INTERVIEW: New three-part PBS special examines latest dig at Pompeii
Photo: Roberta Prisco sits beside a fresco depicting what might be an ancestor of pizza. Photo courtesy of © Lion TV & All3Media International / Provided by PBS press site with permission.
Pompeii, preserved thanks to a nearby volcanic eruption in southern Italy, is a legendary location for archaeology and the understanding of ancient history. This town, which can be visited by tourists, offers a rare view into domestic and commercial life nearly 2,000 years ago, when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. A new three-part PBS documentary, co-presented by BBC Two and Arte France, takes a close look at the latest dig in this important archaeological site. Pompeii: The New Dig premieres tonight, May 15, at 10 p.m. EST, with the second and third episodes airing May 22 and May 29, respectively.
Lion Television is responsible for the new documentary project, and Richard Bradley, chief creative officer for the company, had the responsibility of ensuring the filming process went off without a hitch. But problems arose, especially in the extreme heat and dustiness of southern Italy.
“I’m thrilled because I think there is so much to take from being able to look into the past in this way,” Bradley said in a recent Zoom interview. “It tells a huge amount about ourselves. We reflect on how people 2,000 years ago lived, what things we have in common with them, our common humanity, but also big questions about how much we have advanced, how much we have really progressed. What’s great about Pompeii is you can see all daily life, people of all stations in society, from the humblest to the richest, and what they were up to in that moment when the volcano went off. Having a window into a world 2,000 years ago is kind of remarkable and gets everyone’s mind going once you look at it close up.”
After the ruins were found at Pompeii, there was a flurry of excavation at the site, but then the town went quiet for nearly 50 years, Bradley said. They stopped excavating because of the demands of conserving and restoring anything that was found.
“So basically there’s so much already excavated, they decided to put a pause on the excavations, so a third of Pompeii remains unexcavated, which is incredible,” he said. “I think most people don’t know that, but a third of the site remains unexcavated. But then because some of the area around this site was crumbling, they decided to do an excavation to clean up, if you like, the area, so it’s like a Manhattan city block that they have excavated. And we knew it was going to be the biggest dig in a generation, and so we leapt in when we were able to get permission to follow the excavation. We thought this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and we were thrilled when we got the access.”
Lion Television has made several films in Pompeii and the Bay of Naples region, so the company has a solid track record and could be taken seriously by the Italian authorities who needed to approve their application for access.
“I think we’re a trusted maker of premium history programming, but our pitch to them was quite specific,” said Bradley, who has helped devise shows like Horrible Histories (CBBC), Victorian Farm (BBC2), Days that Shook the World (History), Mary Beard’s Meet The Romans (BBC2) and the drama First Light (BBC2), according to his official biography. “We said we wanted to foreground the Italian archaeologists who are doing the digging, something that doesn’t normally happen. Normally an expert is brought in from the outside, and the archaeologists have to take a backseat. We said we wanted to foreground the archaeologists and their work because they are passionate and brilliant advocates for what they do, and then we also said, ‘If you’re doing this once-in-a-generation dig, you want to have an amazing record of it. You don’t want it to be lost to history.’ So we said, ‘Look, if you come with us, we’ll give you this amazing record of the excavation, which doesn’t exist for previous excavations.’ There aren’t great films of the previous excavations, and hopefully Pompeii has got something out of it too, which is this unique record of this once-in-a-generation dig.”
The obstacles were numerous for Bradley and his team members. For starters, southern Italy can have temperatures that soar near 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and there’s a lot of dust in the air when archaeologists are working, which doesn’t help with state-of-the-art camera equipment.
“You’re working in the same conditions as the archaeologists, up to your knees in pumice,” Bradley said. “Sometimes you’re standing there knee-deep in pumice and volcanic ash, so it was challenging conditions. You’ve always got the espresso coffee guy coming around with coffee and water every few hours to keep you hydrated and on your game, but it’s very challenging. You have to imagine you’re trying to film sometimes in very small rooms with priceless frescoes on your back or all around you, and so being aware of your surroundings is really key. The last thing you want to do is knock over or break some priceless artifacts or scrape some frescoes, but I think we kept the team small. And the idea was to be able to film there over a long time because normally in Pompeii you get permission to film there for a few hours, and we wanted to film over months.”
And a special treat came from those frescoes: One of them may depict an artistic rendering of the earliest known pizza. Bradley said the jury is still out on confirming that theory, but he’s convinced.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Pompeii: The New Dig premieres tonight, May 15, at 10 p.m. on PBS. Parts II and III air May 22 and May 29, respectively. Click here for more information.
