17 January 2022, 12:00 am
A Very English Genius (UK)
Programme Type
Films and Exhibitions, Webcasts
End Date
23 January 2022, 11:59 pm

(58 min; 2002; English)

Director: Robin Dashwood

On 1 July 1952, a 30-year-old architect called Michael Ventris made a BBC radio broadcast which was to secure his place in archaeological and history books forever. He announced that he'd deciphered Linear B, Europe's earliest known, and previously incomprehensible, writing system. His discovery was to revolutionise our understanding of Western civilisation. It was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Ventris was no more than an amateur enthusiast, a man passionately and often tortuously determined to crack the linguistic code which had puzzled experts, archaeologists and academics for three decades.