In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

Combining popular history with adventure and travel, charismatic historian Michael Wood (In Search of the Trojan War) embarks on an odyssey to discover a man whose myth and achievements still resonate today. Follow the ancient triumphal march of Alexander of Macedonia from Greece to India, through 16 countries and four present-day war zones. A turning point in human history, Alexander's conquest opened up contacts between Europe and Asia, as well as political consequences that have reverberated down the centuries.

1 - Son of God
Michael begins the series as 21-year-old Alexander and his Greek army set out to invade Asia and overthrow the Persian Empire. En route, he recounts Alexander's early years. His mother, Olympias, was intensely devoted to strange religious cults, but Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, one of the great philosophers. He was 21 when he succeeded to the throne in 336 BC, following the assassination of his father. The kingdom he inherited already dominated a Greece exhausted by the war between Athens and Sparta. Shortly after becoming king, Alexander journeyed from northern Greece into Turkey where, in 334 and 333 BC, he visited Troy, disbanded his boats, marched along the sea coast and then, in a famous story, cut the Gordian Knot. At Issus, on the Syrian border, Alexander routed Persian leader Darius and then marched South through Lebanon. After a long siege at the Phoenician city of Tyre, the Persians' naval base, Alexander famously ordered all but those who had fled to the temples to be put to death and the buildings to be set on fire.Thousands were slaughtered. Michael continues on, to Gaza in Palestine, to learn about Alexander's impact on the Islamic world. Across into Egypt, he traces the conqueror's trek to the oracle of Siwa, an oasis deep in the Western Desert, where Alexander was proclaimed Pharaoh of Egypt and Son of God, and and he founded Alexandria, destined to become one of the great cities of the ancient world. The episode ends as Alexander prepares to strike at the heart of the Persian Empire, today's Iran.

Episode 2 - Lord of Asia
Travelling through the heart of modern-day Persia, or the second leg of the trek Michael Wood journeys to the shores of the Caspian Sea, where the young conqueror was declared Lord of Asia - poised to invade Afghanistan. Entering modern Iraq, Michael is unable to travel to the site in Northern Iraq of Alexander's decisive victory against Darius and the Persians, as it lies behind a modern military frontline. Instead he flown there and directly above the battleground, he describes the conflict for the navigator with the help of the aircraft's computer system. After the defeat of ther Persian army, the young Alexander invaded Persia itself, in hot pursuit of the fleeing Darius. Michael picks up the trail with the help of Iranian guides and continues his trek through the Zagros Mountains. At the ancient city of Susa, he hears the traditional tale-tellers recite Alexander's story. In this historical city, mothers still tell their children to go to bed or "Alexander will get you." Wherever he travels, Michael finds Alexander kept alive in songs and stories passed "from chest to chest".The Iranian guide who helps him re-create Alexander's daring approach to Persepolis, admires his predecessor's nerve but says: "If I had Alexander here now, I'd like to chop him into little pieces for what he did to Iran." At Persepolis, Michael finds the remains of the great palace burned down by the Greeks. Here, the Zoroastrians, followers of the ancient Iranian religion, tell the traditional tale of "Alexander The Accursed!" and reveal the sacred fire they have kept alight since Alexander's day.The intrepid historian then travels by foot, lorry and train to find the waterhole where Darius was slain by his own side. He continues on to the Caspian Sea, where Alexander prepared to invade Afghanistan.

Episode 3 - Across the Hindu
Kush Michael Wood makes his way through war-torn Afghanistan on a dramatic march with pack horses over the Hindu Kush Mountains.
At Kabul, Michael finds himself in the middle of a siege of the city by the fundamentalist Taliban. Hiring horses for the camera equipment and armed guards to ward off ambushes, he sets off to follow Alexander's trail, 20,000ft up in the Hindu Kush Mountains, to make it through the Khawak Pass and Central Asia. On the other side, the historical traveller stays with a local warlord before pushing on by jeep across the Oxus river into former Soviet Central Asia.The journey finally leads to the city of Khodjent. Here, Michael hears of Alexander's increasingly unstable personality. At a drunken banquet in Samarkand, the conqueror murdered one of his closest associates, fought on through the silk route, and then captured and fell in love with the beautiful teenager Roxanne.

