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Airdate: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

ABC1 plays a UK factual series in which a Roman villa is restored by only ancient techniques.

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You could almost be forgiven for thinking they thought up the title before the show.

Next week ABC1 plays a factual series in which a Roman villa, in the UK town of Wroxeter, is restored by only using ancient techniques. A grand design of historic proportions….

A group of six builders embark on an ambitious project to bring the Roman city of Wroxeter back to life by building a fully working Roman villa. But the catch is they cannot use any modern technology and their building guide is a manual written in 25BC.

Wroxeter was once a city on the very edge of the Roman Empire, where, 2000 years ago, grand public bath houses and magnificent temples stood. Now only ruins remain of the civilisation that revolutionised the way we live.

The builders’ task is one none of them has ever encountered before. They cannot even use wheelbarrows. They must instead make a cart from a tree trunk.

They soon crack under the strain. Matters are not helped by the foreman’s management style which is blunt and to the point.

One month into the build they are already slipping behind schedule and in desperate need of help.

8:30pm Tuesday October 4 ABC1

6 Responses

  1. As one of the builders of the villa (the long haired biker guy) and can tell you that we had wanted to use wooden scaffolding but health and safety would not allow it, but we still used pud lock holes through the walls the the effect was still the same. And way I hope you guys enjoy it over the other end of the pond we had a great time building the villa but believe me it was really hard work cheers Kevin.

  2. @Kev – if you watch the show you will see the steel scaffolding was a OHS requirement – they wanted to use the timber scaffolding that would have been used in ancient times – but were not allowed by law. This is a great show, and the authenticity of methods and technology used are extremely impressive.

  4. Finally a renovations show with a bit of originality!! All these current shows such as The Renovators; The Block and ; Top Design have never appealed to me for the reason that they are all copycat shows which don’t have much to offer. Restoring houses using Ancient teckniques?? Excellent concept…..and naturally from ABC!!! Look and learn Channel 7 Channel 9 and Channel 10!!!

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