Bettany Hughes

The TV historian talks to Lyn Hughes about coming to terms with her grief while filming a new series on India

- Lyn Hughes

Your new series, Exploring India's Treasures with Bettany Hughes, is very different to your last one. How did it come about?

We were asked to do it by [commissioning editor] Shaminder Nahal at Channel 4, who is as passionate about India as I am; I've been travelling there for decades. She said India cannot be contained in a single hour, so let's have something more narrative-based and regional. We've done North and South India in this series; the hope is we'll do East and West next.

It's got 'Exploring' in the title, and the idea was to cover some of the household names but try to do them in an unexpected way. With the Taj Mahal, we started in its gardens, because when people think of the gardens they think of that formal stretch of green going up to the famous white building. But actually, it was conceived as a whole landscape, including the river, and it was a replication of paradise. I found it moving to be in its overgrown secret back gardens, which are open to the public.

Then we wanted to bring in places like Hampi, which not many people know about and is incredible. It was the second-biggest city in the world in its time. We also wanted to drill down to what connects us across space and time, such as how you can go to that back garden in the Taj Mahal and feel the grief of Shah Jahan [who created the mausoleum in memory of his wife]. In Varanasi, I went to look at the depth of antiquity of the [burial] rites but got caught up in a very personal experience.

It's about understanding on a very human level why we can still connect, even if we live in different places and different times.

Visiting Varanasi must have been particularly difficult for you, as you had recently lost your mother and we can see your grief on screen.