04x02 - The Italian Job

[bunniefuu]

The Doctor Who cast and crew
are in Italy

to create a catastrophic
volcanic eruption.

This is crazy, isn't it? Loads
of people, loads of crew, no room.
It's going great!

Feel the heat backstage
with Confidential

as we head up Pompeii
with David Tennant.

It's extraordinary,
how domestic it feels,

and how real it feels.

Filming the Doctor's
latest volcanic voyage

was an Italian job
of colossal proportions.

Here in Rome,
cast and crew have travelled time
and space to say "buongiorno"

to some of the best sets in Europe.

We're here in Rome
at the Cinecitta studios.

We are here because the
studio is doubling as Pompeii.

It's nice to be here
dressed as Kevin Keegan.

It's what I've always wanted to do!
Yeah, Italy, great, Rome!

Someone's got to do it.
It's a dirty job.

We're not really abroad.

There's been a lot of nonsense
talked about us coming to Rome.

It's just a publicity thing.

The fact is, we're in the Mumbles,

and we've just built
a very expensive set.

So don't be fooled by all this
we've-come-to-Rome nonsense.
It's not true.

They did discuss various locations.

There was the possibility
of going to Malta.

Even in Wales, there was a small
village around that sort of period,

but it became pretty inevitable,
on the scale of the episode, that
actually Rome was our best option.

So it was great.

Seven, take two. And action!

Got it, this way!

I've found this amphitheatre. We can
start there, gather everyone,

they've got a big bell
we can ring or something.

This is a story about
a whole town full of people dying.

I think we were all keen
to be sensitive to that.

When is it due? It's AD, rd
August. It's Volcano Day tomorrow!

Plenty of time,
we can get everyone out, easy!

This is a great big,
massive event in history.

One that children have always been
fascinated by. There's something for
a younger audience in there.

Pompeii is a fixed point in history.
What happens, happens.

There is not stopping it.

You can't underestimate the fact
that these are real people,

and what we were dealing with was
a real event on a massive scale.

The buried buildings of
Pompeii are still standing
after nearly , years.

Beginning in , the excavations
have unearthed in amazing detail

the secrets of a city
at the height of the Roman Empire.

This is the forum, the main square,

the centre of the political,
commercial and social Roman's life.

So, this was all completely
submerged? Yes. Under the feet.

Thanks to this volcanic material
everything has been
so beautifully saved.

I don't know what I was expecting,
I wasn't expecting it to be
as intact as it is,

and as extensive as it is.

..That all these columns
should still be standing?

Well, they were found on the floor
and have been replaced
by the archaeologists.

So it's been reconstructed? Yes.
We never found the roofs

and the upper parts of the buildings

They were the first thing
to collapse.

But here there was the floor
made by marble, all the floor
paved by marble.

There was a marble colonnade
surrounding the square

and having a second floor too
on the left side, with other shops

on the upper part, like
a very modern shopping mall.

It's extraordinary
how much of it there is.

And how much there is to see.

How kind of domestic it feels
and how real it feels.

You just get the sense of
a fully functioning society.

So, the public baths.

The male section we are
going to visit right now.

The female section is
to the other side.

Six public baths are always divided
in male and female sections.

It's the changing room
and waiting room.

The main entrance was over there.

The holes all around,

was because the wooden poles holding
wardrobes for the clothes. Aah! OK.

From here to the gymnasium - sport.
After sport, massage and sauna.

After the sauna,
coming back again, here.

A dive in a pool
filled with cold water.

And after all this, David,

at the exit, in front of them.
One next to another one.

Two large wine bars,
fast food and party with
the company of girls at the back.

You had your sauna, you got your
massage, you came out
and you had your dinner!

And so. All at your disposal.
With all your mates.

A fun town. Kind of like Las Vegas.
Yeah. A very much so.

If you happened to be part of
the Roman Empire, you were
clearly having quite a nice life

until the skies exploded
on top of your head.

That's, David, the best example

to understand how terrible
were the last moments of life
of those people.

All these people were trying to
save their life underneath the roof

and probably waiting there
till the eruption was over,

but they suffocated by
the poisonous gases

and just lay there buried under
ft of pumice, stones and ash.

centuries later, archaeologists,
during the excavations,

sometimes they fell under
the volcanic materials.

Some empty spaces left by
the decomposition of bodies.

So they did injections of liquid
plaster in these empty spaces.

The liquid plaster took the form
of the previous body.

And when it dried up,

the archaeologists cleaned
all the ash away

and appeared the bodies

in the same position they were
when they d*ed , years ago.

When you think about
historical events,

it's easy for them not to feel
particularly human or
particularly close.

And then, you see
the shapes of their bodies,

and you see how they,
how their existence ended.

You can grasp a bit of the story
of how appalling

and shocking and,
and...surprising that was.

The terror of that moment.

The thought that you literally
didn't know what was happening.

There was no precedent
for what was occurring.

What we're gonna be filming later

is when the actual first rumblings
of Mount Vesuvius erupting happen.

They're huge set-ups and when you're
on the sort of schedule we're on

and you're trying to get
as much done as possible,

you've got to get them right
because they're big set-ups, they're
gonna take a long time to get ready.

So when they go, they have to go.

Come on.

It's amazing. It looks unlike
anything we've ever done and bigger
than anything we've ever done.

So, I'm thrilled.
It's been a tough call, really,

putting all this together just
for two days, but I'm glad we came
and I'm glad we've done it.

Clap there.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you
all very much! That is a wrap!
It's a wrap! Well done!