and the preroman ruins of King Antiochus’s tomb-sanctuary atop Mount Nemrut.
The diplomatic king was “not a bad guy” but was “not a man without ego” and showed how little autocrats such as Vladimir Putin have changed over time, she said.
“In history, as a species, we are not very good at knowing when to stop,” she said.
“People getting addicted to that buzz of power, the achievement... It’s seeing where
ambition leads, and often it’s just being addicted to success and the chance of expanding your own territories.”
Among her adventures was a visit to a Game of Thrones-like community in the Albanian alps.
The walled Christian town, dating back to 800 AD, had a “huge” population of 8,000 with artefacts from across the Silk Road. She said: “It feels like you’re in Shangri-la it’s completely unspoilt.
“Women would have worn these thick metal chokers around their necks. Rings of eagles as a symbol of the town – 8,000 people, that’s huge.
“There were beads from Baghdad, beads from Venice. It’s this absolute lost world.”
But she did not feel in personal danger as a female historian in any of the countries.
“Often when I’m filming I’m 100 yards away from the crew who are hiding behind a bush somewhere. So it looks as though I’m alone.”
BETTANY added: “But the second I walk past a house, let’s say an open doorway, I would be invited in – in Turkey and Azerbaijan – for cups of tea and chocolate biscuits, even into the poorest homes.”
She has been compared to Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, and revealed it was Harrison Ford’s character who set her on the path to unearth hidden secrets.
Bettany, 55, who is married with two daughters, said: “Indiana Jones is not an example of good archaeological practice. But, you know, I watched it when I was a child and I do remember thinking, ‘This is the world I want to be a part of’.
“Sometimes it feels like the real Indiana because we go into some pretty extreme places.
“It’s because that’s where the archaeology and the history is.”
And she believes it will be a long time before interest in history dwindles. “When I was starting out, people just said to me ‘history is dead, nobody is interested in watching it on television’.
“But actually 450 million people around the world watch these programmes. I was one of the first female historians to have a history series on TV. I think you have to earn your stripes.when I first started out I think people thought it was a bit of a gimmick, having a woman doing these serious shows.
“People talked a lot about what I wore and how I looked.
“What’s been great is now with each series people are focused on what I’m talking about. So there has been a bit of a change.
“I was walking through an Indian temple and a couple from Poland came over and said, ‘We’ve just been watching your Greek shows and thank you so much’. It was one of the reasons that they booked to go to one of the places I’ve been to. I think people have always been interested in history.
“In a way, television feels confident about that now. Because if you think about it, history is just learning about other people’s lives in fascinating places.”
The new series of Bettany Hughes’ Treasures Of The World, will air weekly on Channel 4 from Saturday, February 11