Nigel J. Hetherington - Past Preservers and Beyond
Nigel James Hetherington
Although we have corresponded occasionally throughout the past couple of decades, Nigel and I have never met in person (yet). I was fascinated by Nigel’s path through Egyptology into media, and beyond. He agreed to sit down with me earlier in April and I asked, and he answered my many and varied questions.
Nigel James Hetherington [1} grew up in the Lake District in Cumbria, and was a talented maths student, which led to his initial career in accounting, despite his interest in history. He obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in business studies from Carlisle Technical College, and then went on to conduct finance work for various companies including Time Out magazine and Avid Technology (a media company).
His foray into Egyptology came later, after a solo vacation trip to Egypt in 1997. It was during that trip that he fell in love with the country. So much so, that he decided to take a night school class in Egyptology at Birkbeck College upon his return to the UK. This is where he met Suzanne Bojtos, a Czech Egyptologist, who encouraged him to continue his studies. He wasn’t sure that at the age of 34 he should venture back to college, but his mother, Annie, also thought this was a positive step for Nigel. She told him, “Look you’ve got your whole life ahead at 34. It’s not over, it’s just a chapter.” At the same time the property he owned in London had doubled in value during the previous 6 months, and so he decided to sell it and go back to school.
Nigel looked into a couple of different programs and ultimately chose the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL) for his bachelor’s degree. His decision to attend the Institute was based on the fact that they were, “the most welcoming. They were realistic. They did say, look, careers in archeology can be terrible. It's very low paying. You'll have to find a niche, you'll have to find something specific to do and you're going to be competing against the kids and the rest of it, but if you want to do it, then do it.” The Institute also had a very age diverse student body and so he had many peers in his own age group, which made the transition to a new field easier.
He completed his BA in Egyptian Archaeology in 2003, and chose to go straight in a Masters degree (2003-2006) in Cultural Heritage Studies, also at UCL. He thesis was to be on the Valley of the Kings.
In 2003 at the start of his MA, he fortuitously met up with Kent Weeks [2] in Egypt. Kent was at that time undertaking work on the Theban Mapping Project (TMP) and had recently been asked by Zahi Hawass to do a Site Management Plan for the Valley of the Kings.[3] Kent asked Nigel to join him, and he jumped at the chance. Nigel moved to Egypt and had his MA extended (from 18 months to 3 years) which allowed him to do the academic work remotely, but the practical work he would be doing in Egypt was directly associated with his thesis. Kent managed to put together a consortium of funds with support from the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), The Getty Conservation Institute, World Monuments Fund, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA),[4] and some private funders. Nigel stayed in Egypt, based on a funded position through the American University in Cairo (AUC) to help produce the Site Management Plan, working for three years out of Luxor and Cairo, and also eventually getting an apartment in Cairo.
Nigel said that his work on the Theban Mapping Project is still his most memorable archaeological project.
“The work in the Valley of the Kings on the site management plan will always be, you know, part of my life that I’m most proud of. It was an incredible opportunity, going from people saying, oh, you’ll never get a job in Egyptology or in Egyptian archaeology, to doing that, to living and working with such an incredible, giant of Egyptology. I mean, the man (Kent Weeks) is incredible!”
Near the end of their contract (2006) with the TMP, Nigel and his friend and colleague Kelly Krause, [5] reached out to some of the many producers they had met previously and were eventually hired to do some research for an upcoming production. This was the start of ‘Past Preservers’. [6] The premise of the company was to provide a ‘production consulting team with the sole purpose of producing quality history-based, non-fiction programming’. [7] This media consulting organisation was created as a direct result of all the interviews Kent Weeks had been doing around KV5 (rediscovered during work on the TMP in 1995). Kelly and Nigel ended up providing background information to many of the interviewers, and then taking on some of the interviews themselves, and essentially became ‘creative fixers’ for the producers. They learned through this process that as archaeologists there was a potential other path they could take, in media consulting - that ‘niche’ that the Institute of Archaeology had mentioned previously.
“Past Preservers was born out of a need for historical and cultural expertise in our media, but it’s grown and thrived because of the personal rapport Nigel builds with each client. His passion for history is only matched by his passion for people – the drive he brings to each project was absolutely contagious when working with him.”
