Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
Tremors
[coughing]
[child] Mom!
[wind]
Mom!
-We all know the
story of Pompeii, right?
2,000 years ago,
a bustling Roman town on
the shores of the Mediterranean
was completely destroyed,
buried beneath the volcanic
eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
[rumbling and eruptions]
And it all happened so fast.
The people didn't
stand a chance.
The story of Pompeii
is a story of death.
[screams]
But that isn't exactly true.
Pompeii isn't buried
alive instantly.
It actually took a day
to be entombed in ash.
A single day.
That are among the most
harrowing anyone on this earth
has ever experienced.
[screaming]
[Tom] Nonetheless, a day!
A chance!
So what if there's another
story to tell here?
A story of survival.
So I'm gonna try and
trace 3 real people.
Real Romans
through this disaster,
through that day,
because maybe we
don't know the story of
Pompeii after all.
So, let's try that again,
shall we?
[audio rewinding]
[ticking clock]
I remember visiting
Pompeii for the first time.
It was truly
extraordinary.
[upbeat music playing
"You Get What You Give"]
It was the summer of 1998.
I took the train down
through France to Italy.
Don't let go ♪
My first trip away
with no grown-ups.
This world is
gonna pull through ♪
Don't give up ♪
Just me and two friends.
We stayed in youth hostels,
swam in the Mediterranean.
And inevitably
ate lots of pizza.
But it was our visit to Pompeii
that changed everything.
Because in Pompeii,
you can time travel.
A whole Roman town,
buried for centuries,
perfectly preserved.
And all across the site,
there were plaster casts
of real Romans, real people,
tragically frozen
where they died,
and every one of them
left behind a story.
And those are the stories
which inspired me.
They inspired me
to learn Latin,
they inspired me to study the
ancient world at university.
To pursue acting.
To bring people back.
I'm 45 now, and those images
of all those people who died
there have never left me.
So I've returned to Pompeii
finally, to tell their stories.
Because now new research
is uncovering the names of
real Romans who actually
experienced the eruption,
and some who even survived it.
And right now.
There is a powerful
new technology,
and it's right at the
cutting edge of science.
It's been developed
which can trace these names
through the disaster.
This has never been used before.
It's never been seen before.
And we are fortunate enough
to have been granted exclusive
access for the very
first time to this
groundbreaking new technology.
Hang on a second,
a spreadsheet is
the radical new tech?
-It sure is.
I developed it myself.
-Oh, wait.
I haven't even introduced you
to Professor Steven Tuck yet.
Steven runs the
Pompeii Survivors Project,
which aims to trace the
life stories of real people
who experienced the
eruption in A.D. 79.
-Pretty impressive, huh?
Inscriptions from across
the Roman world are all here
in this database.
[Tom] Um, Steven, it's great,
but I think we can, uh.
I think we can be a
bit more cinematic than
the spreadsheet no?
-Very impressive, Hiddleston.
-Meh, I've seen
some Avengers movies.
[Steven] So the Pompeii
Survivors Project is, um,
is designed to find
matches in this database.
The goal is to find the name
of somebody who is in Pompeii
just before the eruption,
and then we find
that same person later
in another community, then,
bingo, we’ve found a survivor.
[Steven] Oh, we have a match.
I'll translate.
-Oh, wait. Hang on.
Um, let me have a go.
"El Avianius Lucius,
we would say, viam
qua territorialum,
Pompeianorum sua
pecunia munierunt."
So, Lucius Avianius paved
this road with his own money?
-Point taken.
So what happened to this
Lucius Avianius then?
[Steven] Well, the plaque's
date suggests that by the time
of the eruption,
this Lucius Avianius
was probably long dead
-Ah.
[Steven] um, however, his
descendants were still around.
Including a boy,
maybe a teenager.
-Oh, so maybe a grandson.
-Could well be. Um
the second inscription
is the Roman equivalent of a,
of a payday loan.
It shows that in the space
of a single generation,
the Avianius’ went from being
among the city's wealthy elite
to being among
Pompeii’s poorest.
And this third inscription right
here suggests that Avianius was
apprenticed to a
local blacksmith family.
-So, Avianius is part
of a family that had been rich,
where they've lost everything,
and now he's working at
an ordinary blacksmith.
I think I might have found
myself my first real Roman,
and he's just a boy.
I want to bring him
back from the past.
He's more than just
a footnote in history.
More than a detail
on a spreadsheet.
He was a human being.
Avianius.
So let's go back
to that day in A.D. 79,
because after all, in Pompeii,
you can time travel.
For Avianius, it's
just another day.
Maybe he is at his
apprenticeship at the forge
with no idea what Vesuvius
is about to unleash.
[Marcus] Okay, in this moment
determines the very future.
Right, it forges what
this bronze will become.
[Lucius] Whoa. That's deep.
We should put that
on a sign outside.
Marcus Masurius,
forging the future.
[Marcus] Alright. Alright.
[Tom] Wait. Pause.
Steven, hang on, wait.
Who's this Marcus Masuri guy?
-Oh, well, there's
a number of artifacts found.
Um, most specifically,
shovels that are stamped
with the Masuri family name.
So they're a local
family of bronze-smiths.
Um, they had a forge
outside the city walls here
in this area.
[Tom] Right. Wow.
But crucially, on the
day of the eruption,
Avianius is working at a
blacksmith outside the city.
[Marcus] Here you go.
Here you go. You’ve got this.
[Lucius] Okay.
[Marcus] You’re alright,
alright.
Oh my God.
Oh God!
What, what did I just
say about being careful?
Hours of work ruined.
[Lucius] It was an earthquake.
[Marcus] Avi, listen, you need
to learn to take responsibility.
You've got to grow up.
You can start with an apology.
Wait.
Where do you think you're going?
[Lucius] Why would I want
to grow up to be like you
and make shovels?
[Marcus] Alright son,
don’t throw a tantrum.
[Lucius] You're not my dad.
You're just some blacksmith.
[Marcus] Hey. Come on.
Come on. Don't be like that.
Avianius, wait.
Avi.
[Marcus groans]
[Tom] Avianius is a teenager.
Just like I was when I
first came to Pompeii.
But if I'm gonna tell the story
of what happened to Avianius,
then I need to combine the
historical evidence with what
I do as an actor.