Episode 4 - To the Ends of the Earth
Michael Wood recounts the tale of Alexander's final days before his sudden and mysterious death at the age of 32 in Babylon in the final programme of In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great.
After trekking through the Khyber Pass and into the valleys of Pakistan's North-West frontier, Michael encounters a retired Pakistani general who used to lecture about Alexander at a military college. The old soldier explains the tactics of Alexander's decisive battle with the Indian King Porus and his war elephants, before Michael crosses into India. At this point of his journey, Alexander decided to return to Iran through the deserts along the dreaded Makran coast, where many of his soldiers died of thirst and starvation. Michael picks up on the story, hiring a train of 32 camels to retrace Alexander's tortuous route to Babylon. There, Alexander's ultimate dreams of conquest were thwarted when he indulged in a prolonged drinking session which would lead to his strange death. Documentaries

Hosted by Michael Wood
Directed by David Wallace
Written by Michael Wood
Produced by Rebecca Dobbs
Executive Produced by Leo Eaton, Laurence Rees
Original Music by John Eacott
Cinematography by Peter Harvey
Film Editing by Robin Parsons

"Even if Michael Wood presented a programme on early tax inspectors I'd watch. He writes and presents his series with a clarity and enthusiasm that is infectious ... He certainly has a knack for bringing history alive."
Observer (Caroline Boucher)

"Michael Wood is the history teacher you wish you'd had, the story-teller you'd like at your campfire. His latest, epic four-parter is a cracker." Guardian (Sandy Smithies)

"This has the look of a great series. If history was taught this way in schools, there would be fewer people around who did not know the connection between 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. Alexander's story, his eastward trek from Macedonia to take revenge on the Persians, is one of the great tales of history, combining as it does valour, madness, vision, obsession, triumph and disaster. Wood does it full justice, using broad sweep and minutest detail in measures that are perfectly balanced to hold the viewer ... Compelling it certainly is." The Times (Peter Barnard)

"Wood is one of those presenters who, like Patrick Moore and Keith Floyd, combine expert knowledge and enthusiasm in a way that makes them almost impossible not to watch. The declaration that Alexander did not always plan ahead and was obstinate, but also lucky, seems pretty persuasive when you have just watched Wood wading chest high through the sea round rocky headlands, re-tracing the route along which Alexander led his men." Financial Times (Christopher Dunkley)

"In his passion for history, Michael Wood likes to search out those corners of time that survive more as romantic myth than as reliable memory, that float in the past seemingly unconnected to the world as we know it . . . Naturally, like any researcher, he delights in discovering the unknown, yet his objective is not academic. Rather it is to spread his enthusiasm for history to as many people as possible." New York Times

"Wood . . . has done something that most Alexander scholars would envy. With cameramen in tow, he has successfully followed the path trod by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC - and survived to tell about it." Library Journal

"Wood is a lively storyteller and the tale of Alexander is dramatic and colorful." Washington Post

"This is a marvelous adventure and a delicious taste of history." Publishers Weekly

"In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great has been a fascinating journey ... Michael and his team painted the contemporary as well as the ancient picture. Much of this epic trip looked like a tough slog to me, yet Michael, who I confess I do find cute, still looked good. He even found time to shave. But the chief attraction is his genuine enthusiasm for his subject. I shall be sorry when his journey is over, because I think he has achieved what good television is all about - to inform and to entertain ... My old history teacher... made events leap off the textbook page and Michael has the same gift."Western Daily Press (Sue Greenway)

"...engrossing historical travelogue..." Financial Times (Karl French)