Gladiator (2000 Movie)

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Fetch the Smelling Salts, I'm Alice. And I'm Kim and this is our podcast all about historical dramas from movies and TV shows to mini series from every era and all around the world. Hooray!

[00:00:23] And today we're joined by two guests which makes this the most people we've ever had on Fetch the Smelling Salts at one time so I hope we can handle it. We don't totally freak out.

[00:00:37] So Tan and Kian are two of the hosts of Passmaster, the genre bending podcast that looks deep into the face of AI and asks, can I use this to travel back in time to give a Roman soldier a wet willy? Welcome guys. Nice.

[00:00:53] Did you come up with that or did Tan give you that? I definitely did not. We're going to have to, that's a perfect elevator pitch. We've been searching for that this whole time. Yeah, that was perfect. I've not heard it being described in a better way than that.

[00:01:15] So will you guys please tell us a little bit about Passmaster and how it came about? So I think it's kind of very hazy but we, a way back we were talking in the

[00:01:25] pub about if you were sent back in time 100 years or a thousand years with just the knowledge in your head and the shirt on your back, could you survive and thrive or would you be burned at the stake for being a witch?

[00:01:37] And exactly as you say Alice, we've come up with a way of testing that premise using an AI program and we have lots of very silly adventures. They're supposed to be serious but they always end up being quite silly because

[00:01:49] we're immature and we can't bear to not be silly. That's the name of our game and where have we gone back to Keon? Dinosaur times, Victorian England, the Wild West, all sorts isn't it? The Vikings, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, all the different eras from quite recent

[00:02:06] history to right the way back to the Ice Age. Yes, we indeed, we have a, they might come out around the same time but I think in one of our next episodes is going to be welcoming Fetch the Smelling Salt

[00:02:18] and we're going on a Regency era adventure with lots of debutantes and gentlemen and batty aunts and mischievous pug dogs. It's all taking place now on a wildly beautiful country estate in Derbyshire and we're looking forward to that very, very much indeed.

[00:02:38] It's a riot so if anyone's listening and wants to hear a lot of pasty adventures check it out. Yeah, brilliant. I think it'll be kind of third week of June. So there are three of you normally. It's Tan, Keon and Ryan. Are any of you historians?

[00:02:54] No, firmly not I'm afraid so we have to rely on experts to set us straight. The AI often goes wrong on our show so to actually be here with people who've done their research and know what they're talking about is a treat. Who are they? That's very kind.

[00:03:11] I was about to say we're not historians either. I don't know who the hell you're talking about. Maybe our cats, you know, because I sure as hell don't know what I'm talking about. We wanted you guys on the show mainly because you're hilarious and delightful

[00:03:27] and we thought our audience would love you but also because we thought it was a great chance to go a bit out of our normal comfort zone and get into sort of the more masculine side of period dramas.

[00:03:40] So we firmly believe that period dramas are for everyone, especially more and more. I think they're getting way more inclusive. They're not just super duper white British anymore. And we love just about every type of period drama out there

[00:03:56] but we don't gravitate toward war stuff unless it's tempered with a lot of homoeroticism. Is that fair to say Kim? Yes, homoeroticism and British men not asking people out. Throwback to remains of the day. So we asked you guys specifically to bring us a sort of more dude-friendly

[00:04:23] period drama to talk about today. What made you choose Gladiator? So I guess I like to think of myself as being quite sort of progressive and in touch with my feminine side and a bit of a thinker.

[00:04:39] But at my core, I'm still, I just love a good old fashioned sword fight and wrestling and saying macho things. There's a part of me that I can get in touch with occasionally and I think Gladiator speaks to a lot of my inner macho guy.

[00:04:59] It's got all the big things, vengeance, sword fights, vindication. I think I saw it when it first came out and enjoyed it. I haven't seen it for ages and they have, I think Gladiator 2 is coming out later this year. I don't know if that's what it's called, Gladiator 2.

[00:05:17] So it's a good time to revisit and just sort of get pumped for Gladiator stuff. It's been like 24 years, isn't it? Wait, when did this one come out? 2000. 2000 I think it was. Yeah, it is now 2024. That's insane. What about you Keon?

[00:05:35] Did you watch it back in the day? Possibly when it first came out, but I watched it yesterday because I wanted it to be fresh in my memory and there was very, very little I remembered from it.

[00:05:49] And there were things that when I used to think about Gladiator, there were certain scenes and moments that I remembered from it that weren't in it yesterday. So I don't know what film I was thinking about all this time, but apparently it wasn't Gladiator.