I need to imagine it.
I'll follow in his footsteps.
Walk alongside him.
See these streets
through his eyes.
[overlapping chatter]
To try and fill in the gaps
in the archaeological record.
This is how I tell
Avianius' story.
An ordinary boy
on an extraordinary day.
[distant rumbling]
[loud knocking]
[Lucius] Mom?
Mom, why’s the door jammed?
[Claudia] Avi, ssh. Stop!
Come inside. Come.
[Lucius] Mom, what's going on?
[Claudia] Well, the
moneylenders have been back,
but it’s um, it's fine,
everything's fine.
[Tom] Wait, Steven.
Hang on. Pause.
It seems like they
could have debts.
So I'm guessing this family’s
really fallen on hard times.
[Steven] Oh, I think hard
times is an understatement.
I mean, if you think about
how class and status-based the
Roman world was,
to have fallen from high
political office to
blacksmith apprentice in
a single generation,
I think they would
have considered that a,
a social fate worse than death.
[Tom] Right, so they’ve
lost status, lost money.
I mean, maybe dad’s not around.
That’s a lot for a young boy.
[Claudia] Come on.
What did you do? Tell me.
[Lucius] I quit.
[Claudia] Sorry, you quit?
You just walked out?
[Lucius] We don't
need his charity.
[Claudia] Avi, it's not charity,
it's a job.
Avi, just, come on.
Think about what
your grandfather did.
He built half the
roads in this city.
He worked hard.
He, he applied himself.
[Lucius] Mom, who cares?
Not this again.
[Claudia] Please,
you have to stop.
Avi, you have to go back.
Get Marcus to give
you another chance.
Give you your job back.
Beg if you need to.
-Beg?
-Yes!
-No way, no.
-Yes. Yes. Avi. Apologize.
I'm relying on you to--
-To what
pay your debts.
-You need to learn
to support yourself.
[Lucius] Support you you mean?
-Avi, please,
don't be like your father.
Don't throw a good job away.
-Well, maybe
I am like Dad.
He didn't want anything
to do with you either.
[Claudia] Avi, stop.
[intense rumbling]
[Tom] Wait, pause,
Steven, hang on.
We need to talk about
these earthquakes.
Because they keep happening.
They have to be connected
to Vesuvius, right?
-Oh, absolutely.
-Okay,
so if we're gonna try
and unlock the choices that
people of Pompeii, that Avianius
make that day,
we have to understand more
precisely the volcanology,
the phases of the eruption.
What do you know
about volcanoes?
-Um, that they're scary
and not my field of expertise.
-Right. Better find a
helpful geoscientist, then.
-Good call, Hiddleston.
[Tom] It's time we meet
our story's villain.
The volcano.
Being here on top
of Mount Vesuvius,
you can still feel its power.
Even now, 2,000 years later,
it's alive, a living mountain.
-Do you know, I first
came up here when I was 17.
-Really?
[Tom] Nothing’s changed,
obviously look exactly the same.
And I remember feeling that
this is the scene of a crime.
-It kind of is, and like
any scene of a crime,
there are clues if you
know where to look.
[Tom] I guess I should also
introduce you to our
helpful geoscientist
Professor Chris Jackson.
-And those clues help
us build up a really detailed
timeline of what happened,
and that timeline,
it begins with
those earthquakes.
-So the tremors
are a part of it then?
-Yeah, they are telling
you about the unrest that's
occurring within the volcano.
And this is the first
phase of the eruption,
and on that day
2,000 years ago, magma,
molten rock, is rising up,
pushing against
the rocks and fracturing them
and causing those earthquakes.
[Chris] And it is ultimately
the earthquakes that tell us
that pressure is building and
building and building until.
-Explosion!
-Well, eruption, actually.
-This is why you're here. Okay?
Okay. Phase one, earthquakes.
Phase two, eruption.
[Chris] That's right.
And the eruption was
incredibly powerful.
It released more thermal energy
than the atomic bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki combined.
-I mean, how do
you survive that?
So the tremors are
like a countdown to
the eruption itself.
The countdown has already begun.
And if Avianius
recognizes these earthquakes
as warning signs,
if he doesn't ignore them,
then there's still just enough
time to escape Pompeii before
all hell breaks loose.
By now, he can't
have more than an hour
before Vesuvius erupts.
One single hour.
[Steven] Wait, wait, Tom,
I’ve found something.
-I'm sorry, we
don't have time for this,
we've only got an hour.
Um, uh, what, you know,
why are we looking at,
what is it,
some sort of Roman
advertisement?
[Steven] Well, this is
another potential survivor,
and also an opportunity for you
to test your Latin, Hiddleston.
-Yes, professor.
Okay.
Balneum venerium,
the Venus baths,
some sort of bathhouse.
Et nongentum, is for
respectable people.
So this is a fancy bathhouse.
This is hard to
decipher this stuff,
but it seems to have been
owned by someone called Felix.
Maybe that says Julius Felix.
[Steven] Well, excavation
records in the database suggest
that this Felix’s property
had been evacuated.
Um there's no horses,
no carts, no treasures.
-An organized evacuation.
So someone does
heed the warnings.
This is another clue.
You're right, I
should look in there.
If this Felix recognizes the
earthquakes for what they are
and evacuates the entire
property and that is a
remarkable lead, that's
another potential survivor.
But who is this Julius Felix?
I'm gonna pause Avianius' story
for a moment to investigate the
ruins of this Felix's home.
Because, after all, he could
be my second real Roman.
[Tom] This is bigger
than I thought.
You've got a swimming pool,
bar, restaurant.
It's a, huh, bathhouse.
Beautiful garden with
this long water feature.
This isn't a private
dwelling, this is an estate.
So this place must be
owned by an incredibly
wealthy Roman businessman.
[Amalthea] Um, well,
the first thing Sir,
the guests have
ordered more wine but one of
them's already
vomited on Sylvia.
[Julius] If they've asked for
more wine give them more wine.
I like a man who
knows how to drink.
[burps]
-Hold on, Tom.
[Tom] Wait. What?
-Well, this place wasn't
owned by a businessman,
she was a businesswoman.
Not Julius, Felix, but Julia.
[Tom] Ah!
This is helpful and
embarrassingly accurate,
archaeologist and professor
of classics, Caitie Barrett,
fresh from her own excavation
right here in Pompeii.
