Egypt 1999
Private Lives of the Pharaohs was a three‑part documentary series broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK. Our team had the rare privilege of filming on an active excavation site in the shadow of the Great Pyramids, where archaeologists had uncovered the burial ground of the ancient construction workers.
We also worked inside the Cairo Museum with Dr. Scott R. Woodward and Dr. C. Wilfred Griggs, documenting their pioneering efforts to extract DNA from 4,000‑year‑old mummies. This extraordinary access was only possible because the museum’s collection was being transferred from its original display cases into new, sealed, climate‑controlled units—an historic moment before the mummies would be inaccessible for decades.
During filming, Woodward and Griggs were searching for two missing foetuses believed to belong to Tutankhamun’s wife. Museum records indicated they were stored somewhere in Cairo, so we followed the professors on a city‑wide search that eventually led to a university hospital. There, we filmed the careful recovery of DNA samples—crucial evidence in reconstructing the lineage of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh. The foetuses were stored in the original boxes and cotton wool, and on one of the boxes you can see a label, handwritten by Carter, saying “TWO FOETUSES, 1 VISCERA FOR DR DERRY TO EXAMINE.”
And some behind the scenes pictures...
