Beyond Imagination - The Memorable TV DVD Review

A collection of three recent BBC history themed drama documentaries that aim to use the latest techniques to tell the real facts behind ancient stories.

Making heavy use of dramatic sequences, computer effects and the most up to date archaeological discoveries, the three productions are excellent, the kind of thing the BBC excels at.

First up is Pyramid which follows one stone mason as he contributes to the Great Pyramid at Ghiza, one of the seven wonders of the world (and the only one still standing) Pyramid certainly gives you a real sense of the immense size of the project and the length of time and cost of human life.

Colosseum tells of the building of the great amphitheatre and how it became Rome’s Arena of Death, the production focuses on a slave who rises to become a Gladiator, pretty gruesome and whilst not in the league of the Russell Crowe epic still gives you a real sense of what life was like back then.

Highest profile of the three is Pompeii : The Last Day which strangely enough focuses on the final day in the lives of the people of Pompeii before the emptying of Mt Vesuvius in AD79 (August 24 apparently). Some well known faces appear in Pompeii including Tim Piggott-Smith, Jim Carter and Jonathan Firth, easily the most entertaining of the three despite some of the computer generated effects looking not quite real.

All very well made glossy productions the dramas are nicely accessible and certainly bring some exciting moments from history to life. Well worth a look.

EXTRAS: Plenty of cast and crew interviews for all the productions (featuring plenty of behind the scenes footage), excellent fact files, a feature looking at the making of the Pyramid and various visual effects sequences.