So, Caitie, look,
here's the thing.
When I was at university,
I was taught that um
Rome was a patriarchy and
that women, by and large,
couldn't own property,
certainly not run a
business this size.
-And that's part of why
Pompeii is such a crucial site,
because it lets us see what
Roman life was actually like,
and not just what wealthy
and usually male authors
wanted to represent it.
We've got evidence for
women doing all kinds of work.
Shop owners,
account keepers, bakers,
and laundry workers.
The whole social spectrum,
from enslaved to free
and from rich to poor.
-But this woman, the
woman who ran this place,
she's not employed,
she's the employer.
I mean, this is her
business, right?
She's the boss.
-Yeah, it would have been,
as far as we know,
really unusual for an
independent woman to run
an operation like this.
As the head of the household,
she would have also
been responsible for people's
religious well-being.
Keeping her household
safe in the eyes of the gods.
[Tom] Mm, of course.
[Caitie] And in fact, if
we look right over there,
there used to be a
household shrine there dedicated
to the Egyptian goddess Isis.
And we can imagine Julia
as the head of household,
presiding over
religious rituals there.
[Julia] Isis. Lady.
[Caitie] Tom, is
everything okay?
[Tom] Sorry.
Obviously, I took a bit of a
wrong turn with the gender.
So let's definitely
try that again.
[Amalthea] Well, the
first thing is, Julia,
the guests have
ordered more wine,
but one of them has
already vomited on Silvia.
[Julia] Give them the
watered-down stuff we
save for children.
What else?
-Well, Cassius,
everyone's favorite guest,
he's complained about
the snails again.
Apparently, this time they
were tepid and tasteless,
and he still hasn't
paid last month's bill.
[Julia] Oh, politely
remind him that he has until
tonight to pay.
[Amalthea] Politely?
[Julia] Mm-hmm.
[Amalthea] I’d kick
him to the cobbles.
[Julia] Mm, not yet.
No, darling.
Much better to add a
free plate of honey.
Sweeten him up, and
he'll keep spending.
[Amalthea] All right.
But it's your honey.
I'm sure somehow he'll
find it tepid and tasteless.
[Julia] Amalthea, can
you check my necklace?
I think the clasp’s
come loose again.
[Amalthea] There.
[Julia] Ah, thank you.
Keeps coming undone.
Let's go to see those baths.
[distant rumbling]
[clock ticking]
[Caitie] We might think of
Roman baths like a a fancy spa.
So now we're in
Julia Felix's bathhouse.
-That really is a spa.
I see what you mean.
[Caitie] It's got everything.
Here is the very
swanky frigidarium.
The cold plunge.
-Ah, love a cold plunge.
This is amazing.
She really was a
successful businesswoman.
[Caitie] Absolutely.
Before the discovery
of this place,
historians would have imagined
somebody like Julia Felix
to be impossible.
-Impossible, Julia.
[Julia] Oh, I see,
the earthquakes,
they have caused a leak.
[Amalthea] Yes, well, the
tremors are getting worse,
and the guests are.
[Julia] Are what?
[Amalthea] They're starting
to wonder if it's a sign.
[Julia] Oh, and
they are concerned?
[Amalthea] Some are.
[Julia groans]
[Julia] Okay. Well, they
need to know that they are safe
in my house.
[Amalthea] Should I have
everyone gathered by the shrine?
[Julia] Yes.
We'll make offerings.
Oh, and that reminds me.
Signs, how is my
new sign coming?
[Amalthea] Uh, well, I
think it's safe to say it's
not going unnoticed.
[Tom] And 2,000 years ago,
the sign was right there.
[Caitie] This is the spot,
right there.
And this sign actually
has one more thing to tell
us about Julia.
Shall we take another look?
[Tom] Okay.
Elegant Venus Baths
of one Julia Felix.
Thank you.
Um, Daughter of Spurius.
Spurius.
Um, but that's the Latin
for unknown, right?
[Caitie] Yeah.
So Julia is telling us that she,
or maybe her father,
was born out of wedlock.
-Oh, I really did
get this wrong.
Not only is she a woman,
she's come from nothing,
and she's built all this.
And the sign was right there.
[Julia] It's beautiful,
isn't it?
He's done an
excellent job, hasn’t he?
-Did you really think it
was a good idea to add that bit
about your father, Spurius?
-What do you think
it should be bigger?
I might get him to draw--
[close rumbling and tremors]
[Lucius] I'm sorry.
[Julia] Yes, I’m fine.
Yes, I’m fine.
[Amalthea] You need to
watch where you're going.
You could hurt someone.
-It's okay.
He said he was sorry.
Hey, what's wrong?
Is everything all right?
[Lucius] Yeah. Thank you.
[Julia] Go on then.
May the goddess
protect and guide you.
[Lucius] Thank you.
[Tom] Okay, time is
really running out now.
The tremors, the
warning signs, they're,
they're getting worse and worse.
Caitie, now, we've established
that Julia is super smart,
so when does she evacuate?
-Well, here we are,
bumping up against the limits
of the archaeological record.
We just don't know.
Archaeology can't get us
inside people's heads.
Sorry, Tom.
[Tom scoffs]
I don't know.
I somehow thought
the archaeologists and
the historians would
have all the answers.
[Tom scoffs]
Of course they don't.
I mean, how can they see
into the minds of people
who lived 2,000 years ago?
If I'm going to try and
tell the stories of Avianius
and Julia Felix,
I have to change my approach.
I have to change my perspective.
There has to be another way.
Is there another way of
looking at all this evidence?
Is there another way
of seeing the past?
Is there another way of
trying to understand,
at the deepest level,
their experience that day?
When I was at university,
we were taught that
the Latin words for story and
history were the same.
The Romans called it historia.
That means evidence and
imagination intermingled,
they're the same thing.
That's what I have to do.
I have to go further still.
Draw in evidence from
disciplines beyond history,
different ways to uncover what
happened to Avianius and Julia.
So I'm gonna start over.
And then I lay it all
out in pursuit of Julia
and Avianius' story.
Their own historia.
That's what I need to do.
I do actually need
to find a way of seeing
inside their minds.
So, you're a psychologist?
-Yeah, I'm not just
a psychologist,
I'm a disaster psychologist.
