Ancient Greece by Train

Alice Roberts 'Ancient Greece by Train' seems to have been thought up on the back of a gym membership.

Awful, with no script to speak of. Even noticed her eyes glazing over when the most interesting interviewee talks about his culture. Oh dear. There's dumming down; and then there's this.

The lack of any in depth explaining of the places Alice visits in the context of the times was the only breathtaking thing I took from it.

Compare this with 'Delfi: the Belly Button of the Ancient World' with Michael Scott from 2010 which was an interesting explanatory look at the history of Ancient Greece which informed as well as entertained.

Oh, I forgot to mention the utterly pointless mention of visiting places by train. The extensive use of taxis (if you know the geography of the Greek rail network) hardly gets a nod!

I do not know what was purpose of this documentary. If is promotion of tourism I would understand. Presenter who is apparently PhD use very poor vocabulary to express her impressions.

Interaction with some of the archaeologist were poor. Interrupting archaeologist in the middle of sentence and then saying "yeah" every 3 seconds and "wow" was high light of her narration. The episode with Korinth was shockingly poor. Moment when she met American archeologist was perfect moment to get some intresting facts but she again cut conversations short with ending conversation with some silly joke. In comparison with some BBC documentaries this was really disappointing for all lovers of Aincent Greece. Channel 4 can do better. I think any student of Archaeology or history would do better with more enthusiasm and love for archaeology. However if this documentary is only about train route for tourists to promote museums and tourist sights in that case it is ok.

This is little more than a collection of clips of Alice randomly meandering through Greece being filmed presumably by her husband and a friend with a first generation iPhone and a child's drone. Production values are so poor it's actually hilarious in places. Anyone watching on a screen bigger than a phone will think their eyesight has gone every half a minute as shots switch away from their one good camera.

Occasionally pretty things to look at but little more than something to have on in the background with the sound off. As for the notion of this being "by train", just add that to the list of baffling things on display here!

I like Alice Roberts, and this documentary is a good introduction to Greece for those who do not know much about the country.

The reason I do not rate the programme higher, is the lack of impartiality and balance. When they mention the Elgin Marbles, they interview the Greek minister, but no one from the British Museum. They put the Greek point of view which Alice endorses, but do not put forward any of the opposing arguments (no attempt at balanced reporting): e.g. Giving the Marbles to Greece would set a precedence. Should all artifacts around the World only be kept in the country of origin (despite being legally obtained)? How did the Greeks pay for the Marbles in the first place - via conquest of other neighbours e.g. The Delian League?