Pompeii: Life in the City review — Dan Snow brings the Romans to smelly life
So it's no surprise that he's back, this time in the world's most famous ash-covered city, for Pompeii: Life in the City with Dan Snow. Somehow the cameraman kept up with him.
Along with ancient Egypt, Nazis and sharks, the preserved-in-time city is one of those subjects TV never tires of and almost seems to fetishise. This time, though, we weren't concerned with close-ups of the poor 2,000-year-old residents, immortalised in their poses of twisted torment. Instead we had Snow offering such observations as: 'Actually, urine was big business.'
Indeed, if the first episode was a light lesson about the inequity of ancient Rome — at least half the sentences seemed to begin 'If you were a slave in Pompeii …' before describing the lot of the oppressed classes — what many viewers will quote in a week's time will be the earthier, more odoriferous details.
Take Mr Garlic Farts. Not Snow, but a client at one of the city's brothels, as described by a sex worker. It's probably for the best that the programme had a co-presenter, Snow's fellow historian Kate Lister, to describe this part of the programme (it wouldn't have sounded right coming from Snow). Judging by the graffiti on the wall, the women workers clearly had more imaginative quips than their clients. While they wrote of Mr Garlic Farts, the best the clients offered was 'I screwed a lot of girls here'. Your sympathy for the women of Pompeii stretched across 2,000 years.
• Fake or Fortune review — engrossing mystery of a 'Churchill' painting
Snow stayed on the safer ground of the ancient launderette, where the washing of togas also wasn't for the faint-hearted. The workers there would toil from dawn until dusk using a 'special kind of bleach'. What bleach was that, you ask. Snow explained, while half-demonstrating: 'Standing in one of these troughs here, they'd stamp the toga into the bleach. Trouble is, that bleach is human and horse urine … it's splashing everywhere! Stinking!'
And this was where we got to the subject of urine being big business. In AD70 the emperor Vespasian put a tax on the disposal of pee, which was why public urinals became known as vespasiani in Italian.
By this point, with Snow having also mentioned the 'smell of human poo in the gutter' and Lister describing 'Nigella the public pig-keeper', who kept her swine in the city centre, I'd say the programme stunk, if that didn't sound so uncomplimentary. Actually it was the kind of midweek history programme to be filed under gently interesting. You did learn a few things, not least that Pompeii smells much better today than it did then. ★★★☆☆
Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix, the best Prime Video TV shows, the best Disney+ shows , the best Apple TV+ shows, the best shows on BBC iPlayer , the best shows on Sky and Now, the best shows on ITVX, the best shows on Channel 4 streaming, the best shows on Paramount+ and our favourite hidden gem TV shows. Don't forget to check our comprehensive TV guide for the latest listings
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
A new coffee-table book shows one thing: celebrity artists should not be allowed near Auschwitz
To say that a picture speaks a thousand words might no longer ring true. As images proliferate at an unprecedented rate online, they risk losing their meaning, especially as AI poses a growing threat to the truth of what we see. We might ask why images of the relentless killing and devastation in Gaza, there for all to see, have not yet halted the slaughter of Palestinians. Into this situation comes Juergen Teller, 'enfant terrible' of 1990s fashion photography, who has produced a coffee-table book about the Nazis' concentration and extermination camp in Auschwitz. This goes some way beyond his usual remit. Teller is known for his knack for making pretty things look ugly, as a shorthand for 'authenticity', associated with the grunge aesthetic and so-called 'heroin chic', which made him the most in-demand fashion photographer of his era. The book, titled simply Auschwitz Birkenau, is published by the biggest German art book publisher, Steidl, with a cover designed by Peter Saville, the man behind so much revered Joy Division and Factory Records artwork What is actually in the book? Photography-wise, it is fairly bland, documenting the site as it stands today, preserved as a monument against forgetfulness as the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The selection could have been taken from an anonymous Flickr account. Like an overbearing tourist, Teller photographs every single thing he sees in Oświęcim, the town where the camp is located: from the electronic parking plates and tacky hot baguette parlours to the details of the gas chambers. There's no hierarchy. But the haste is visible. All the pictures – more than 800 in total – were taken on an iPhone, and with stupefying simplicity: close shot of the barracks, details, then a panorama; a close shot of empty Zyklon B cans, then a wider shot, a panorama; and again and again in the same way. He uses the same approach for a pseudo-poignant 'perspective through the barbed wire' photograph, and wistful closeups of melting snow-covered grass. The photographs are interspersed with memories of former prisoners, collected by Christoph Heubner, the executive vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee, who invited Teller to carry out this project, and who is also behind the Gerhard Richter Birkenau pavilion, an exhibition space which opened in Oświęcim last year. Teller's book caught my attention precisely because of Huebner's involvement, as it made me wonder: why would you invite a celebrity artist – a German one at that – to document Auschwitz? The problem with Teller's book is not that he's famous, nor that his most famous work is in fashion – it's that these photographs contribute nothing to a deeper understanding of Auschwitz. The pictures are totally unremarkable, and get nowhere near what new photography of Auschwitz ought to strive for: to refocus our attention on something previously unnoticed. Perhaps you could argue that this is a deliberate strategy, and a more thoughtful one – for Teller to suspend his own personal style and render himself invisible. Except that he isn't invisible. In one of the former barracks, block 27, there's a special interactive installation devoted to various nations' experience of extermination, including a Yad Vashem-inspired 'Book of Names': a library of books containing the name of every single documented Auschwitz victim (it is ever-expanding). And what does he do with it? He photographs all the pages with the surname 'Teller' on it. Of course, thousands of German-born Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. But to single out your own name is not a gesture of solidarity – it's narcissism. As perpetrators, the Germans strictly controlled any photographic evidence of the extermination, ensuring no documentation escaped the walls of the death camps. Indeed, there is a vital and ongoing debate about whether photography is an appropriate way to address the Holocaust at all, given that the original photographic record does not exist. Earlier this year, the Auschwitz Memorial established a digital replica of the camp, prompted by growing interest from film-makers (at present, only documentaries are permitted to be filmed there). The only known pictures of the extermination camps are the four Sonderkommando photographs, secretly taken by Jewish prisoners and smuggled out, which have become the subject of the Gerhard Richter paintings on display at the Oświęcim pavilion. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion On the wall of the pavilion there is a quote from Richter: 'Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human.' This drove the ire of the Jewish-German artist Leon Kahane, who in his current DIALOG DIALOG DIALOG exhibition counters Richter's take with four blank sheets, mirroring Richter's format, repeating the German master's quote in three languages. Kahane supplements this with photographs of a contemporary neo-Nazi demonstration, pointing our attention towards the real and ongoing problem of antisemitism in Germany. What if the most human thing is in fact to refrain from forming an image? Kahane's empty canvases point to a broader crisis around how to represent the Holocaust. Richter's approach introduces unnecessary pathos, making the evil universally human, rather than an act committed by a specific nation nurtured in a specific culture. But at least it arguably opens an interesting philosophical argument. No such thing can be said about Teller's Auschwitz Birkenau book. His view of the camp is banal, or occasionally sentimental (pictures of souvenir kitsch included). In a moment where the very legacy of the Holocaust is being politicised, it is detached and generalising, blurring notions of responsibility, while seeming worryingly like a vanity project. Visiting Auschwitz has become too easy a way for Germans and other nations alike to show how far they've come; that they're now free of antisemitism. With Teller's book in hand, maybe even that won't feel necessary to some. As artists and as societies, we bear a responsibility to history. If Auschwitz is allowed to become an increasingly empty symbol, and we lose our ability to capture the horror of the Holocaust, how are we going to ensure that future generations understand that it really happened? Agata Pyzik is a critic and author of Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West. She lives in Warsaw
Scottish Sun
6 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Rihanna shows off baby bump as she is spotted out in LA wearing £2.1k marshmallow-inspired designer dress
Rihanna is no stranger to confectionery-themed fashion RI'S A SWEETIE Rihanna shows off baby bump as she is spotted out in LA wearing £2.1k marshmallow-inspired designer dress Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) PREGNANT Rihanna shows off her baby Flump — sorry, bump — in a bonkers outfit the colour of the marshmallow treat. The singer, 37, was seen out and about in Los Angeles in a pink and orange dress. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Pregnant Rihanna shows off her baby bump in this colourful outfit Credit: 4 The star was seen out and about in Los Angeles in a pink and orange dress Credit: And the Barbadian star's vintage 2001 Issey Miyake frock cost a lot more than the sweets — at just over £2,100. Rihanna, expecting her third baby in weeks, is no stranger to confectionery-themed fashion, wearing a Haribo Heart Throbs-style red dress in 2016. The pregnant star also showed off her huge bare baby bump while going out for dinner in LA at her favorite eatery. The business mogul, who announced her pregnancy earlier this year, looked ready to pop. Stepping out to head for dinner at her favorite Italian restaurant, Giorgio Baldi, Rihanna put her bump on display. Giorgio Baldi is a "luxurious family-run Italian spot near the ocean" which serves seafood and pasta. While heading out for food at the spot, Rihanna looked sensational in a navy suit, sheer mesh bra and polka dot tie. The mother-of-two wore her navy blazer open at the front, with her bump showing. She wore her hair slicked back, and kept her makeup natural and soft, yet glamorous. Pregnant Rihanna's third baby's gender revealed as partner A$AP Rocky slips and leaks news on Smurfs red carpet 4 Rihanna looks like one of these Flump sweets Credit: Shutterstock
Time Out
11 hours ago
- Time Out
Where was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo' filmed? Behind the locations of Sam Claflin's new period drama
