Fred the Carpenter off Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

[rimsky]

Anyone else think the sacking of Fred the Carpenter on Rome Wasn't Built In A Day was a bit harsh?

I don't see if this is supposed to be an authetically built Roman villa that they can justify sacking Fred, and then bring in some timber framers who have pre-cut wood! Makes the job so much easier...

I rofl'd when Fred tried to get huffy and threaten to resign ... after he had been sacked.

Fred was pretty useless: his cart took days to build and then didn't work; he said that he needed 10 days to look through the building plans to understand them; he didn't seem to realise that changing the angles on the roof would change all the stress calculations, etc, etc.

However, I do agree that the programme makers cheated. After several weeks of insisting on authenticity, they then sneaked in the pre-cut timber. It looked like a rational decision but they could have had the decency (to Fred, if no-one else) to explain their U-turn.

I totally agree. After they sacked poor fred - who was useless but trying! They seemed to bring in all the manufactured stuff from b& q and a load of extra workers. I feel he was treated unfairly and it bugged me.

I also didn't understand the concept of cutting and using the wood immediately - surely the Romans knew about the need for seasoning? The oak should have been cut and left for about a year before it was actually needed (it would also have made it lighter).

Those gripes aside, I think it's a great programme apart from the pantomime-villain Prof.

The book specified to cut the wood in Autumn but they has to disregard it..like so many of the Roman rules they are loosing