Roman epics nudge two sliders up and down on their dramatic mixing desk: the one that controls political machinations, and the one that dispenses violence and debauchery. Go too far towards I, Claudius and the audience gets bored; veer the other way and a different demographic will flush crimson and cover their eyes with a Mary Beard hardback.
Those About to Die, a grand 10-part attempt to make ancient Rome as exciting as the fictional histories of Game of Thrones, hovers somewhere in the middle. It ends up as a fairly satisfying binge, not raucous enough to be a guilty pleasure but not in enough control of its characters to be seriously good.
