The Real Da Vinci Code [DVD]

What could be more enthralling than a story woven around the persons of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalen, a possible blood-line rooted in their alleged progeny, and successive dramatic events in history linked not only to people who might have been their successors, but also to the secret societies who existed to keep this knowledge secret?

This two-hour enquiry into the background of Dan Brown's best-selling novel ranks amongst the best. Commissioned by Channel 4 Television, reporter Tony Robinson enquires into five main facets of the story to try and separate genuine fact from lurid fiction.

Was Leonardo da Vinci's depiction of the gentle John the Baptist at the Last Supper in Milan really a representation of MaryM, or is the painter's interest in androgynous types the reality?

Did Mary and her servant, Mary of Egypt, really sail to France after Christ's death with treasure that included the goblet holding the wine of the Last Supper that led to the founding of the Priory of Sion in southern France which was said not only to harbour that treasure, but also the secret knowledge of France's true Plantagenet royal lineage?

Were the Cathars of this region, and also the Knights Templar, privy to this knowledge and did they harbour(then bury)the treasure that included the Holy Grail, was the Grail really a Gradual (a book containing this knowledge?), or does attaining the Grail simply mean being in possession of supreme knowledge of the inner secrets of life?

Did some of the august members said to know about Christ's Bloodline (the Sang Real), which included great painters, try to indicate the secret to the world through their works of art and written documents (these included Nicolas Poussin and Jean Cocteau)?

Tony Robinson's travels take him to the Holy Land, Italy, France and finally Scotland, where the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, said to be an outpost of the Templars who escaped massacre, is built according to the proportions of Solomon's Temple.

So much of the background historical information can be corroborated - yet the people who finally publicised the story of the Da Vinci code and the story of the marriage of Christ and MaryM (publicised in the book Holy Blood and Holy Grail) are finally exposed by Tony Robinson as having concocted the entire thing as a blague to make fun of the gullible.

This is a very fair exercise in unravelling truth from fiction which leaves us with yet more to unpick for ourselves. Absolutely no need to read the book - just hire or buy this CD!

I would argue this production to be more entertaining than the movie. That is, for people who like this kind of systematic approach to the 'facts' laid out in Dan Brown's book. (To put things in perspective here, I must concede that while I actually watched it twice with full attention, my spouse managed to fall asleep several times throughout the process :-)

Above and beyond Dan Brown's storyline, the Grail story is also approached here from some other more traditional angles not covered in Brown's book, which has the value of putting many of the alternative Grail legacy in perspective.

Robinson's approach to present all this runs like a story in its own right: his own personal quest for the Grail. Robinson acts this role in a very innocently inquisitive way which turns out to be very disarming.

I would not agree with one of the other reviews here stating that Robinson is falsifying statements not made by Brown. This documentary precisely aims at the 'foundation claims' of Brown and his predecessors who wrote 'Holy Blood Holy Grail' (e.g. the Priory of Sion which is dissected to the point no-one can reasonably argue it is not a hoax)

Also, I would argue Robinson is clearly not out on a quest to per se discredit the story at any price. Nice proof of that is for instance his personal assessment of the Da Vinci wall painting where after hearing the critique he still concedes that this one still somehow holds water for him.

All in all an interesting xmas gift for people who got too much carried away with the Da Vinci Code story.

Having said all this, I too enjoyed reading every page of Dan Brown's book (reading it in the very Vinci region definitely added to the experience). It is a very entertaining book, but let it be just that; no need whatsoever to not promote it to a historical novel.

Originally screened on Channel 4, this interesting - and quite bitchy - documentary is hosted by Tony Robinson, who undertakes a systematic examination of the supposedly factual claims made by Dan Brown in his fictional novel.

Dan Brown doesn't appear in the programme, but a few other controversial figures in the whole "Grail" enterprise certainly do, and are given a chance to explain their theories - and are then mercilessly shot down by Tony Robinson's no-nonsense approach. Although he does get rather excited over Da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper and the very feminine disciple sitting with Jesus.

Well worth a look, especially in this age of people who are simply willing to believe any old "fact". Here's a real fact: Dan Brown is a very wealthy man.