Fascinating, plausible ideas undermined by Netflix: Ancient Apocalypse reviewed

Graham Hancock’s Ancient Apocalypse has been described by the Guardian as ‘the most dangerous show on Netflix’. What? More dangerous than the undigested, neo-Malthusian eco-propaganda that it serves up in its collaborations with Sir David Attenborough? More dangerous than its notorious movie Cuties, whose portrayal of hypersexualised children prompted a worldwide ‘Cancel Netflix’ campaign?

The Guardian’s main beef is that by flirting with speculations outside mainstream archaeology – Atlantis, giants, the survivors of the great flood and so on – the show ‘whispers to the conspiracy theorist in all of us’. But oddly enough, I found the opposite to be true. In fact, there were times when I felt as if, at every turn, Hancock’s fascinating ideas were being undermined by a series producer determined to make him look a bit slippery and unreliable.

I say this as a huge fan of Hancock. I’ve listened to his lectures, read some of his writing, and find his theories on ancient civilisations fascinating, seductive, plausible and well researched.