Why Did Writer Graham Hancock Make A Complaint To The BBC?

In 1999, the BBC aired a series of three programmes in its Horizon documentary series which analysed Graham Hancock's theories. Hancock had authored a number of popular books, advancing theories about lost civilisations such as Atlantis, and had made a television series, shown on Channel 4, exploring similar themes.

Hancock complained that the documentary-makers had been unfair to him, portraying him as an intellectual fraudster whose theories were half-baked and whose main concern was selling more books. He, and his sometime co-author Robert Bauval, felt that their rebuttals of some of the criticisms that had been levelled against them had been unfairly excluded from the programme, thereby leaving a one-sided impression in the mind of the viewer. The BBC investigated the complaint seriously and upheld it in part. It agreed that Hancock should have been allowed greater scope to respond to his critics in the programme, but rejected most of Hancock's other complaints.