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Ah the thrill of fear as a child watching ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’. This episode includes the Cerne Abbas Giant and some other English hill figures.
“The key to the giant’s identity may lie in something missing from the drawing: what did he have in his left hand?”
The locals report it’s supposed to be a head he’s chopped off – or a dog on a string. But an archaeologist gets involved with some geophysics equipment and appears to discover it was a cape, thus suggesting the figure is Hercules. He even gets out a bucket of whitewash and paints on the outline. To be honest the resulting figure looks quite convincingly balanced. But who knows – sometimes you find what you’re looking for, don’t you.
(Most is in part 2 but it’s worth seeing the end of part one not least for the strange local inhabitant).
I remember watching Arthur C Clarkes Mysterious World as an 11 or 12 year old circa 79/80. It probably set me on the path of wandering around the UK looking at Stone Circles. This is great stuff, thank you for sharing.
"a dog on a string"?
I can see the daily fail headline now:
"Cerne Abbas Giant original crusty shocker!"