How a video game helped the British Library bring lost history to life
From a Disney comic book starring Scrooge McDuck to a never-ending reel of scenes from India’s most expensive TV series, the British Library’s latest exhibition is eclectic to say the least.
Billed as a tribute to Alexander the Great’s legacy, this is as much an exhibition about storytelling as it is one man, culminating in a display of how technology can bring such legends to life.
Born in Macedon in 356BC, in reality Alexander travelled so far as northwest India, his vast empire from Greece to Egypt recorded here across paintings, tablets, and scriptures that would look right at home in any of the world’s greatest museums.
His legend, though, knew no such geographical limits. Whether the son of a serpent magician (Nectanebo, not Voldemort), or a brave warrior who stared down a mighty dragon, George-style, mythical stories starring Alexander began during his lifetime and have survived throughout the years since.
Bringing such adventures together is the Ebstorf map. First made in Germany around 1300, it was the largest world map in existence from the Middle Ages until it was destroyed during the Second World War.
It boasted more than 2,000 entries across more than 30 parchment sheets, hundreds of which were illustrated, including more than a dozen explicitly related to Alexander – including some of his fictional escapades.
A reproduction of the lost map on display at the library. Pic: Kloster Ebstorf/British Library
A new interactive version has been created for the library by students from visual effects school Escape Studios, the producer of young talent which has worked on films including Star Wars and games like Assassin’s Creed.
Displayed akin to an opening credits sequence from Game Of Thrones, it presents landmarks and milestones from Alexander’s real and imagined lives, just as the original map did, but now in 3D.
“A mix of real places, physical locations, and sheer fantasy,” is how Yrja Thorsdottir, the library’s digital content exhibition curator, describes it.
She tells Sky News that the new map is a case of how technology is allowing curators to “bring lost things to life”.
The digital version of the map is fully interactive. Pics: British Library
‘Technology allows us to bring lost history back’
Perhaps the most striking example of that is saved for last.
Upon his death aged 32, the likely cause of which continues to divide historians, Alexander’s body was transported from Babylon to Egypt and placed inside a long-lost mausoleum at Alexandria.
The exhibition – unafraid to jump from ancient manuscripts to films and even anime – culminates with a detailed reconstruction of the tomb from the video game Assassin’s Creed Origins, scaled up and projected on to the walls.
“We’ve lost the tomb, we’ve lost the map, technology allows us to sort of bring them back,” says Ms Thorsdottir.
Assassin’s Creed has made its recreations of history’s great cities something of a calling card since it debuted, way back in what now feels positively ancient 2007.
From Constantinople to Athens, each choice has required a world larger in scope – yet still greater in detail – than any that came before.
“Our colleagues who made the first Assassin’s Creed (set in the Holy Land during the Crusades) did an excellent job and paved the way for what it has become,” Thierry Noel, in-house historian at developer Ubisoft, tells Sky News.
“But as it became such a well known franchise, it became obvious there would be more and more need to recreate bigger worlds, to be more accurate, to find more information, and that’s why the team I lead was born.”
Greek puppets depicting Alexander fighting a dragon. Pic: British Library
Alexander depicted on an Ethiopian scroll. Pic: British Library
‘It’s about creating an experience’
Origins, released in 2017 and set in Egypt from 49 to 43BC, was the first entry to benefit from Mr Noel’s team, who scour museums, libraries and historical locations around the world to bring them to life digitally.
“We used everything we had to imagine how the tomb could have been,” he says.
Such research is what led to the collaboration with the library, as his team took inspiration from a prior exhibition of Anglo-Saxon art during development of 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, set in England during the time of Vikings.
For some players, such locales may only ever act as a sandbox within which to carry out brutal murder. The idea of such a game being leveraged at an institution like the British Library may sound to some – like many of the stories passed on about Alexander – like fantasy.
But to those behind this exhibition, they present opportunities for storytelling that are here to stay.
“It’s about engaging people in different ways,” says Adrian Edwards, head of printed collections.
“An element of an exhibition like this is theatre, it’s about creating an experience.
“The level of detail they invest in now to visualise these places from history, it gives you a real sense of what it might have been like.”
Alexander the Great: The Making Of A Myth is open at the British Library until 19 February 2023.
David Graham, whose voice featured in some of the UK’s favourite TV shows, including Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig, has died.
The London-born star was 99.
Jamie Anderson, the son of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, led the tributes on X as he called Graham a “legendary” actor.
Graham brought to life the Thunderbirds puppet characters Gordon Tracy, scientist Brains, and Lady Penelope’s driver, Aloysius “Nosey” Parker, in the series about the secret International Rescue organisation.
David Graham with Parker from Thunderbirds. Pic: Geoff Pugh/Shutterstock
“We will miss you dearly, David. Our thoughts are with David’s friends and family,” Anderson’s post on X confirming the death on Friday said.
