Rome: Wed 9pm BBC2 / Sun 10.55pm BBC1

Epic new HBO/BBC drama Rome begins on BBC2 tomorrow at 9pm, getting a repeat on Sundays at 10.55pm on BBC1.

It cost something like £60m to make 12 episodes - but the BBC will be leaving £5m on the cutting room floor, merging the first three episodes into two, claiming us UK folk are so clued-up on our Roman history we don't need to see the backstory included for the benefit of US viewers. The BBC claim there will be no cuts for sex or violence.


I don't agree with this at all - I want to see it how the producers intended. It's a programme for well respected US cable channel HBO - and from the quality of programmes such as Six Feet Under, The Sopranos and Curb your Enthusiasm, I wouldn't call the average HBO viewer thick!

Also of note is as well as losing an episode, the BBC2 airings are 50 minutes long, while the BBC1 repeats are 55 minutes. HBO is a subscription funded US network which doesn't screen ads during programmes, so Rome is just short of an hour long!


Rome does look very promising from what I've seen of it - but I'd like to see the full thing, especially as it has a large cast and alot of characters to introduce the viewer too - so cutting an entire episode is likely to cut alot of the back story!

No! as you've said, I want to see this how the producers intented it to look.

Utter silly idea.

But from the promos and "talk" about the programme I certainly intend to tune in on Wednesday. Apparently there are some very graphic sexual scenes.

I've seen the first three episodes - and it did feel quite slow, and a bit patronising. I suspect that Brits learn more about Rome in history at school than in the US - given that we (well the English!) were occupied by Romans - and a lot of our early history was influenced by the Romans - even a lot of our place names and road routes were influenced directly by them.

There is also something to watch - the show was shot at 24 frames per second (converted to 60 fields using 3:2 pulldown), so when it is shown in the UK it is shown at 25 frames per second, and runs 4% faster.

Maybe the BBC right then
If it is 4% faster and if it's a bit slow

could you ask someone to post on your behalf?

i noticed the mail said the scene setting was far too obvious. i dread to think therefore what the original episodes were like

Ah - but which producers? It was a co-production between HBO and the BBC - it could easily be that the HBO Exec producers wanted one edit, and the BBC Exec producers wanted a different edit. Things are never simple in co-production land - it certainly isn't unusual for the same show to be edited into different versions for different co-production partners. There is a degree to which you have to tailor an edit to your audience - and the US and UK audiences are very different.

Spooks is shown in the US as MI5, and runs about 15-16 mins shorter - i.e. our 58 min episodes get cut down to 42-3 mins in the US. This means the show is much faster and pacier, but also quite a lot less subtle. I suspect we'd miss the subtlety of the UK edits if we got the US edits. Different audiences, different edits.

The technical stuff is beyond me - but I guess that accounts for the couple of lost minutes. Why can't the BBC play it out at 24 frames/sec?


In our paper tonight they are quoting some "BBC insider" as saying they are expecting ratings of around 10m tonight!

10m - unlikely me thinks, BBC1 hardly gets that nowadays, and it's big Charles Dickens show at the moment is hovering around the 6m mark.

The 9pm slot is quite competitive too! At least three things I want to watch tonight!

Because modifying/replacing the entire broadcast infrastructure seems rather excessive for one programme.

Not overly impressed with the "first" episode it has to be said. I found it plodded along rather than been gripping.

Short but sweet.

The TV system in use in Britain is based on 50 fields (or half-pictures) per second, or 25 frames per second.

The system in use in the US is based on 60 fields or 30 frames per second.

The mainstream standard for film production is 24 frames per second - which as you may have noticed is neither 25 nor 30!

No current TV broadcast system is based around 24fps - so different methods are used in 50Hz and 60Hz regions to show 24fps film.

In the US (and other 60Hz areas) the film is replayed at 24fps, but a technique called 3:2 pulldown is used - where one film frame is shown for 3 video fields, but the next frame only shown for 2 fields. This keeps the running time the same for US material in the cinema and on TV. The downside is that the motion is noticably jerkier, because one film frame is shown for longer than another.

In the UK (and other 50Hz areas) the film is replayed slightly faster (4%) at 25fps, and 2:2 pulldown is used - where each film frame is equally shown for 2 video fields. This means feature films, and US series shot on 24fps film (and transferred in the 24fps domain) will run fast. Usually the audio is pitch corrected so that music doesn't change key, but the speed difference IS noticable if you get a chance to hear both versions. (TV series shot on film in 50Hz regions usually shoot at 25fps rather than 24fps)

Occasionally, US TV shows shot on film are transferred to 60Hz videotape, and then electronically converted to 50Hz without removing the 3:2 pulldown - and in this situation there is NO speed change, but the picture quality is noticably inferior.

Most US shows shot on film these days are transferred to & edited on VT, but more often than not, PAL conversions are done by removing the 3:2 pulldown and speeding it up.

Yep - DEFT-style 3:2 pulldown removal to convert a 60i film VT edit to a 48i VT (which is then replayed at 50i) is the best ideal. (DEFT was the original Snell and Wilcox converter that removed 3:2) I wasn't saying it was unusual for shows to be shot film (or 24p video) and edited on tape - more that it was unusual for 3:2 pulled down 24p 60i transfers NOT to be DEFT transferred. However for some reason this isn't always done.

Examples of non DEFT 60i to 50i conversions include the BBC broadcast of season 1 of 24. The BBC weren't supplied with a DEFT 16:9 version - they got a straight 60i to 50i conversion - with all the motion artefacts this would generate. Similarly some of the Sky Star Trek;TNG stuff is not DEFTed - though this may be because some of the effects were done using 30p or 60i video rather than in 24p - so the 3:2 can't be fully unpicked.