[Tom] So this is someone
from a different discipline.
Disaster psychologist
Doctor Sarita Robinson.
-Great.
So, Sarita, how does
disaster psychology differ
from traditional psychology?
-So in disaster psychology,
what I'm looking at is
people under extreme stress,
like a, a natural disaster.
-Mm-hmm.
-I'm looking at how people
respond, the choices
they make, and why,
because people are
really predictable,
and if we can work out how
people are going to behave
-Mm-hmm.
-then we can better
train our first responders.
And if we can do that, then
we can ultimately save lives.
-So, from all
of your studies,
can we apply these predictions
to people from the past,
do you think?
-Yeah, I don't think
people have changed very much
in 2,000 years.
-Great, I was really hoping
you were going to say that.
I want to tell you
about these two Romans that
I've been following.
The first is a woman,
her name is Julia Felix.
She's wealthy.
She's intelligent.
She's the leader
of her household.
The second is a
boy called Avianius,
and he's a teenager.
He's a little
bit headstrong, maybe.
[Claudia] Avi, think about
what your grandfather did.
He built half the roads
in this city, remember.
[alarm]
[Tom] Here's a thing,
they're both
running out of time.
Surely, predictably, both of
them recognize that something
is seriously wrong,
and they get out of
there as fast as they can,
as soon as they can?
-Well, shall we find out?
-What do you mean?
Sarita?
[fire alarm blares]
Sarita, you can't,
Sarita you can't just
turn a fire alarm on.
You actually can't do that.
-Yeah but, but look.
-What do you mean, look?
-No.
[Tom] There's nothing happening.
[Sarita] Exactly.
This is a classic
example of alarm fatigue.
People have learned
that there's no danger,
so they don't respond.
In the studies
I've run in my lab,
we see this behavior
all the time.
-Right, so what
you're saying is,
when these earthquakes
start happening in Pompeii,
they ignore it in the same way
that we ignore a fire alarm?
[Sarita] Yeah, exactly.
[fire alarm]
[distant rumbling]
Now think about it,
the people of Pompeii,
they live next door
to an active volcano,
so earthquakes will
be quite common,
just as they are in
modern Italy today.
People are used to
living with them,
they're likely to have learnt
to just ignore tremors,
just like we ignore fire alarms.
[Tom] But isn't it
slightly different, though,
because the earthquakes they're
getting increasingly worse.
So would you ignore that?
[Sarita] Hmm, I don't think
you can underestimate the human
capacity for inaction,
and actually,
I think there is something
else that's stopping the
people of Pompeii
from evacuating.
[Tom] After you.
[Sarita] Thank you.
Mm.
[Tom] Mm.
[Sarita] So why did
you just turn around?
[Tom] Oh I, I turned
around because you did.
I didn't want to feel
awkward, you know.
[Sarita] Yeah.
So what you demonstrated
so beautifully is something
called social conformity.
We don't want to
embarrass ourselves by
doing something different.
So in the context
of a disaster,
actually social
conformity can mean that people
delay their evacuation.
[Tom] I see.
[Sarita] Or they might
not even act at all.
I mean, social conformity kills.
-Yeah, I see that.
So, in fact,
because of social conformity,
Avianius and Julia,
in fact, the whole town,
they'd just get
on with their day,
and they have no
idea what's coming.
[Julia] Friends, please
remember this is my house.
A house of the goddess Isis.
[Tom] Sarita’s right,
they're all still there,
beneath the volcano.
Getting on with their day.
Ignoring the signs with
a bomb about to go off.
[Julia] You are safe here.
We will give thanks to Isis,
with offerings,
and she'll protect us.
[Cassius] Dates and honey.
Turtledove or a piglet,
that's a proper offering.
This is just pathetic.
[Amalthea] Any offerings,
Cassius?
[Cassius] Thank you so much.
Thank you.
[Aurelia] Marcus.
Remember, he's still a kid.
[Julia] Isis the creator
[intense music playing]
[Marcus] Hi.
I'm glad you came back.
[Lucius] Hi. I shouldn't have
said what I did.
[Marcus] Well, it's alright.
It wasn't my finest
moment either.
[Lucius] I'm sorry.
[Marcus] You’re alright, kid.
[Lucius] You could
say sorry, too.
[Marcus] Alright, alright.
[Aurelia] You could, you know.
[watch alarm beeping]
-That's it.
You’re out of time.
[watch alarm beeping]
[wind]
-Marcus?
-Run!
[explosion]
[high frequency ringing]
[muffled coughs]
[Marcus] Avianius?
You okay?
[Julia] Amalthea.
[Amalthea] Julia.
[Julia] Are you okay?
Amalthea, look at me,
look at me.
Are you okay?
-I’m okay.
-Okay.
Okay. We need to focus.
Get them inside now!
Inside everyone.
Inside now!
[Amalthea] Come with me!
Come now, please!
[horses neighing]
[overlapping screams]
[screaming]
[eruption bellows]
[Tom] So this is it,
this is the moment.
Avianius isn't gonna
ignore this, right?
He's gonna evacuate immediately,
get to safety.
[Sarita] Well, maybe.
-What! Maybe?
Sarita, Vesuvius, that
volcano has just erupted,
and you're saying maybe.
Surely now is the time
that everybody evacuates,
Avianius gets out of there,
and he's not even in the city.
[Aurelia] Avi.
Please, come with us.
It's not safe.
-He'd get to safety
as soon as he can.
-Maybe.
-What do you mean, maybe?
-Well, what would you do?
-I’d get out of there, 100%.
[Sarita] Are you 100% sure?
-I'm absolutely sure, yeah.
-But what about your family?
-I, I can't. My mom.
[Sarita] We know
in emergencies,
people don't leave because
they want to be reunited with
the people they love.
They want to make
sure that they're safe.
-I, I've got to get to her.
I'm sorry.
-Avi.
-I, I can't. Just can’t.
[Tom] Family!
Of course,
that's who you go to,
that's who I'd go to.
[Marcus] It’s okay, Aurelia.
Go, quick.
You find her and find us.
Go!
[Tom] Avianius goes back in.
[scoffs]
Of course he does.
He goes back into
Pompeii to get his mom.
[dramatic music playing]
The final day has begun.
Clock's ticking.
Pompeii is almost out of time.
