I want to find out why Nefertiti disappeared so mysteriously.
Growing up I was fascinated by…
World War II and the Nazis. It was all around me. My father served as an RAF pilot in South Africa during the war, while his brother – my uncle –was a merchant marine officer who was killed when a U-boat sunk his ship. Hitler and the Nazis were the great evil in the world – but for me, growing up, that whole period wasn’t just history. It was my family life, and it was alive with relevance and power.
My favourite period or conflict…
As a young film-maker, I was fascinated by prehistory, and the period when humans first developed a consciousness — a sense of themselves, of religion and community. I’m no expert but I have visited some fascinating sites over the years — from the cave paintings of Pech Merle [below] in France to the 12,000-year-old site of what’s considered to be the first temple, at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. I find the story of how faith and identity developed fascinating. It’s certainly different from the day job, which is World War II.
