Tutankhamun

Well...

Definitely romanticized. Fairly accurate historically. Carter is a bit changed to be as much like Brandon Frasier's/ Nicolas Cage's archaeologist characters as they can get away with, to make this more interesting. Other characters are altered to be pretty eccentric to peak interest, to enrich the story.

As long as they stick to the actual history, I don't mind them taking such poetic license.

It is historically accurate so far as I said. The actual story is there. They didn't show that early on Carter really was in charge of practically everything. They kind of showed him as simply an archaeologist who lost his permit. He was actually in charge of the whole area when he lost his title, over a dispute with arrogant French tourists. They also didn't emphasize that because of his willingness to fight for his workers, they were very loyal to him. I hope that comes out.

I do feel they could have easily started with his boyhood and added a few episodes to this.

They also didn't show that for years he survived on his art, selling it to tourists. And his art was good! Find an original Howard Carter, you've got something.

Other than that...it's pretty darn good.

Added:

Wow did this go off the rails eventually. It's one thing to create a couple of characters in a historic story, for romance and intrigue, like Titanic did. It's another thing to take a real 21 year old woman, and put her in a romance with a real 48 year old guy! Libel, I would almost suspect? Are there living relatives who might be kind of offended? They've got this fantasy romance effecting decisions and outcomes of historic importance. Jack and Rose's fantasy romance didn't effect the steering of the Titanic, or other real events. They're making things happen because of this fake hook up.

The harshest reviews here have been by people criticizing the series historical inaccuracies, but all I know about the discovery of King Tut's tomb I know from a little light reading after watching the series, so I really don't care if there were no Rolls Royce's in Egypt at the time.

But purely as a historical drama, the series isn't especially well constructed. I don't mind the romance between Carter and Lady Evelyn because it most likely never happened but rather because it overshadows the actual story of the tomb. The problem is that the script never makes me care about that relationship, yet focuses on it so much that I feel the science is completely underserved.

I was also a little bothered by the portrayal of the Egyptian government as officious, soulless bureaucrats. I'm not saying they weren't, but I think the history of Egypt, Britain, and artifacts is a rather complicated one and this strikes me as a simplistic approach.

Overall, this feels like a script written by someone who wasn't convinced that Carter's discovery of the Tomb was particularly compelling, and thus ginned it up with romance and conflict and attempted to shape it into a conventional and fairly forgettable little drama.

On the other hand, the story is scenic, the actors are likable, there are good moments, and overall the series kept me entertained until it fizzled at the end.

Loved the show, I've been to the valley of the kings and I remember travelling up the road to get there and you pass carters house. Didn't enter Tut's tomb because it cost extra, but there are so many great tombs to see. Anyway all the stuff is in the Egyptian museum in Cairo which I did see

Lots of the other reviews here are quite critical of this show for some of its liberties with the details to the point of one criticising the colour of the stone!!

Not being someone who intimately knows about this subject I wont pretend to question their reasons for so much hate but I will say that I found it both interesting and entertaining as did my 10 year old son who is very excited to see the final episode when it airs.

I found the acting acceptable, but not exceptional, I have certainly seen far worse in some other recent prime time shows. I think the show hit the balance between the history lesson and entertainment so that all ages could be drawn into the story and learn something in the process.

Isn't that the sign of a good show? No hate here, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this.

I would like to address the review by "lukemanning from London" who probably thinks every American accent is a valley girl accent. As a Canadian, our accent is very close to the American accent, so I feel pretty qualified to say that Catherine Steadman's American accent was very good, I didn't realize she wasn't American. Very good for a modern American accent that is, I wouldn't know whether this was accurate for early 20th-century America.

I am originally Egyptian (Egyptian who grew up in Canada) and I have been looking into the actors of the Egyptian characters in Tutankhamun and I have been quite disappointed. Only one of them (Selim) seems to have Egyptian origins, but even he is actually ethnically mixed and doesn't look completely Egyptian, and his Arabic accent wasn't great. The rest didn't seem to be Egyptian. Egyptian cinema is booming, there is no shortage of Egyptian actors, and all Egyptians learn English in school, so there really is no reason why they couldn't have used Egyptian actors rather than British actors who look like they could pass for Egyptians. The Egyptian economy definitely needs all the help it can get right now, so it feels a little bit of an affront that they would make a movie set in Egypt and benefit off Egyptian history, and yet choose the filming and the Egyptian characters to have nothing at all to do with Egypt, thereby avoiding benefiting Egypt in any way.

I am enjoying the show and find it entertaining, but I am disappointed with how it was not Egyptian in any way. I hope that this show at least makes people more interested in visiting Egypt and brings back some of the tourism that has died in the last few years.