[ticking clock]
[child] Mom!
[wind]
Mom!
-We all know the
story of Pompeii, right?
2,000 years ago,
a bustling Roman town on
the shores of the Mediterranean
was completely destroyed,
buried beneath the volcanic
eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
[rumbling and eruptions]
And it all happened so fast.
The people didn't
stand a chance.
The story of Pompeii
is a story of death.
[screams]
But that isn't exactly true.
Pompeii isn't buried
alive instantly.
It actually took a day
to be entombed in ash.
A single day.
That are among the most
harrowing anyone on this earth
has ever experienced.
[screaming]
[Tom] Nonetheless, a day!
A chance!
So what if there's another
story to tell here?
A story of survival.
So I'm gonna try and
trace 3 real people.
Real Romans
through this disaster,
through that day,
because maybe we
don't know the story of
Pompeii after all.
So, let's try that again,
shall we?
[audio rewinding]
[ticking clock]
I remember visiting
Pompeii for the first time.
It was truly
extraordinary.
[upbeat music playing
"You Get What You Give"]
It was the summer of 1998.
I took the train down
through France to Italy.
Don't let go ♪
My first trip away
with no grown-ups.
This world is
gonna pull through ♪
Don't give up ♪
Just me and two friends.
We stayed in youth hostels,
swam in the Mediterranean.
And inevitably
ate lots of pizza.
But it was our visit to Pompeii
that changed everything.
Because in Pompeii,
you can time travel.
A whole Roman town,
buried for centuries,
perfectly preserved.
And all across the site,
there were plaster casts
of real Romans, real people,
tragically frozen
where they died,
and every one of them
left behind a story.
And those are the stories
which inspired me.
They inspired me
to learn Latin,
they inspired me to study the
ancient world at university.
To pursue acting.
To bring people back.
I'm 45 now, and those images
of all those people who died
there have never left me.
So I've returned to Pompeii
finally, to tell their stories.
Because now new research
is uncovering the names of
real Romans who actually
experienced the eruption,
and some who even survived it.
And right now.
There is a powerful
new technology,
and it's right at the
cutting edge of science.
It's been developed
which can trace these names
through the disaster.
This has never been used before.
It's never been seen before.
And we are fortunate enough
to have been granted exclusive
access for the very
first time to this
groundbreaking new technology.
Hang on a second,
a spreadsheet is
the radical new tech?
-It sure is.
I developed it myself.
-Oh, wait.
I haven't even introduced you
to Professor Steven Tuck yet.
Steven runs the
Pompeii Survivors Project,
which aims to trace the
life stories of real people
who experienced the
eruption in A.D. 79.
-Pretty impressive, huh?
Inscriptions from across
the Roman world are all here
in this database.
[Tom] Um, Steven, it's great,
but I think we can, uh.
I think we can be a
bit more cinematic than
the spreadsheet no?
-Very impressive, Hiddleston.
-Meh, I've seen
some Avengers movies.
[Steven] So the Pompeii
Survivors Project is, um,
is designed to find
matches in this database.
The goal is to find the name
of somebody who is in Pompeii
just before the eruption,
and then we find
that same person later
in another community, then,
bingo, we’ve found a survivor.
[Steven] Oh, we have a match.
I'll translate.
-Oh, wait. Hang on.
Um, let me have a go.
"El Avianius Lucius,
we would say, viam
qua territorialum,
Pompeianorum sua
pecunia munierunt."
So, Lucius Avianius paved
this road with his own money?
-Point taken.
So what happened to this
Lucius Avianius then?
[Steven] Well, the plaque's
date suggests that by the time
of the eruption,
this Lucius Avianius
was probably long dead
-Ah.
[Steven] um, however, his
descendants were still around.
Including a boy,
maybe a teenager.
-Oh, so maybe a grandson.
-Could well be. Um
the second inscription
is the Roman equivalent of a,
of a payday loan.
It shows that in the space
of a single generation,
the Avianius’ went from being
among the city's wealthy elite
to being among
Pompeii’s poorest.
And this third inscription right
here suggests that Avianius was
apprenticed to a
local blacksmith family.
-So, Avianius is part
of a family that had been rich,
where they've lost everything,
and now he's working at
an ordinary blacksmith.
I think I might have found
myself my first real Roman,
and he's just a boy.
I want to bring him
back from the past.
He's more than just
a footnote in history.
More than a detail
on a spreadsheet.
He was a human being.
Avianius.
So let's go back
to that day in A.D. 79,
because after all, in Pompeii,
you can time travel.
For Avianius, it's
just another day.
Maybe he is at his
apprenticeship at the forge
with no idea what Vesuvius
is about to unleash.
[Marcus] Okay, in this moment
determines the very future.
Right, it forges what
this bronze will become.
[Lucius] Whoa. That's deep.
We should put that
on a sign outside.
Marcus Masurius,
forging the future.
[Marcus] Alright. Alright.
[Tom] Wait. Pause.
Steven, hang on, wait.
Who's this Marcus Masuri guy?
-Oh, well, there's
a number of artifacts found.
Um, most specifically,
shovels that are stamped
with the Masuri family name.
So they're a local
family of bronze-smiths.
Um, they had a forge
outside the city walls here
in this area.
[Tom] Right. Wow.
But crucially, on the
day of the eruption,
Avianius is working at a
blacksmith outside the city.
[Marcus] Here you go.
Here you go. You’ve got this.
[Lucius] Okay.
[Marcus] You’re alright,
alright.
Oh my God.
Oh God!
What, what did I just
say about being careful?
Hours of work ruined.
[Lucius] It was an earthquake.
[Marcus] Avi, listen, you need
to learn to take responsibility.
You've got to grow up.
You can start with an apology.
Wait.
Where do you think you're going?
[Lucius] Why would I want
to grow up to be like you
and make shovels?
[Marcus] Alright son,
don’t throw a tantrum.
[Lucius] You're not my dad.
You're just some blacksmith.
[Marcus] Hey. Come on.
Come on. Don't be like that.
Avianius, wait.
Avi.
[Marcus groans]
[Tom] Avianius is a teenager.
Just like I was when I
first came to Pompeii.
But if I'm gonna tell the story
of what happened to Avianius,
then I need to combine the
historical evidence with what
I do as an actor.
I need to imagine it.
