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historian, lecturer, published author and youngest Knight
Officer in the Scottish Knights Templar, Ashley Cowie is adding
another title to his already impressive resume: host of Syfy's
new series Legend Quest.
The series follows Ashley on his fast-paced, action-adventure,
real life Indiana Jones and Da Vince Code search for some
of history's greatest and most mysterious artifacts. As an
archaeological explorer and expert in ancient symbols, Ashley
will explore the secreted truths and alternative theories
that cultures have put forth for years. From the King Arthur's
famous sword to the Holy Grail, nothing is off limits for
Ashley and his team. And no stone is ever left unturned.
PCM had the opportunity to participate in a conference call
with Ashley and with such intense and exhaustive research
and investigative measures taken by he and his team, we had
to ask what his motivation was to really see things through
on the quests, particularly when times get hard.
"The biggest hardest I found on the road was not so much
the historical side of things or not so much figuring things
out, I know my subject matter so very much I was getting to
see things and I would just know immediately. I'm a Type 1
diabetic. That takes an awful lot of management and time on
an everyday basis. Never mind traveling the world, not sleeping
times, and everything else. That was the biggest challenge
on the road."
"The motivation was to get up and get out of the places
we were in to get moving forward because a camera guy has
just hiked up a mountain for a day, everybody's exhausted,
I'm personally exhausted most days out there doing it. The
motivation is to keep a momentum going forward so the entire
team and all the people there supporting you aren't getting
downhearted. Although we're out looking for clues, and mysteries,
and things to move us forward I felt personally responsible
for making sure that team were enjoying the quest. "
"Three months on the road, heads go down and I took
the full responsibility for making sure we're moving onward.
So it was a very personal thing that kept me going and driving
all the way through this quest."
After chatting with Ashley, we are certainly intrigued by
the new series, so when we asked him what he thought it would
be that would really hook viewers in with this show, we weren't
surprised with his initial answer. "It's going to absolutely
be me," he joked.
Once the laughing died down, he continued, "I joke with
you. No. You know what it is? It's like taking - shaking the
best out of the Da Vinci Code, shaking the best out of Indiana
Jones series but replacing all of the fiction and myth that's
in there with absolutely fact and logic."
"So, you know, I think what viewers will find is a kind
of satisfaction from now just being dealt more rubbish, but
actually given an alternative view and these histories or
these mysteries which have almost become histories now that's
actually a breath of fresh air because it does not require
a leap of faith. It's logic in the place of myth, and I think
that's what a viewer will find refreshing," he explained.
"It's time for us to become beyond the Da Vinci Code
and just ask for a little bit more," he said. "And
I think it's time TV gave an audience something to ruminate
on that actually is worth something. It's not just something
to spit out the next day because you hear it's rubbish. It's
fact and I think that's kind of cool to be involved in an
original show that isn't Syfy channel, but it's fact and that's
what I think the audience will appreciate."
Want to learn more about Ashley Cowie and his adventures
on Legend Quest? He has a lot of interesting stories and knowledge
to share about the artifacts, the challenges of filming, the
Templar Knights and much more! Check out everything he had
to tell us below.
So let me ask you, how did the idea for the show originally
come about? Like did they approach you or did you go to them
or what happened?
I was approached about two years ago by a casting agent
in Los Angeles. And of course they had a rough idea for a
show so I met one of the network execs in LA as I was out
doing and interview, and we threw some ideas together and
the show's mutated so much since the original idea which was
an artifacts show. But the way it's actually changed and developed
over the last two years that there's no relevance to how it
was in the beginning.
But let's be honest, it was a network exec and Syfy's idea
for the show. But we've worked together developing it since.
Right. And how much input do you actually have in choosing,
you know, where you're going to go and what artifacts you're
going to look for?
Well that's 100% input there. Basically since they chose
me to lead the show up, I've developed all of the artifacts.
I would go searching for all of the clues and the symbols
that we find along the way and the methods that we get from
one place to the next is completely my own work and research,
and it's pretty much a case of me out there looking for artifacts
that we've established and the team's sorting of along recording
it as it goes. So, pretty much 100% input for myself working
with the development team at Syfy.
What artifact is out there that you've not had a chance
to, you know, go and search for that you personally would
want to?
Do you know what? We have a list of artifacts that I've been
looking for all my days and I hopefully will next year, but
I will tell you there's one in particular it's called the
Slime Dagger of Japan. I want to get to Japan and film that
and film me looking for it because I've got a good idea of
where to start looking. However, we haven't got that in series.
But yes, there's a number of artifacts in Japan and in China
that I would really like to go looking for.
But the Flying Dagger is one - it's sort of localized. An
artifact in the southern part of Japan not very well know,
but it's got some fascinating temples and, you know, places
to go to especially using TV as a media of getting this out
there. So yes, Japan and Flying Daggers we're going to have
to do that.
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