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Fulcrum TV is currently producing a two-hour film for the UK’s Channel 4 in conjunction with the National Geographic Channel in America. The project follows the groundbreaking science of our expert chemist (a Wellcome Fellow) as he challenges the establishment view of how the Egyptians embalmed their dead. The UK television broadcast will coincide with the publication of a major scientific paper on the experiments.

If the scientist’s theory is correct, (which, following initial experiments, now looks certain) the Egyptians were chemists whose sophistication almost matches our own today. And the truth of their mysterious procedure will be shown to be far more complex and ingenious than previously imagined.

Once he has honed the embalming technique our expert will use his skills to re-create the most sophisticated and well-preserved mummies ever made by the ancient Egyptians.

We are currently keen to talk to someone who, faced with the knowledge of their own terminal illness and all that that entails, would nonetheless consider undergoing the process of ancient Egyptian embalming.

The ambition of the film is broader than the scientific detail; it will explore our present-day attitudes to life, death and the afterlife. Along with our expert, our volunteer will evaluate their own experiences and attitudes to death and the Egyptian ideal of eternal preservation.

Parallels will be drawn between the ancient Egyptians' extensive planning for death and our contributors' emotional, spiritual and practical preparation for the same fate. We hope that they will talk in depth about their past, their hopes and fears for death, their opinions on the afterlife and the legacy they hope to leave behind. The film will also involve the individual's consenting family and closest friends.

If you feel you may be interested in participating in the project or would like more information on what it might involve, please contact me, Gillian, on 0207 939 3175 or email gillian@fulcrumtv.com

Contacting me in no way obligates you to take part in the documentary.

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Should the project ever come to fruition it should prove to be a really interesting programme.

However, as far as my participation is concerned I must, in all conscience, give a resounding "NO".

My reasons as varied, but principally because I regard the body merely as a shell. The shell probably does containe the spirit the of life something which scientists have not yet identified.

Further, I consider mummification along with the freezing of bodies, and more bizarrely heads for possible revival at some future date as being the ultimate vanity. To me it's also a manifestation of mans inability to even consider the infinite. Our minds together with everything in our world are finite, some things being short-lived others persisting for periods of time which we cannot truly perceive. I could ramble on at some length and eventually get lost in my own arguments, but I'll spare you that agony.

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Oooooohhher this made me feel ill! We are all terminal I thought, even
though cancer free.

I am pleased King Tut was done, but without the gold mask this kind of loses something methinks. If they'd throw in the gold gear it might interest me.

Anyway, would I want to be prodded apart in the third millennium by the fingers of every Tom Dick and Jerry in the name of a channel 3000 documentary? Frankly 'tis not to my taste. I think I have self analysed death and departing enough to know it's better just to try to live and be content with whatever that day brings.

I don't know what planet some of these TV documentary people live on.

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Could Fulcrum TV possibly be any tackier? Why pick on us? Everyone dies eventually, and every cancer patient has some chance of recovery. The stupid question about mummification could be asked of anyone.