I'll follow in his footsteps.
Walk alongside him.
See these streets
through his eyes.
[overlapping chatter]
To try and fill in the gaps
in the archaeological record.
This is how I tell
Avianius' story.
An ordinary boy
on an extraordinary day.
[distant rumbling]
[loud knocking]
[Lucius] Mom?
Mom, why’s the door jammed?
[Claudia] Avi, ssh. Stop!
Come inside. Come.
[Lucius] Mom, what's going on?
[Claudia] Well, the
moneylenders have been back,
but it’s um, it's fine,
everything's fine.
[Tom] Wait, Steven.
Hang on. Pause.
It seems like they
could have debts.
So I'm guessing this family’s
really fallen on hard times.
[Steven] Oh, I think hard
times is an understatement.
I mean, if you think about
how class and status-based the
Roman world was,
to have fallen from high
political office to
blacksmith apprentice in
a single generation,
I think they would
have considered that a,
a social fate worse than death.
[Tom] Right, so they’ve
lost status, lost money.
I mean, maybe dad’s not around.
That’s a lot for a young boy.
[Claudia] Come on.
What did you do? Tell me.
[Lucius] I quit.
[Claudia] Sorry, you quit?
You just walked out?
[Lucius] We don't
need his charity.
[Claudia] Avi, it's not charity,
it's a job.
Avi, just, come on.
Think about what
your grandfather did.
He built half the
roads in this city.
He worked hard.
He, he applied himself.
[Lucius] Mom, who cares?
Not this again.
[Claudia] Please,
you have to stop.
Avi, you have to go back.
Get Marcus to give
you another chance.
Give you your job back.
Beg if you need to.
-Beg?
-Yes!
-No way, no.
-Yes. Yes. Avi. Apologize.
I'm relying on you to--
-To what
pay your debts.
-You need to learn
to support yourself.
[Lucius] Support you you mean?
-Avi, please,
don't be like your father.
Don't throw a good job away.
-Well, maybe
I am like Dad.
He didn't want anything
to do with you either.
[Claudia] Avi, stop.
[intense rumbling]
[Tom] Wait, pause,
Steven, hang on.
We need to talk about
these earthquakes.
Because they keep happening.
They have to be connected
to Vesuvius, right?
-Oh, absolutely.
-Okay,
so if we're gonna try
and unlock the choices that
people of Pompeii, that Avianius
make that day,
we have to understand more
precisely the volcanology,
the phases of the eruption.
What do you know
about volcanoes?
-Um, that they're scary
and not my field of expertise.
-Right. Better find a
helpful geoscientist, then.
-Good call, Hiddleston.
[Tom] It's time we meet
our story's villain.
The volcano.
Being here on top
of Mount Vesuvius,
you can still feel its power.
Even now, 2,000 years later,
it's alive, a living mountain.
-Do you know, I first
came up here when I was 17.
-Really?
[Tom] Nothing’s changed,
obviously look exactly the same.
And I remember feeling that
this is the scene of a crime.
-It kind of is, and like
any scene of a crime,
there are clues if you
know where to look.
[Tom] I guess I should also
introduce you to our
helpful geoscientist
Professor Chris Jackson.
-And those clues help
us build up a really detailed
timeline of what happened,
and that timeline,
it begins with
those earthquakes.
-So the tremors
are a part of it then?
-Yeah, they are telling
you about the unrest that's
occurring within the volcano.
And this is the first
phase of the eruption,
and on that day
2,000 years ago, magma,
molten rock, is rising up,
pushing against
the rocks and fracturing them
and causing those earthquakes.
[Chris] And it is ultimately
the earthquakes that tell us
that pressure is building and
building and building until.
-Explosion!
-Well, eruption, actually.
-This is why you're here. Okay?
Okay. Phase one, earthquakes.
Phase two, eruption.
[Chris] That's right.
And the eruption was
incredibly powerful.
It released more thermal energy
than the atomic bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki combined.
-I mean, how do
you survive that?
So the tremors are
like a countdown to
the eruption itself.
The countdown has already begun.
And if Avianius
recognizes these earthquakes
as warning signs,
if he doesn't ignore them,
then there's still just enough
time to escape Pompeii before
all hell breaks loose.
By now, he can't
have more than an hour
before Vesuvius erupts.
One single hour.
[Steven] Wait, wait, Tom,
I’ve found something.
-I'm sorry, we
don't have time for this,
we've only got an hour.
Um, uh, what, you know,
why are we looking at,
what is it,
some sort of Roman
advertisement?
[Steven] Well, this is
another potential survivor,
and also an opportunity for you
to test your Latin, Hiddleston.
-Yes, professor.
Okay.
Balneum venerium,
the Venus baths,
some sort of bathhouse.
Et nongentum, is for
respectable people.
So this is a fancy bathhouse.
This is hard to
decipher this stuff,
but it seems to have been
owned by someone called Felix.
Maybe that says Julius Felix.
[Steven] Well, excavation
records in the database suggest
that this Felix’s property
had been evacuated.
Um there's no horses,
no carts, no treasures.
-An organized evacuation.
So someone does
heed the warnings.
This is another clue.
You're right, I
should look in there.
If this Felix recognizes the
earthquakes for what they are
and evacuates the entire
property and that is a
remarkable lead, that's
another potential survivor.
But who is this Julius Felix?
I'm gonna pause Avianius' story
for a moment to investigate the
ruins of this Felix's home.
Because, after all, he could
be my second real Roman.
[Tom] This is bigger
than I thought.
You've got a swimming pool,
bar, restaurant.
It's a, huh, bathhouse.
Beautiful garden with
this long water feature.
This isn't a private
dwelling, this is an estate.
So this place must be
owned by an incredibly
wealthy Roman businessman.
[Amalthea] Um, well,
the first thing Sir,
the guests have
ordered more wine but one of
them's already
vomited on Sylvia.
[Julius] If they've asked for
more wine give them more wine.
I like a man who
knows how to drink.
[burps]
-Hold on, Tom.
[Tom] Wait. What?
-Well, this place wasn't
owned by a businessman,
she was a businesswoman.
Not Julius, Felix, but Julia.
[Tom] Ah!
This is helpful and
embarrassingly accurate,
archaeologist and professor
of classics, Caitie Barrett,
fresh from her own excavation
right here in Pompeii.
