# Colisseum



## Brian G Turner (Oct 15, 2003)

The BBC program "Colisseum" was shown on Monday night – and, wow, great history program. 

It followed the fortunes of someone taken as a slave by the Romans, and then used to build the Flavian Amphitheatre – the Colisseum – only to then get picked out for gladiatorial training. Eventually, he forms the highlight of the opening of the Colisseum by fighting one and one against one of his close friends.

This was an absolutely superb history program – again, the narration is driven by the character, as if hearing their thoughts, with sparse commentary from a "disembodied narrator" voice, which just explained little details here and there – such as a few words on the Roman use of concrete for the Colisseum.

Generally everything was running with fully costumed actors working on full stages and CGI backgrounds – great work that you would normally expect from a full hollywood production (actually, in many ways, the program was more like some kind of "Gladiator 2"). And – a particular touch that I enjoyed – was that the actors all spoke Latin to one another, which really lent itself to the reality of the situation.

Anyway, it was made in conjunction with Discovery, so it you have the Discovery Channel then do watch out for this program. You won't regret it.


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## dwndrgn (Oct 15, 2003)

I said:
			
		

> The BBC program "Colisseum" was shown on Monday night – and, wow, great history program.
> 
> It followed the fortunes of someone taken as a slave by the Romans, and then used to build the Flavian Amphitheatre – the Colisseum – only to then get picked out for gladiatorial training. Eventually, he forms the highlight of the opening of the Colisseum by fighting one and one against one of his close friends.
> 
> ...


Dadgummit, you just reminded me of a PBS movie that aired recently that I wanted to alert everyone too so they could see it.  It is about Queen Boudicca and her revolt against the Romans.  It got quite good reviews but I of course missed it!  Since it was a Masterpiece Theater spot, I'm sure it will be shown again so be on the lookout those of you with local public broadcasting stations (or you can search on pbs.org).  What struck me about this one was I had just read one of the Lindsey Davis mysteries and Queen Boudicca was mentioned.  Then, the day it was to air, she was mentioned again in another book I was reading.  Hmmmm.  So, I'll be on the lookout for both of these.  I wish I had TIVO!


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## littlemissattitude (Oct 15, 2003)

Something else for me to watch out for.  Sounds really cool.


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