In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great is a BBC documentary television series, first shown in 1998. Written and presented by historian and broadcaster Michael Wood,[1]
it retraced the travels of Alexander the Great, from Macedonia to the borders of India and back to Mesopotamia.[2][3]
Production
Wood was prevented by the government of Greece from interviewing Eugene N. Borza, a professor specializing in the history of Macedonia, anywhere within Greece, apparently because of Borza's controversial[4] views on the ethnic differences between the Greeks and Macedonians in ancient times.[5]
In an article published in Summer 1998, Eugene N. Borza expressed approval of the series but was unhappy with the accompanying book.[13]
Book
The book In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: A Journey from Greece to Asia, by Michael Wood, is a companion to the television series. It was published, by the University of California Press in Berkeley and Los Angeles, by Routledge in New York, in 1997.[14]
The book was ranked fifth in the original non-fiction section of the Bookwatch bestsellers list published in The Independent on 14 August 1998, and was included in the lists published on 28 August and 18 September 1998.[15]
K R Moore (ed). Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great. (Brill's Companions to Classical Reception, vol 14). Brill. Leiden and Boston. 2018. pp 707 & 708
^For reviews of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" in "Television Choice: Of tears and somersaults", The Times, 14 July 1998, p 46; and Peter Barnard, "Some talk of Alexander, some of Cecil Gee", The Times, 15 July 1998, p 47.
^The Times, 21 July 1998, p 43. The Independent, 21 July 1998, "The Tuesday Review" section, 21 July 1998, p 20
^For a review of this episode, see Nancy Banks-Smith, "Well, that's poetry that is", The Guardian Weekly, Volume 159, Number 6, 9 August 1998, p 26.