[00:06:02] But yeah, it's one of those just iconic films and I know it's one quite important to Tan because people who listen to Passmasters know Tan often uses his character name as Tanis Maximus. It's true. Brilliant. I think I didn't realise I was channeling my inner Maximus

[00:06:19] this whole time. It's curious though. Do you have your big speech, like the big speech that Russell Crowe does? I love that. The bit where he's telling him who he is. Oh, I can't get it. I know, it was like goosebumps. I was like, oh yes.

[00:06:35] I've seen this movie obviously before, like everybody else when it came out. And then yeah, I watched it recently and I'm like, oh my God, so good. And like you, I love anything with like vindication, vengeance. I'm like, yes. I didn't realise that this movie,

[00:06:54] I also watched it long ago when it first came out and I knew that it had a lot of fighting, swordplay. I didn't realise or didn't remember that it has a lot of stuff that I actually really like in period dramas.

[00:07:11] It has the kind of killing that I like. So I like a good swift decapitation, people getting cut in half, just like, you're dead. Lots of blood. That's my favourite kind of style of killing in a period drama, obviously. But I also really like Russell Crowe.

[00:07:30] I have a family member who met Russell Crowe so have on good authority that he is a very, very decent fella. So he has a tender place in my heart. Right. It's good to hear. Oh, he's a good guy though. One quick question for you guys.

[00:07:42] Does this meet your quota for thinking about the Roman Empire this week? Or has this been on top of the normal amount that you think about the Roman Empire in a week? So this is a common thing, right? I don't think I'd qualify as a young man,

[00:08:01] but young men think about the Roman Empire at least, is it six hours a week or something? I can't remember what the stat is. But yes, this has definitely, I've definitely met my quota of Roman Empire thinking this week. Roman Empire overload.

[00:08:17] I always had the opposite of that. I didn't even think about the Roman Empire in school when I was supposed to be thinking about the Roman Empire. I think I remember learning about like Vestal Virgins and State-sanctioned sex workers. Those were the two only things

[00:08:32] that I cared about in the Roman Empire. So Alice, each time you look at a road, you don't think of the Roman Empire? Or an aqueduct? Maybe I will now. All right, are you ready for the Gladiator? Yes.

[00:08:47] I should preface this by saying that I was swapping back and forth between watching Gladiator and watching the new season of Bridgerton. So hopefully, the summary won't be like, and then Emperor Charlotte declared Maximus the diamond of the Gladiator season.

[00:09:03] Okay, so we have some opening cards that read, At the end of its power, the Roman Empire was vast, stretching from the deserts of Africa to the borders of northern England. Over one quarter of the world's population lived and died under the rule of the Caesars.

[00:09:21] In the winter of 180 AD, Emperor Marcus Aurelius' 12-year campaign against the barbarian tribes in Germania was drawing to an end. Just one final stronghold stands in the way of Roman victory and the promise of peace throughout the Empire. A Roman legion is in Germania,

[00:09:42] and General Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, is about to fight a big battle with Caesar Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris, watching from a hilltop. And there's a blue filter, so we know it's winter. The battle is intense and very close up,

[00:09:59] and personally I enjoyed the sound effects of the arrows and the catapults, and I thought the barbarian extras looked like they were having fun. Can I say that already at that scene, I had an issue because, you know, when the dog who's supposed to be a wolf

[00:10:16] or a dog or whatever comes by, I saw I was re-watching it with Paul, and then I was like, I forgot about, I forgot there's a dog! And I was like, shit, does the dog die? Does the dog die? If the dog dies, I'm not watching it,

[00:10:28] I'm stopping it now. And then I was like, he's going to die, isn't he? He's going to die. It's a battle. And then obviously Paul goes, well, given that this is in the Roman Empire, I'm pretty sure that dog is already dead by now. I'm like, great, thanks.

[00:10:43] Not helpful, Paul. We never know. He doesn't die, does he? I know! We don't see what happens to the dog. We don't know whose dog it is. He's supposed to be like his, right? You don't see him die, so we can assume he's fine.

[00:10:57] Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think he just ran off into the lovely woods and found a female friend and they made little doggy-woof babies and living the best life. A bit of trivia for you, in real life, the... Dog did not die!

[00:11:14] The actor that plays that dog, the dog actor goes on to star in EastEnders for a very long time. He is... Who's the Dean Gaffney's character? Robbie, is it? Yeah, I know what he's called. But Wellard, Robbie in EastEnders. I think it's his name, Robbie.

[00:11:33] Dean Gaffney has a dog called Wellard in EastEnders and that's the same dog. That makes me happy. That dog plays Wellard? No way! That's the same dog. Goodness me. So he does... What a film-opera. Exactly! But I bet he has his own IMDB pitch. That dog has range.