So, Caitie, look,
here's the thing.
When I was at university,
I was taught that um
Rome was a patriarchy and
that women, by and large,
couldn't own property,
certainly not run a
business this size.
-And that's part of why
Pompeii is such a crucial site,
because it lets us see what
Roman life was actually like,
and not just what wealthy
and usually male authors
wanted to represent it.
We've got evidence for
women doing all kinds of work.
Shop owners,
account keepers, bakers,
and laundry workers.
The whole social spectrum,
from enslaved to free
and from rich to poor.
-But this woman, the
woman who ran this place,
she's not employed,
she's the employer.
I mean, this is her
business, right?
She's the boss.
-Yeah, it would have been,
as far as we know,
really unusual for an
independent woman to run
an operation like this.
As the head of the household,
she would have also
been responsible for people's
religious well-being.
Keeping her household
safe in the eyes of the gods.
[Tom] Mm, of course.
[Caitie] And in fact, if
we look right over there,
there used to be a
household shrine there dedicated
to the Egyptian goddess Isis.
And we can imagine Julia
as the head of household,
presiding over
religious rituals there.
[Julia] Isis. Lady.
[Caitie] Tom, is
everything okay?
[Tom] Sorry.
Obviously, I took a bit of a
wrong turn with the gender.
So let's definitely
try that again.
[Amalthea] Well, the
first thing is, Julia,
the guests have
ordered more wine,
but one of them has
already vomited on Silvia.
[Julia] Give them the
watered-down stuff we
save for children.
What else?
-Well, Cassius,
everyone's favorite guest,
he's complained about
the snails again.
Apparently, this time they
were tepid and tasteless,
and he still hasn't
paid last month's bill.
[Julia] Oh, politely
remind him that he has until
tonight to pay.
[Amalthea] Politely?
[Julia] Mm-hmm.
[Amalthea] I’d kick
him to the cobbles.
[Julia] Mm, not yet.
No, darling.
Much better to add a
free plate of honey.
Sweeten him up, and
he'll keep spending.
[Amalthea] All right.
But it's your honey.
I'm sure somehow he'll
find it tepid and tasteless.
[Julia] Amalthea, can
you check my necklace?
I think the clasp’s
come loose again.
[Amalthea] There.
[Julia] Ah, thank you.
Keeps coming undone.
Let's go to see those baths.
[distant rumbling]
[clock ticking]
[Caitie] We might think of
Roman baths like a a fancy spa.
So now we're in
Julia Felix's bathhouse.
-That really is a spa.
I see what you mean.
[Caitie] It's got everything.
Here is the very
swanky frigidarium.
The cold plunge.
-Ah, love a cold plunge.
This is amazing.
She really was a
successful businesswoman.
[Caitie] Absolutely.
Before the discovery
of this place,
historians would have imagined
somebody like Julia Felix
to be impossible.
-Impossible, Julia.
[Julia] Oh, I see,
the earthquakes,
they have caused a leak.
[Amalthea] Yes, well, the
tremors are getting worse,
and the guests are.
[Julia] Are what?
[Amalthea] They're starting
to wonder if it's a sign.
[Julia] Oh, and
they are concerned?
[Amalthea] Some are.
[Julia groans]
[Julia] Okay. Well, they
need to know that they are safe
in my house.
[Amalthea] Should I have
everyone gathered by the shrine?
[Julia] Yes.
We'll make offerings.
Oh, and that reminds me.
Signs, how is my
new sign coming?
[Amalthea] Uh, well, I
think it's safe to say it's
not going unnoticed.
[Tom] And 2,000 years ago,
the sign was right there.
[Caitie] This is the spot,
right there.
And this sign actually
has one more thing to tell
us about Julia.
Shall we take another look?
[Tom] Okay.
Elegant Venus Baths
of one Julia Felix.
Thank you.
Um, Daughter of Spurius.
Spurius.
Um, but that's the Latin
for unknown, right?
[Caitie] Yeah.
So Julia is telling us that she,
or maybe her father,
was born out of wedlock.
-Oh, I really did
get this wrong.
Not only is she a woman,
she's come from nothing,
and she's built all this.
And the sign was right there.
[Julia] It's beautiful,
isn't it?
He's done an
excellent job, hasn’t he?
-Did you really think it
was a good idea to add that bit
about your father, Spurius?
-What do you think
it should be bigger?
I might get him to draw--
[close rumbling and tremors]
[Lucius] I'm sorry.
[Julia] Yes, I’m fine.
Yes, I’m fine.
[Amalthea] You need to
watch where you're going.
You could hurt someone.
-It's okay.
He said he was sorry.
Hey, what's wrong?
Is everything all right?
[Lucius] Yeah. Thank you.
[Julia] Go on then.
May the goddess
protect and guide you.
[Lucius] Thank you.
[Tom] Okay, time is
really running out now.
The tremors, the
warning signs, they're,
they're getting worse and worse.
Caitie, now, we've established
that Julia is super smart,
so when does she evacuate?
-Well, here we are,
bumping up against the limits
of the archaeological record.
We just don't know.
Archaeology can't get us
inside people's heads.
Sorry, Tom.
[Tom scoffs]
I don't know.
I somehow thought
the archaeologists and
the historians would
have all the answers.
[Tom scoffs]
Of course they don't.
I mean, how can they see
into the minds of people
who lived 2,000 years ago?
If I'm going to try and
tell the stories of Avianius
and Julia Felix,
I have to change my approach.
I have to change my perspective.
There has to be another way.
Is there another way of
looking at all this evidence?
Is there another way
of seeing the past?
Is there another way of
trying to understand,
at the deepest level,
their experience that day?
When I was at university,
we were taught that
the Latin words for story and
history were the same.
The Romans called it historia.
That means evidence and
imagination intermingled,
they're the same thing.
That's what I have to do.
I have to go further still.
Draw in evidence from
disciplines beyond history,
different ways to uncover what
happened to Avianius and Julia.
So I'm gonna start over.
And then I lay it all
out in pursuit of Julia
and Avianius' story.
Their own historia.
That's what I need to do.
I do actually need
to find a way of seeing
inside their minds.
So, you're a psychologist?
-Yeah, I'm not just
a psychologist,
I'm a disaster psychologist.
