We have just received some pics and info on a cool new special that will be featured on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, January 30 at 9 PM (ET/PT). “Pompeii: The Last Day” will bring to life the final tension-filled hours surrounding one of the worst natural disasters of all time — the eruption of mighty Mount Vesuvius.
Based on scientific evidence unearthed in Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum, as well as the written firsthand account of Pliny the Younger, Pompeii: The Last Day” follows the fate of several citizens of that city, who awoke on August 24 in the year 79 A.D. in the shadow of a mountain they did not know was also a simmering volcano. Among them are Julius Polybius (Jim Carter), a prosperous bakery owner, who’s mulling over a possible move into politics. Stephanus (Jonathan Firth), an arrogant social climber, leaves his wife Fortunata [Rebecca Clarke] to run his laundry business while he takes his slave-lover to a hotel for a tryst. And Celadus (Robert Whitelock), a renowned gladiator, is out on the streets with one of his comrades, enjoying their popularity status among an adoring public.
Tim Pigott-Smith (Alexander), Jonathan Firth (Victoria and Albert) and Jim Carter (Shakespeare in Love) star in this exclusive two-hour special that interweaves dramatic reconstructions, with expert investigations and elaborate special effects and we have a look at eight images from the upcoming broadcast, which you can check out just below.
The show already aired on Discovery Channel/BBC co-production where it ranked as the highest rated history program ever shown by the BBC when it aired October 23, 2003. It has been hailed by critics as “an involving and evocative account” (The Guardian), “a triumph…gripping” (Sunday Express), and “documentary making of the highest order” (Daily Mirror). More than ten million viewers watched the program.