The first few years were focused on work in Egypt, then people were starting to ask about opportunities in Greece, Italy, UK, etc. They originally wanted to stick to archaeology and history within Egypt, but realized expanding to areas outside of Egypt would be possible. Neither had any specific contacts outside of Egypt, so Nigel reached out to UCL Institute of Archaeology and other friends from his college days who put feelers out to their alumni in Greece, as well as Kelly’s contacts through her university, and their database of experts continued to grow. With each new success they learned there, “were a lot of academics who were interested in a parallel career in TV.”
Photos: L-R - One of my first filming gigs as a producer, Chasing Mummies!; Super proud to have worked on building the replica of Tutankhamun's tomb; My wonderful son Emad and the valley of the Kings masterclass in print; Chilling at the Red Sea with Emad and Mo helps me run Past Preservers
It was during the aftermath of the revolution in Egypt (2011) that the company really started to broaden its scope. Filming in Egypt ceased for some time and so they started to do more work in the UK and in America. They ultimately grew into an ‘agency’ representing the experts in their database. They tried various spinoffs at different times including media training, which was not wholly successful, but forays into providing speakers for cruise ships has been so successful that they now have speakers for over seven cruise ship companies, on 25 different ships. They are also increasingly adding researchers to their database for those production companies that don’t wish to hire full-time staff to do the work. This means the production companies can hire consultant researchers with very specific skills.
I asked Nigel which Past Preserver project he felt had been his most successful, and he immediately mentioned the DreamWorks animated production of Curses! They also have a new project coming out with a Canadian production company for a special for Discovery and Super Channel about Egypt, where they conducted all the background research and fact checking as well.
Then about 18 months ago (in 2023) Nigel and Tony McMahon [8] started a new venture called Fabula TV, [9] which was intended as a creative hub for “developing compelling ideas told by the best storytellers and experts. We work with networks, producers, and distributors to shape content that inspires and entertains audiences.” Fabula TV has access to the Past Preservers database of experts and knows when those experts are producing content that may be “developed into filmed material for TV and online.”[10]
“So, we've set up a group of people called Fabula Associates, and they are producers around the world that we've worked with and that we trust, and we like their work. And so, we are working together collectively to pitch projects,” Nigel advised.
As if that isn’t enough, in addition Past Preservers have also been helping their experts find work in online education, particularly through The Great Courses platform. Nigel mentioned that Dr Karen Bellinger [11] is currently doing three courses with them, and nine of their other experts are in various stages of development of courses with them.
Obviously, Nigel is keeping very busy. I asked how people could become an ‘expert’ for Past Preservers, and he said that doing a ‘video CV’ where you present your experience and interests well is the best way to go. He said that if he could, “dispel any sort of big myth, (it) is you do not need a doctorate to go on TV. I would say, and this is completely anecdotal, but…at least half of our people who go on TV do not have a doctorate.”
If you are interested in becoming a Past Preservers’ expert, check out this link on how to do so: https://pastpreservers.com/our-people/
Thank you, Nigel, for answering my many questions. I wish you well in all your future endeavours! May we meet one day in Egypt!
[1] Nigel’s LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigeljhetherington/
[2] Kent R. Weeks - https://archaeology.columbian.gwu.edu/kent-weeks
[3] Weeks, K., Hetherington, N. (2014) The Valley of the Kings: A Site Management Handbook. The American University in Cairo Press.
[4] The SCA is now known as the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities - https://egymonuments.gov.eg/en/about-mota/
[5] Kelly Krause - has a BA in Archaeology from Boston University, and an MA in Cultural Studies from the Institute of Archaeology, UCL - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-krause/ and also runs a consulting business called Heritage in Action.
[6] Past Preservers website - https://pastpreservers.com/
[7] https://pastpreservers.com/our-story/ accessed April 22, 2025.
[8] https://fabula-tv.com/directors/
[9] Fabula TV - https://fabula-tv.com/
[10] https://fabula-tv.com/topics/
[11] Dr Karen Bellinger, Anthropologist & Historical Archaeologist https://pastpreservers.com/portfolio/dr-karen-wehner/
