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My through a

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite snaps. This week it’s TV historian Bettany Hughes, 54

1993

As a surprise for my wedding to Adrian, his best man got us this old motorbike and sidecar. Everybody honked as we zoomed past them and back to my parents’ house for a ceilidh in the back garden. Adrian and I had first met four years before we got together. He was a glamorous figure in the arts world who ran the French circus Archaos and lived in a double-decker bus. When they were performing over here I’d asked him for a job – unsuccessfuly, as I had no circus skills. A theatre director who was a mutual friend introduced us again later, and we married quickly after that. 2012

At the Heritage Angel Awards for unsung heroes, I told Andrew Lloyd Webber [pictured] about his father William’s connection to my father. Dad was brought up by a single mother in 1920s London who died very young, so he was on his own as a teenager. Andrew’s father was a young church organist who spotted Dad’s incredible singing voice and gave him piano lessons for free. He’d also give him a shilling to go to concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. Andrew had no idea. I sent him a photo of the sweet little piano book his dad had given mine, and he was really touched. 2003

Travel quite often revolves around work, with everybody tagging along. This photo was taken on holiday in Greece with Adrian and our daughters Sorrell and May while I was researching a book on Helen of Troy. The moment I finished my final exams at Oxford University I went off to Greece and travelled around all the sites, hitchhiking, sleeping on beaches and getting lifts between islands on fishing boats. Travelling to the places where history was made really made an impact on me. 2017

John Sergeant’s wife Mary was a brilliant teacher who taught me at school, and he and I have a hilarious time doing history shows – this was taken in Pompeii with John and archaeologist Raksha Dave. In the Bay of Naples we had mozzarella, burrata and pizzas for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we all put on so much weight. I’m going back to do a new show soon about recent discoveries in Pompeii. It’s important to remember it’s a place where thousands of people died, and we try to tell their story in a respectful way. 1970

This is me, aged about three, with my father Peter. He and my mother Erica were both actors and met in repertory theatre in Watford. My dad played leading man roles [he went on to appear in the film Evita]. They were at home a lot in Ealing, west London, when I was growing up. My mother was the classic working mum – she’d cook the supper, get everybody sorted out, and then work late into the night.

1981

Simon, who I’m pictured with here, is a great older brother. He went on to play cricket for Middlesex and a lot of my childhood was spent beside cricket pitches. I also used to be target practice for him bowling balls at me. I remember, aged eight, cutting up the teatime oranges for Hugh Grant, as Simon was in the same school cricket team. I recall that Hugh had really nice hair. 2010

Here I am at a fundraising event at the British Museum. I was dressed as Theodora [far left], the Byzantine empress who ruled a million square miles, having started as an erotic dancer, gymnast and probably a sex worker. Mary Beard [far right] was Vespasia, a great female figure from Rome at its height. Hilariously, tourists thought this show was on every day, that we’d dress up, wander around, speak a bit of Greek and Latin, and then toddle off. We got dressed in a darkened room – it was like being in a school play again.

2019Anne

This is Princess

giving me my OBE – she impressed me with her interest in the role of women in Bronze Age history. But 2019 was a tough year. In February I was in Egypt looking at the contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb when I heard my dad was ill. The next morning I went beneath the Great Pyramid of

Giza to explore a secret tunnel and when I came out I got the news he’d died. It was comforting to be in a place where people had mourned and celebrated a life. Sadly Dad was gone before I got the OBE, but he would have been so proud.

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