THE TREASURES OF ATHENS AND OLYMPIA
A 3 x 25’ series for UK Channel Five
Athens is both the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games and the location for this year’s modern Olympics.
The legacy of Greece pervades the consciousness of all Western nations. The English-language’s
greatest early literature draws on Greek myths for inspiration; some of the most evocative words, including chaos, drama, tragedy and democracy, are Greek.
The glories of Classical Greek art and architecture are instantly and universally recognisable, despite the ravages of time, pillaging barbarians, and pollution; and are reflected in buildings in
every major city in Europe, Australia and the USA.
They also help draw to Greece many millions of tourists each year. 
Greece’s museums are packed with some the finest sculptures and
paintings on the planet. World museums, such as the British Museum, New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the Louvre, all have collections of Greek artefacts.
Buildings like The Parthenon and sites like Delphi and Olympia are
icons.
But Greek art is more, much more, than the classical. Greek painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, for example, are now being recognised as world class. Greek Byzantine icons are amongst the finest still in
existence.
Filmed in Greece and Britain these programmes - a unique fusion of travel and arts - explore the art and magnificent architecture of both Athens and Olympia and, on the way, examine the Greek
influence on Western culture.
Producer: First Freedom Productions/Allfilm
Availabilities: Worldwide all media ex. UK Broadcast
THE TREASURES OF ST PETERSBURG AND THE HERMITAGE
A 3 x 25’ series for UK Channel Five
This 3 x half-hour series celebrates the art and architecture of St Petersburg in its 300th anniversary.
Using the fantastic collections of what is probably the finest museum in the world, The Hermitage, as a theme the
programmes take the viewer on a tour of the treasures of this ‘Venice of the North’ .
From the Winter Palace, through wonders like St Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church on Spilled Blood, the Peter & Paul 
Fortress to the doomed Tsar Nicholas II’s retreat at Tsarskoe
Selo architectural lecturer, Paul Davies, tells us how this surreal city was, quite literally, built by Peter the Great on a swamp; and explains the extraordinary achievements of the men and women who
built the St Petersburg of today.
Leading art historians, including the Director of the Hermitage himself, Mikhail Borisovich 
Piotrovsky, introduce and tell us about the works of,
amongst others, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Monet and Picasso which have their home in the city.
We also see the preparations for moving millions of dollars worth of
Islamic art from Russia to Britain for the next exhibition at the Hermitage Rooms in London’s Somerset House.
The Hermitge Orchestra are seen performing the works of the great
Russian & European composers inside Catherine the Great’s theatre and provide the incidental music for the series as a whole
Producer: First Freedom Productions/Allfilm
Availabilities: Worldwide all media ex. UK Broadcast