Doctor Who Confidential (2005–2011): Season 4, Episode 2 - The Italian Job - full transcript
NARRATOR: 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 gonna look great.
NARRATOR: Feel the heat backstage
with Confidential,
as we head up Pompeii
with David Tennant.
It's just extraordinary
how kind of domestic it feels
and how real it feels.
NARRATOR: 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 are here in Rome.
We're at Cinecittà Studios.
We are here because the studio
is doubling as Pompeii.
It's nice to be here dressed
as Kevin Keegan.
You know, it's what
I've always wanted to do.
Yeah, Italy, great. Rome. Someone's
gotta do it. It's a dirty job, innit?
TENNANT: 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 a possibility
of going to Malta.
Even in Wales, there was
this very small sort of 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.
MAN: Seven, take 2. A camera mark.
DIRECTOR: And action.
Got it, got it, got it!
Foss Street, this way!
No, I found this big sort of
amphitheatre thing.
We can start there,
we could gather everyone together.
Maybe they've got a great big bell
we could ring or something.
This is a story about a whole town
full of people dying.
And so I think we were
all keen to be sensitive to that.
When does Vesuvius erupt?
What time is it due?
It's 79 AD, 23rd of August,
which makes volcano day tomorrow.
Plenty of time.
we'll get everyone out easy!
This is a great, big,
massive event in history.
I think an event that children have
always been fascinated by as well.
There's something for a younger
audience in there.
Pompeii is a fixed point in history.
What happens, happens.
There is no stopping it.
You can't underestimate the fact that
these are real people.
And what we were dealing with there,
this is a real event on a massive scale.
NARRATOR: The buried buildings
of Pompeii are still standing
after nearly 2,000 years.
Beginning in 1748, the excavations
have unearthed an amazing detail,
the secrets of a city
at the height of the Roman Empire.
Well, this is the forum,
the main square.
-Uh-huh.
-The centre of the political,
religious, commercial
and social Roman life.
TENNANT: So, this was all
completely submerged?
GUIDE: Yes, under 30 feet.
And thanks to this volcanic material,
everything has been so well
preserved all along the centuries.
TENNANT: 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...
GUIDE: Yes, because... No, well,
they were found on the floor
and they've been replaced
up there by the archaeologists.
-It wasn't absolutely...
-Yes.
-It's been reconstructed.
-We never find the roofs
-and the upper part of the buildings...
-No, of course.
...because 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 just extraordinary
how much of it there is,
and how much there is to see
and how much...
How kind of domestic it feels
and how real it feels.
You know, you just get the sense
of a fully functioning society.
So, the public baths.
So, the male section we are going
to visit right now.
The female section is to the other side.
Six public baths always divided
in male and female sections.
Okay.
That's the changing room
and waiting room.
The main entrance was over there.
Where are the holes all around, it's
because there were wooden poles
-holding the wardrobes for the clothes.
-Ah, okay.
From here to the gymnasium, sport.
After sport, massage and sauna.
And 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 bar, fast food and party,
with the good company of the girls.
Uh-huh.
You had your sauna, you got
your massage, you came out,
you had your dinner.
-And so, all at disposal...
-With all your mates.
-Actually a fun town. Kind of Las Vegas.
-Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, 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.
It's, David, the best example
to understand
how terrible were
the last moment of life of these people.
You see, all these people were
trying to save their life
underneath a roof,
and probably waiting there
until the eruption was over.
But they suffocated by
the poisonous gases.
And just later, buried under 30 feet
of pumice stone and ash.
So now, 19 centuries later,
the archaeologists,
during the excavations,
sometimes they felt under
the volcanic materials
some empty spaces left by
the decomposition of bodies.
And so they did enactions
of liquid plaster
in these empty spaces.
The liquid plaster took the form
of the previous bodies.
And when it dried up, the archaeologists
cleared all the ash away,
and appeared the bodies
in the same position they were
when they died 2,000 years ago.
It's always very easy when you
think about historical events
for them not to feel particularly human,
for them not to feel particularly close.
And then you see
the shapes of their bodies,
and you see how their existence ended,
and you can...
You can grasp a bit of the story
of how appalling and shocking
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 going to be filming
later tonight
is when the actual first rumblings of
Mount Vesuvius' eruption happened.
They're such huge set-ups,
and when you're on the schedule
that we're on
and you're trying to get as much done
in that one night-shoot
that you've got as possible,
you've kind of 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.
Action!
Come on!
It's amazing. I think 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,
pulling all this together
Just for two days.
But I'm really glad we came
and I'm really glad we've done it.
Cut there!
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you all very much.
That is a wrap for this evening.
