A Very English Genius

A profile of Michael Ventris, who, in 1952, beat the experts to deciphered Linear B, Europe's oldest writing system. What made Ventris' discovery all the more remarkable was the fact that he wasn't an expert in this field, but an amateur enthusiast. The film investigates the private passion, personal motivation and troubled psychology of the man who managed to solve 'the Everest of Greek Archaeology'. Ventris' friends and contemporaries discuss the personality and background of a man who was both a dazzling linguist and a divided soul; his fraught personal life, his mood swings, and his tragic and untimely death in a car crash at the age of 34.