Startling historical news.

[Tinkerbell456]

I am currently watching something set in Ancient Rome ( love me my history ). One of the senators plotting against the Emperor Commodus seems to be wearing a watch.

Whoops. Lol

So they had watches in the second century? Wow, that's an explosive discovery op. What are you going to do with this knowledge?

Don't be silly.

It was a Fitbit. Senators need exercise too.

(I know nothing really, I wasn't watching it)

@Tinkerbell456

I am into ancient history tv programmes aswell.😀

It seemed like a fairly modern dive watch. Expensive looking too in my brief glimpse. Not a miniature sundial for the discerning ancient Roman.
Sack the entire continuity staff who are supposed to pick up this stuff or am I being severe? 😬

Further evidence! Just saw it again! Under the left arm of his treacherous toga!

Apologies for the extra post. If Roman Emporers had just been taught never to trust a man with a watch, history might be different, no? For this senator for a start.

I was watching a movie last night were two characters were standing talking on a pavement, and over the shoulder of one, a long way away diagonally across the road, in a scene where one persons head was central and my focus should have been on their face, I noticed over their shoulder a blond woman popped into existence, walking away with her back to the camera. Then two more evenly spaced copies of exactly the same walking woman popped into existence behind her, so there were three evenly spaced clones in the background walking along the opposite pavement.

I did rewind to check I'd really seen this, and I hadn't imagined it.

Now, in fairness, this movie had a sci-fi storyline in which the reality I was watching was supposed to be computer-generated. So this could have been intentional. But I didn't notice anything else similar happening anywhere in movie, and this didn't add anything to the story. It felt more like this was routine CGI to add background detail to a street scene, that had gone wrong. Is CGI used for the mundane purpose of creating irrelevant background persons in street scenes though?

Wow. You know the great acting coach Stanisowski stated that an actor needed to be 99% character and 1 you. It’s bums on seats laddy, , bums on seats. Succinct, but true. What happened to remembering your lines and not tripping over the furniture?

I was once put off an historical drama by the opening action; a young widow waits with her two young sons by the wayside to waylay the king to plead her case, supposedly in mediaeval times. the Timotei-glossy tumbling down her back I could just about pass as dramatic licence, (only a young unmarried woman of this time would have had free-flowing locks) but her back view revealed the long modern zip fastening which held her robe together. I gave up all hope of historical accuracy.
In another series, a Tudor court was dancing to Playford tunes (17th or 18th century), as jarring to me as 1920's flappers dancing to the strains of Glen Miller would be.
Shakespeare had some excuse for anachronisms (clock striking in "Julius Caesar?) as less information was available to him, but so much well-researched knowledge is now so readily available that such mental laziness is really not a good sign that the production has been thought through well.

Hey, those tales of fun. A very big cosmic question. Are people more civilised now than in Ancient Rome? As in, less ruthless? My slightly sozzled point is, what, in the ancient world, was the issue with a politely worded letter of resignation? Okay, I get that ancient Ottoman viziers got enormous turbans, but still?

what’s your AIBU

I saw double yellow lines in an episode of Bridgerton.

Bridgerton is using music by Billy Eilis and Maroon 5 adapted for string quartet for their dance scenes

Somebody in Braveheart is wearing jeans.

Are you sure it wasn't a sundial watch 🤔

Are you sozzled at 10.30am in the morning?

@twoshedsjackson Was that the White Queen series?

Now, in fairness, this movie had a sci-fi storyline in which the reality I was watching was supposed to be computer-generated. So this could have been intentional. But I didn't notice anything else similar happening anywhere in movie, and this didn't add anything to the story. It felt more like this was routine CGI to add background detail to a street scene, that had gone wrong. Is CGI used for the mundane purpose of creating irrelevant background persons in street scenes though?

Yes it is. Though the character may not have been generated with CGI but a live actor with the footage cloned into different places. I have a friend who worked for ILM years ago. One day he and all the rest of the office staff were pulled out to sit in some bleachers (in Star Wars costumes) and do some cheering. I can't remember how many people he said there were but there weren't that many. Less than 100. Those office staff became the huge cheering throngs for the Podrace sequence in The Phantom Menace - if you look carefully you can see the pattern of the crowd repeat like a wallpaper design.

I was watching something about Henry VIII and he was writhing on the bed displaying a mouthfull of fillings

In the BBC adaptation of Les Miserables a couple of years ago, the police searching 19th century Paris looking for Jean Valjean were using IKEA outdoor lanterns. I know because I had 2 on my patio

@TheSandman - yes! They did the same for Gladiator as well.

50WaysToLeaveYourLover it may well have been; I was so irritated that I refused to engage......I can let little things pass (like ladies in Hollywood "swords and sandals " movies sporting vaccination marks) but when the whole thing starts with such sloppiness, I feel I've been warned off.
It can be done; Glenda Jackson's portrayal of Elizabeth is currently being repeated on BBC Four; the music on that is spot on, and ironically, that is why is doesn't appear dated! Mrs MostyToasty mentions yellow lines; I have seen the country church which stood in for the church where Elizabeth almost married (apparently much like the long-gone London original, and built at about the same time) and the churchwarden told me how the location manager rendered it truly Tudor again by temporarily removing the drainpipes and scattering autumn leaves over the yellow lines.

Was it Ben Hur, OP? It's known for a range of anachronisms likenesses and electricity pylons.