That's a wrap in Rome.
Thank you all. Well done.
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 gonna look great.
NARRATOR: Feel the heat backstage
with Confidential,
as we head up Pompeii
with David Tennant.
It's just extraordinary
how kind of domestic it feels
and how real it feels.
NARRATOR: 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 are here in Rome.
We're at Cinecittà Studios.
We are here because the studio
is doubling as Pompeii.
It's nice to be here dressed
as Kevin Keegan.
You know, it's what
I've always wanted to do.
Yeah, Italy, great. Rome. Someone's
gotta do it. It's a dirty job, innit?
TENNANT: 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 a possibility
of going to Malta.
Even in Wales, there was
this very small sort of 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.
MAN: Seven, take 2. A camera mark.
DIRECTOR: And action.
Got it, got it, got it!
Foss Street, this way!
No, I found this big sort of
amphitheatre thing.
We can start there,
we could gather everyone together.
Maybe they've got a great big bell
we could ring or something.
This is a story about a whole town
full of people dying.
And so I think we were
all keen to be sensitive to that.
When does Vesuvius erupt?
What time is it due?
It's 79 AD, 23rd of August,
which makes volcano day tomorrow.
Plenty of time.
we'll get everyone out easy!
This is a great, big,
massive event in history.
I think an event that children have
always been fascinated by as well.
There's something for a younger
audience in there.
Pompeii is a fixed point in history.
What happens, happens.
There is no stopping it.
You can't underestimate the fact that
these are real people.
And what we were dealing with there,
this is a real event on a massive scale.
NARRATOR: The buried buildings
of Pompeii are still standing
after nearly 2,000 years.
Beginning in 1748, the excavations
have unearthed an amazing detail,
the secrets of a city
at the height of the Roman Empire.
Well, this is the forum,
the main square.
-Uh-huh.
-The centre of the political,
religious, commercial
and social Roman life.
TENNANT: So, this was all
completely submerged?
GUIDE: Yes, under 30 feet.
And thanks to this volcanic material,
everything has been so well
preserved all along the centuries.
TENNANT: 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...
GUIDE: Yes, because... No, well,
they were found on the floor
and they've been replaced
up there by the archaeologists.
-It wasn't absolutely...
-Yes.
-It's been reconstructed.
-We never find the roofs
-and the upper part of the buildings...
-No, of course.
...because 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 just extraordinary
how much of it there is,
and how much there is to see
and how much...
How kind of domestic it feels
and how real it feels.
You know, you just get the sense
of a fully functioning society.
So, the public baths.
So, the male section we are going
to visit right now.
The female section is to the other side.
Six public baths always divided
in male and female sections.
Okay.
That's the changing room
and waiting room.
The main entrance was over there.
Where are the holes all around, it's
because there were wooden poles
-holding the wardrobes for the clothes.
-Ah, okay.
From here to the gymnasium, sport.
After sport, massage and sauna.
And 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 bar, fast food and party,
with the good company of the girls.
Uh-huh.
You had your sauna, you got
your massage, you came out,
you had your dinner.
-And so, all at disposal...
-With all your mates.
-Actually a fun town. Kind of Las Vegas.
-Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, 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.
It's, David, the best example
to understand
how terrible were
the last moment of life of these people.
You see, all these people were
trying to save their life
underneath a roof,
and probably waiting there
until the eruption was over.
But they suffocated by
the poisonous gases.
And just later, buried under 30 feet
of pumice stone and ash.
So now, 19 centuries later,
the archaeologists,
during the excavations,
sometimes they felt under
the volcanic materials
some empty spaces left by
the decomposition of bodies.
And so they did enactions
of liquid plaster
in these empty spaces.
The liquid plaster took the form
of the previous bodies.
And when it dried up, the archaeologists
cleared all the ash away,
and appeared the bodies
in the same position they were
when they died 2,000 years ago.
It's always very easy when you
think about historical events
for them not to feel particularly human,
for them not to feel particularly close.
And then you see
the shapes of their bodies,
and you see how their existence ended,
and you can...
You can grasp a bit of the story
of how appalling and shocking
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 going to be filming
later tonight
is when the actual first rumblings of
Mount Vesuvius' eruption happened.
They're such huge set-ups,
and when you're on the schedule
that we're on
and you're trying to get as much done
in that one night-shoot
that you've got as possible,
you've kind of 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.
Action!
Come on!
It's amazing. I think 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,
pulling all this together
Just for two days.
But I'm really glad we came
and I'm really glad we've done it.
Cut there!
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you all very much.
That is a wrap for this evening.
That's a wrap in Rome.
Thank you all. Well done.