From black-and-white silent films and series to regional adaptations, French thrillers, and a Jim Caviezel noughties hit, Alexandre Dumas's 1844 classic The Count of Monte Cristo makes for evergreen source material for film and TV. Now, The Hunger Games star Sam Claflin puts his own charming spin on the vengeance-seeking prisoner Edmond Dantes in a new eight-episode miniseries that faithfully recreates the tumultuous years of early 19th-century France. True to Dumas' novel, the TV adaptation promises political conspiracies, personal vendettas, and sprawling locations from palatial French ballrooms to grim island fortresses. What is The Count of Monte Cristo about? The French-Italian production stars Claflin as Dantes, a man wrongfully imprisoned for treason. The site of his unlawful incarceration is the Château d'If, a wave-carved island off the coast of Marseilles. It's in the claustrophobic confines of this prison where Edmond silently plans his next move. Cut off from civilisation and his ladylove for fifteen years, Edmond returns a changed man, chancing upon some hidden treasure and taking on a new identity. His complicated schemes of revenge and manipulation lead to some delectable period drama. With Danish Oscar-winner Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror, 1998's Les Misérables) delivering his flair for grand historical narratives, the series resurrects Dumas's all-time classic with meticulous production design and gripping performances. Where was The Count of Monte Cristo filmed? Filming for the series commenced between August and December 2023, incorporating locations in France, Italy, and Malta. The shooting locations go in tandem with the novel's Mediterranean settings. While France is the heart of the story, it's in various spots in Italy where the broken hero Edmond Dantes rediscovers a new purpose in his life. Palais-Royal, Paris, France A French royal palace dating back to the 16 th century, the magnificently spread-out Palais-Royal complex overlooks the Louvre Museum and is one of Paris's most identifiable landmarks. The palace's grand exterior, spacious gardens, arched windows, and detailed ornamentation inside make it an ideal spot to double as a palace and ballroom for The Count of Monte Cristo 's major moments. Additionally, some of these sequences were also filmed at Paris's globally-renowned Opéra Garnier. The palace is currently the seat of the French culture ministry but it has changed many hands over the centuries. It was initially the personal residence of Cardinal Richelieu (interestingly, also the villain in Dumas' The Three Musketeers). Since then, the palace's ownership shifted between Louis XII, then Louis XIV, and so on. The Palais is also a hotbed for France-set Hollywood productions like The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Interview with the Vampire, and the Netflix streaming hit Emily in Paris. Place des Vosges, Paris The Place des Vosges is Paris's oldest planned square, once dominating the chic gentry of the city during the 17th and 18th centuries. The trimmed bushes and varnished houses here formed the exterior for the house of Baron Danglar, the scheming villain behind Edmond Dantes's miseries. Chateau de Suisnes, France As for Danes's county house, the production team set up base outside Paris at Chateau de Suisnes. The quaint mansion lies in northern France, less than an hour away from the capital city. Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano, Turin From its opera houses to piazzas, Turin is a medieval time capsule. So, it's not surprising that the city hosted scenes in The Count of Monte Cristo. One location that preserves such old-school charm is the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano aka the Museum of the Risorgimento (the 19th-century movement focusing on unfying the Italian states into a single nation). It used to be Italy's first parlliament building but is now one of the country's grandest museums. Other Italian locations where The Count of Monte Cristo was filmed include the Palazzo Villanova in the commune of Strambino. The crew also reconstructed a hotel south of Turin, inside the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, an 18th century hunting lodge that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Piazza Farnese, Rome Set a few years after the French Revolution and Napoleon's exile, The Count of Monte Cristo finds Edmond witnessing a criminal facing the guillotine in the city square. This gnarly execution comes to life at Rome's Piazza Farnese, the main square of Rome's Regola district. Edmond's Parisian apartment was also set up outside France with Roman palace of Palazzo Taverna. Malta Film Studios, Malta Off the coast of Marseilles, Edmond challenges death and plots his revenge as he's trapped in the island prison of the Château d'If. Yet again, the crew didn't rely only in France and opted for sets in Malta. Maltese locations like Mdina and Manoel Island, Gzira were also used for filming exterior shots of Marseilles. Who stars in The Count of Monte Cristo? Edmond Dantes, aka the titular count, is played by Claflin, the star of films like The Hunger Games franchise and Me Before You. On television, he's best known as fascist politician Oswald Mosley in Peaky Blinders. Claflin is joined by veteran actor Jeremy Irons, who has had his fair share of period dramas like The Man in the Iron Mask (another Dumas adaptation), Kingdom of Heaven, The Borgias, and Brideshead Revisited. Irons plays Abbé Faria, a wise priest imprisoned on the same island as Edmond. French actress Ana Girardot (Escobar: Paradise Lost) plays Edmond's long-term love interest, the French noblewoman Mercedes. Other cast members include Danish actor Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (A Royal Affair) and British actress Poppy Colette Corby-Tuech (Fantastic Beasts series).
