Reviews

I always look forward to anything by Julia Davis, I guess a problem for her is that what was once extremely edgy in 'Nighty Night' is now almost mainstream. So many of her ideas have been subsumed into many sitcoms since, not to mention many of the performers she has worked with. However, whilst this revisits many of her motifs, it pushes the boat out on explicitness. What was once cringeworthy is now more jaw dropping. She has a knack for taking characters we all have actually encountered and pushing them over the edge. Excruciatingly funny, and terrifying at the same time, can't wait to see where this goes.

I am quite enjoying this so far, in spite of the rather glaring errors. Yes, I too enjoyed the rabbit - particularly the way its skin fell off. The language also annoys me, the Romans and Britons seemingly have no language barrier at all - amazing. The locations also grate, looking about as little like Kent as possible, the Welsh Slate quarry doesn't look much like Canterbury, I agree. The Cantii apparently don't bother with woad, leaving that to the Atrebates, for the convenience of colour definition. The second legion augustus fighting in Kent?Oh, and whoever styled the Britons clearly didn't read Ceasar's descriptions, not a soup strainer moustache in sight!

But some of the criticism here is nonsense. The Britons did have female warriors (Boudicca anyone?), as did other ancient peoples, the Romans most certainly had black soldiers in their ranks, and it has been conclusively proven by DNA that they were in Britain. Numidians, Nubians, Moors, there were many Africans in the Roman Army. At least one became Emperor later on.

In spite of its many issues, it's quite enjoyable though.