Anderson went on to pay tribute to Graham, who also voiced the evil Daleks in Doctor Who, saying: “David was always a wonderful friend to us here at Anderson Entertainment.”
‘What a talent’
Anderson also told the PA news agency: “Just a few weeks ago, I was with 2,000 Anderson fans at a Gerry Anderson concert in Birmingham where we sang him happy birthday – such a joyous occasion.
“And now, just a few weeks later, he’s left us. David was always kind and generous with his time and his talent. And what a talent.”
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Parker from Thunderbirds. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
Highlighting all the characters played by Graham, Anderson added: “He will be sorely missed.”
Graham returned as Parker for ITV’s remake Thunderbirds Are Go, which ran between 2015 and 2020, but not for the live-action 2004 film which saw Ron Cook take on the role.
Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
The original 1965 Thunderbirds was created by Gerry Anderson, who died in 2012, and his second wife, Sylvia, the voice of Lady Penelope, who died in 2016.
Graham also played Grandpa Pig in children’s show Peppa Pig, and provided the voice for characters in Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.
His in-person acting roles included Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Casualty.
“Trailblazing” actress Cleo Sylvestre who starred in films, soap operas and stage plays has died aged 79, her agent has said.
Sylvestre, also known as Cleopatra Palmer, appeared in productions as diverse as Crossroads, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the first Paddington movie.
A spokesperson for Fulcrum Talent said: “It is with deep regret that I have to announce the sad news that Cleo Sylvestre MBE died this morning.
“Much loved and admired by her peers, she will be remembered as a trailblazer and a true friend. She will be sorely missed by so many.”
Sylvestre and Susan Hanson in Crossroads. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Sylvestre was also a singer and recorded with The Rolling Stones, who backed her on a 1964 cover of To Know Him Is To Love Him. She later worked as a musician with her blues band Honey B Mama And Friends.
Born in Hertfordshire in April 1945, she was brought up in London by her mother Laureen Sylvestre and studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
She was made an MBE in 2023 for services to drama and charity and was married to Ian Palmer until his death in 1995.
Sylvestre enjoyed roles in some of TV’s best-known shows, including playing Melanie Harper, the adopted daughter of Meg Richardson in ITV’s long-running Crossroads, during the 1970s.
Other TV roles came in The Bill, New Tricks, Till Death Do Us Part, Grange Hill, Doctor Who and Coronation Street.
Sylvestre in 1968. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Her more recent parts included ITV thriller Platform 7, and Channel 5’s revamp of All Creatures Great And Small.
Sylvestre began her acting career on the stage and was the first black actress to take a leading role in a National Theatre production – in National Health in 1969.
She made her Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) debut playing Audrey in a 2023 production of As You Like It.
Her film roles have ranged from the 2014 film Paddington, Kidulthood from 2006 and 1993’s The Punk.
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US-born playwright and author Bonnie Greer wrote on X that Sylvestre was “one of the reasons that-from my vantage point in NYC (New York City) that I thought that this country has the best anglophone theatre, and the best place to be a Black woman in it”.
She added: “I still think that. Thank you, Cleo!”
Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the UK’s first sickle cell nurse specialist, wrote that she was “devastated” at the death of her “wonderful, kind friend”.
A painting of a nude woman with her legs open has prompted a police visit to an art gallery in Mid Wales.
The painting is on display in the window of The Table in Hay-on-Wye, Powys.
Warning: The image below shows the painting
According to gallery owner Val Harris, the police have asked her to remove the painting under the Public Order Act, but she has refused to do so.
Ms Harris told Sky News the response the painting had received from some people was “shocking” and “rather sad”.
“We had the police here under the Public Order Act. They’d had complaints,” she said.
“I’m not prepared to take it out of the window. I run an art gallery, I support my artists, so that’s where we got to.
“And Poppy [Baynham, the artist] wants to keep it in the window, if she wanted to move it ’cause she was finding it too traumatic, I would have respected whatever she wanted.”
The painting formed part of the gallery’s It’s Party Time exhibition.
Some of the complaints were read out in a public meeting on Thursday afternoon, called so people could ask questions about the artwork.
One complaint was that the painting was “not suitable for children”, while another described it as “very sexualised”.
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Baynham told Sky News it was “only supportive people” who attended the meeting after the complaints had been made.
“I think everyone who didn’t like the painting was just a bit scared to show their faces obviously. So it turned out really, really great, a lot of people showed up,” she said.
“I couldn’t do it without the support, I think I would have given in if it was all hate.”
The painting on display at The Table. Pic: Val Harris
The discussion that has been sparked by Ms Baynham’s painting is “all an artist dreams of”, she added.
“The publicity has been amazing for my work, I’ve never had so much people talk about it.”
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A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed it had received a report and that officers had attended the gallery.
They added the neighbourhood policing team was monitoring the situation.
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