Rome!

I am really enjoying the new Rome series.
For the next eleven weeks you will not be able to lure me from home on Wednesday nights! Unless I can watch the Sunday repeat.

This is Rome in all its gory. This is not the sanitised version, this is the grim-y reality:

1) Temple rituals full of superstition, bloodshed and frenzy - none of this silent kneeling in a silent temple before a still marble statue.

• Atia chants herself into a trance and gets drenched in hot blood as the bull is slaughtered above her, in order to ensure a safe journey for her son.

2) How Roman DNA spread across the Empire. The soldiers were men, after all.

• Mark Anthony takes the obliging shepherdess behind a tree while the convoy waits in the road and her sheep wander off.
  

3) The ancients were proud of the human form, unashamed of their bodies, and had no sense of privacy.

• The attendants were not dismissed as who else would undress them? One was needed to wave the big fan, another to give them wine afterwards, and the rest just stood around.

And for the first time in television/film history, the lewd wall graffiti is a feature - prominent in the opening credits!

BBC or HBO: Do not miss this series!