[Tom] So this is someone
from a different discipline.
Disaster psychologist
Doctor Sarita Robinson.
-Great.
So, Sarita, how does
disaster psychology differ
from traditional psychology?
-So in disaster psychology,
what I'm looking at is
people under extreme stress,
like a, a natural disaster.
-Mm-hmm.
-I'm looking at how people
respond, the choices
they make, and why,
because people are
really predictable,
and if we can work out how
people are going to behave
-Mm-hmm.
-then we can better
train our first responders.
And if we can do that, then
we can ultimately save lives.
-So, from all
of your studies,
can we apply these predictions
to people from the past,
do you think?
-Yeah, I don't think
people have changed very much
in 2,000 years.
-Great, I was really hoping
you were going to say that.
I want to tell you
about these two Romans that
I've been following.
The first is a woman,
her name is Julia Felix.
She's wealthy.
She's intelligent.
She's the leader
of her household.
The second is a
boy called Avianius,
and he's a teenager.
He's a little
bit headstrong, maybe.
[Claudia] Avi, think about
what your grandfather did.
He built half the roads
in this city, remember.
[alarm]
[Tom] Here's a thing,
they're both
running out of time.
Surely, predictably, both of
them recognize that something
is seriously wrong,
and they get out of
there as fast as they can,
as soon as they can?
-Well, shall we find out?
-What do you mean?
Sarita?
[fire alarm blares]
Sarita, you can't,
Sarita you can't just
turn a fire alarm on.
You actually can't do that.
-Yeah but, but look.
-What do you mean, look?
-No.
[Tom] There's nothing happening.
[Sarita] Exactly.
This is a classic
example of alarm fatigue.
People have learned
that there's no danger,
so they don't respond.
In the studies
I've run in my lab,
we see this behavior
all the time.
-Right, so what
you're saying is,
when these earthquakes
start happening in Pompeii,
they ignore it in the same way
that we ignore a fire alarm?
[Sarita] Yeah, exactly.
[fire alarm]
[distant rumbling]
Now think about it,
the people of Pompeii,
they live next door
to an active volcano,
so earthquakes will
be quite common,
just as they are in
modern Italy today.
People are used to
living with them,
they're likely to have learnt
to just ignore tremors,
just like we ignore fire alarms.
[Tom] But isn't it
slightly different, though,
because the earthquakes they're
getting increasingly worse.
So would you ignore that?
[Sarita] Hmm, I don't think
you can underestimate the human
capacity for inaction,
and actually,
I think there is something
else that's stopping the
people of Pompeii
from evacuating.
[Tom] After you.
[Sarita] Thank you.
Mm.
[Tom] Mm.
[Sarita] So why did
you just turn around?
[Tom] Oh I, I turned
around because you did.
I didn't want to feel
awkward, you know.
[Sarita] Yeah.
So what you demonstrated
so beautifully is something
called social conformity.
We don't want to
embarrass ourselves by
doing something different.
So in the context
of a disaster,
actually social
conformity can mean that people
delay their evacuation.
[Tom] I see.
[Sarita] Or they might
not even act at all.
I mean, social conformity kills.
-Yeah, I see that.
So, in fact,
because of social conformity,
Avianius and Julia,
in fact, the whole town,
they'd just get
on with their day,
and they have no
idea what's coming.
[Julia] Friends, please
remember this is my house.
A house of the goddess Isis.
[Tom] Sarita’s right,
they're all still there,
beneath the volcano.
Getting on with their day.
Ignoring the signs with
a bomb about to go off.
[Julia] You are safe here.
We will give thanks to Isis,
with offerings,
and she'll protect us.
[Cassius] Dates and honey.
Turtledove or a piglet,
that's a proper offering.
This is just pathetic.
[Amalthea] Any offerings,
Cassius?
[Cassius] Thank you so much.
Thank you.
[Aurelia] Marcus.
Remember, he's still a kid.
[Julia] Isis the creator
[intense music playing]
[Marcus] Hi.
I'm glad you came back.
[Lucius] Hi. I shouldn't have
said what I did.
[Marcus] Well, it's alright.
It wasn't my finest
moment either.
[Lucius] I'm sorry.
[Marcus] You’re alright, kid.
[Lucius] You could
say sorry, too.
[Marcus] Alright, alright.
[Aurelia] You could, you know.
[watch alarm beeping]
-That's it.
You’re out of time.
[watch alarm beeping]
[wind]
-Marcus?
-Run!
[explosion]
[high frequency ringing]
[muffled coughs]
[Marcus] Avianius?
You okay?
[Julia] Amalthea.
[Amalthea] Julia.
[Julia] Are you okay?
Amalthea, look at me,
look at me.
Are you okay?
-I’m okay.
-Okay.
Okay. We need to focus.
Get them inside now!
Inside everyone.
Inside now!
[Amalthea] Come with me!
Come now, please!
[horses neighing]
[overlapping screams]
[screaming]
[eruption bellows]
[Tom] So this is it,
this is the moment.
Avianius isn't gonna
ignore this, right?
He's gonna evacuate immediately,
get to safety.
[Sarita] Well, maybe.
-What! Maybe?
Sarita, Vesuvius, that
volcano has just erupted,
and you're saying maybe.
Surely now is the time
that everybody evacuates,
Avianius gets out of there,
and he's not even in the city.
[Aurelia] Avi.
Please, come with us.
It's not safe.
-He'd get to safety
as soon as he can.
-Maybe.
-What do you mean, maybe?
-Well, what would you do?
-I’d get out of there, 100%.
[Sarita] Are you 100% sure?
-I'm absolutely sure, yeah.
-But what about your family?
-I, I can't. My mom.
[Sarita] We know
in emergencies,
people don't leave because
they want to be reunited with
the people they love.
They want to make
sure that they're safe.
-I, I've got to get to her.
I'm sorry.
-Avi.
-I, I can't. Just can’t.
[Tom] Family!
Of course,
that's who you go to,
that's who I'd go to.
[Marcus] It’s okay, Aurelia.
Go, quick.
You find her and find us.
Go!
[Tom] Avianius goes back in.
[scoffs]
Of course he does.
He goes back into
Pompeii to get his mom.
[dramatic music playing]
The final day has begun.
Clock's ticking.
Pompeii is almost out of time.
[ticking clock]