Da Vinci Cod

Last night's telly featured The Real Da Vinci Code, a witty and concise debunking of the fantasies lying behind such tomes as The Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood & Holy Grail.

Personally, I blame Erich von Däniken...

Tony Robinson (he of Time Team and, remember, Blackadder) travels the world to uncover some of the hoaxes and half-truths behind the books that so fascinate the sort of people who never grew out of playing Secret Seven in the garden shed.

I think he makes it clear that these people have been taken in by mis-readings and well-planned cons, as opposed to being engaged in active deception themselves.
And it's not a crime to be credulous.
Although I think it is a crime to produce a novel that (whatever its factual provenance) is written is a piss-poor and slap-dash fashion. Ahem.

Robinson' travels take him to, amongst other places, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel and the intricate and beautiful Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, Scotland.

The documentary touched on some genuinely interesting factual issues, specifically that of the Nag Hammadi documents, found by Muhammad Ali al-Samman in 1945 near the village of al-Qasr in Upper Egypt; more here.

It also used clips from an all-time favourite film, Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Nice.
Am picking it up forthwith on DVD.

What sort of Grail Knight are you? Or read the script. Or the original pre-shooting 1974 script.
Exactitude. I like it.

But you can take it too far. See here. Oh my God. But then I was actively searching for it which probably makes me an accessory after the fact. Tut.