BAFTAs and Emmys

My good news is that the Pompeii programme I was involved with (made by Brave New Media, Lion TV, with the BBC) has been shortlisted for a BAFTA (specialist factual category).Whatever happens at the next stage, that is jolly good news for all of us involved. And it's a reassuring confirmation that people can really appreciate programmes about Pompeii that do not feature CGI versions of exploding volcanoes, or B grade actresses dressed up in revealing Roman kit pouring out the Falernian from a reconstructed Roman bar.

No; instead it was me and Andrew Wallace Hadrill down a real ancient sewer talking about the real ancient shit and the historical secrets it could divulge. The ancient up close and personal and without the distracting frills.

Anyway this means that I will probably get to go along to the ceremony later in the month, where the final winners are announced; and to act the star-struck academic in the midst of the celebrity soap stars, the leading actors from Downton Abbey, plus Stephen Fry ('specialist factual", I have quickly realised, is a bit of a minnow of a category compared with "comedy").

The son and daughter are worried that it will be wasted on me, as I wont recognise enough people to make it worth while (I havent even been watching much Casualty lately, which used to be my regular weekly hospital soap).

But if our experience at the Emmys is anything to go by, it will be fun anyway. We got invited to their awards ceremony a couple of years ago by a friend who organises it... and apart from Mary Tyler Moore and Tina Fey and The Late Show, the hundreds of names and the faces and the shows getting awards were an almost complete mystery to us.

It lasted for hours, and I was particularly worried that the husband, whose tolerance of soaps (particularly those set in  American suburbs) is rather less than mine, would not enjoy it a bit. Quite the reverse though. We were both absolutely gripped by the choreography of it and the whole razzammattazz... and that was before the gala dinner.

So I have high hopes for the BAFTAs, win or no-win.