Pompeii: The New Dig

BBC TWO

Pompeii, buried in AD 79 under 16 feet of hot volcanic pumice and ash, is one of the most melancholy, magical places on earth; a moment in the ancient world captured and preserved in its entirety. The city of Pompeii, above the bay of Naples and under the still sulphurous Mount Vesuvius, was a prosperous Roman enclave, the sort of place where wealthy citizens retired to the sun. There were 15,000 inhabitants in first-century Pompeii; some escaped the eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed the city, but many didn’t.