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Domina
The Restore Store
Veni, vidi, vici… and different four-letter phrases. Now we all know how Asterix the Gaul received his title — it is due to all of the asterisks wanted to blot out the incessant expletives.
Domina (Sky Atlantic) is the story of a Roman matriarch, Livia Drusilla (Kasia Smutniak) — a robust, impartial lady in her personal proper, and many others, who occurs to be married to the emperor.
It is usually relentlessly foul-mouthed. I counted greater than 40 F-words because the present returned for a second sequence, a barrage of monotonous swearing that made each character sound the identical.
All of them, from Caesar and his scheming sons to the slaves and lowest troopers, used the identical restricted vocabulary. Any shock worth is shortly misplaced, so the dialogue turns into inarticulate, boring and repetitive.
Add to that the necessity for everybody to elucidate the historic bits to everybody else, and the present turns right into a swords-and-sandals parody.
Frankly, in the event you wrestle to seek out grain fascinating, you are going to suppose Domina (pictured) is darned boring
Domina is the story a couple of Roman matriarch, Livia Drusilla (Kasia Smutniak)
Right here is Livia’s fixer, Tycho (Alex Lanipekun), spelling out to politician Piso (Darrell D’Silva) how he tracked down the villain stealing all Rome’s grain: ‘Faustus is listed at his deal with as a freed man underneath his full title, Titus Cornelius Faustus. Which, as you realize, means he was as soon as the slave of Titus Cornelius Siculus, the Grain Prefect.’
Piso’s reply is predictably obscene.
Grain issues rather a lot right here. It is actually vital. Everybody’s very anxious in regards to the grain, and probably the most dramatic moments comes when Tycho finds a giant sack, stabs it along with his dagger, and out trickles… grain.
Frankly, in the event you wrestle to seek out grain fascinating, you are going to suppose Domina is darned boring.
The true Romans have been a sweary bunch, in fact. However they did not depend on one overworked phrase.
Certainly one of my favorite Roman information is that Julius Caesar did not die with the Latin phrase, ‘Et tu, Brute?’ on his lips — which means, ‘And also you, Brutus?’
Like all Rome’s aristocrats, Caesar spoke Historic Greek (Latin was for the plebs), and his final phrases have been the potent curse, ‘Kai su, teknon.’
It meant, ‘And also you, my son,’ — the way in which Brits used to say, ‘Identical to you, chum.’
Domina loses all that subtlety. It additionally lacks the wit and Shakespearean grandeur of I, Claudius, the BBC manufacturing the place the magnificent Sian Phillips portrayed Livia — with Brian Blessed as Emperor Augustus, who’s performed right here by Matthew McNulty.
There’s by no means a impolite phrase spoken on The Restore Store (BBC1), even when the restorations get tough
Even when we would needed to listen to the celebrities of I, Claudius, reminiscent of Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart, effing and jeffing via each line, no Seventies broadcaster would have dared air it.
However 50 years in the past the set-piece orgies have been a lot racier. In Domina, when the royal household lounge round consuming larks’ tongues on their divans, they maintain their togas on. ‘Et tu’ has been changed by #MeToo.
There’s by no means a impolite phrase spoken on The Restore Store (BBC1), even when the restorations get tough. We need to see emotion, however solely the heart-warming form, the place tears properly up for misplaced family members.
Musician Alex may need let slip a selection phrase or two when he slipped on ice and landed on his guitar, snapping the neck. However he was extra involved with the impression on his psychological well being, music being his technique for releasing stress and nervousness.
It was soothing to observe luthier Julyan Wallis repairing the break with glue, screws, doweling and slightly cherry-red resin — one thing I do not bear in mind seeing on the present earlier than.
The repairs to a 1970 soccer programme signed by the good Pele have been extra delicate. The journal’s proprietor, former West Ham goalie Peter Grotier, was anxious the signature would possibly get cleaned proper off.
That might be an personal purpose… however the doc was in protected fingers.
