My Passion For The Past

Mary Beard on delving into the history of art and why ancient times still matter today…

Historian Mary Beard is well known for her engaging and accessible historical programmes about the Romans, including her recent documentary on Julius Caesar.

But the Cambridge University Classics professor is spreading her net wider this week to present the fourth episode of BBC2’s series Civilisations, which continues the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day.

In The Eye of Faith, Mary travels the globe to visit sacred sites, such as Buddhist caves, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, and examine the boundaries between the controversial, and often dangerous, subject of religion and art.

Here, in an exclusive interview with TV Times, Mary, 63, talks carbonate cakes, Caesar’s comb-over and Casualty’s Charlie Fairhead…