[00:11:49] All right, sorry to interrupt. I just had to have my does that dog die rent. I have a little thing about the animals in the film for the end or when we're having our discussion. Eventually it's clear that the Romans have killed enough of the barbarians to win,

[00:12:06] so the battle is over and Marcus Aurelius is like, Phew! Meanwhile, Marcus Aurelius' son Commodus, played by Joachim Phoenix, and his daughter Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen, are on their way to Germania, having been summoned by their dad. Commodus rocks up and greets General Maximus

[00:12:27] like an old friend. There's a battle after party where Commodus asks for Maximus' support, but Maximus only wants to go home. We also learn that Maximus and Lucilla used to date before they went on to marry other people

[00:12:43] and they both have sons who are nearly eight years old, but she's a widow. As everyone is packing up the war to go home, Maximus goes to Marcus Aurelius' tent and Marcus, and I'm just going to call him Marcus now, asks Maximus to become the protector of Rome

[00:13:00] and to give it back to the people and end the corruption that has crippled it. But Maximus is like, No! Because he just wants to go home and be a farmer with his wife and his son. But Marcus insists that Commodus is not a moral man

[00:13:17] and he must not rule and he thinks that Commodus is going to accept that. So later on, Marcus tells Commodus that he is not going to be emperor and instead, Maximus will be in charge until the Senate gets its shit together

[00:13:31] and Rome is ready to be a republic again. And Commodus does not take this well. He be crying. We'll cry baby. And when his father gives him a hug to comfort him, he uses the hug to smother him. I guess it's one way to show you-

[00:13:46] Pausing for reactions to the death of Marcus Aurelius. Once his father is dead, Commodus acts like he never heard anything about him not being emperor and he asks Maximus for his loyalty. But Maximus leaves him hanging and walks away from him. This isn't a great move

[00:14:08] because he gets arrested pretty swiftly before he can even speak to any senators about the situation. And the guards are told to ride out into the woods and execute him. But the execution doesn't go as they planned because he kills them all

[00:14:23] and gets away with a couple horses and a shoulder wound. Maximus rides all the way from Germania back to his farm in Spain. And because this is what I do when I'm watching period dramas, I try to figure out how long that would take him.

[00:14:39] And so if he's in the Black Forest, let's say, it's about a 10 days walk from the Black Forest to Andorra, like the north-easterly most part of Spain. If he's on a horse, maybe he's going a little bit faster, but I couldn't get a cycling route.

[00:14:58] So I'm just gonna say estimate 10 days. It's taken him 10 days. And when he gets there, he finds his home burned and his wife and son murdered. Just one of the most gutting scenes in film history. He manages to bury them before he's captured at their graves by slavers.

[00:15:17] But along the way, he makes a friend, Juba, played by Jimun Hunsu, who heals his shoulder wound with maggots. They take him to the Roman province of Zucabar, which is in modern day Algeria. And they get sold to a guy called Proximo,

[00:15:32] who is looking for slaves to use as gladiators. Proximo also gives us one of the best lines of the film that I had forgotten about, which is, you sold me queer giraffes. Yes, I love that. Queer giraffe representation. He's brilliant, just as an aside, he's brilliant, isn't he?

[00:15:50] Oliver Reed as a sort of this dissolute, cynical, old slaver and former gladiator. He's brilliant in that role. Oh, just a leather-faced, war-weary cynic is wonderful. Proximo tests out their fighting skills, but Maximus, whom they call the Spaniard, refuses to fight. The gladiators' first show event,

[00:16:16] what would you call it? Performance? Is that a small arena? I guess a gig? So yeah, so the gladiators' first gig is at a small arena in Zucabar, and the crowd is chanting, kill, kill, kill. So you know it's a great family day out.

[00:16:36] And the way it works is two gladiators are chained together and they're all set loose in these pairs to face guys in armor and wild costumes like bullheads. And Maximus is chained to his new friend Juba, and they each have a sword and a shield.

[00:16:52] And Maximus realizes he has to fight and he and his pal kill everyone. Hooray. It was like very WWE, I was going to say it was very like, you know, wrestling tag team going on. Right? Especially when, you know, like the bit

[00:17:10] where they kind of like use the chain to clothesline someone. It's like a clothesline, isn't it? Which is a classic wrestling rave. Yeah, I was like, I remember that. You know, from my wrestling days, clearly. Back in Rome, Commodus is emperor now and nobody seems excited about that.

[00:17:31] He decides he wants to scrap the whole Senate and rule absolutely as emperor with his sister. He's very concerned with the idea that the people must love him. How, you ask? With Gladiator Games. 150 days of games to be exact. I was wondering why is it 150?

[00:17:50] That seems like an odd number. 100 would have done, I think. And 150, it's not quite as good as 200. So I wonder how he alighted on 150. But yeah. Well, he's a weird one, right? He's all about, you know, over the topness. He's a weird one. Yeah.

[00:18:06] You know, he's always just a little bit extra. So. Yeah, a bit too much. You heard it here first. Emperor Commodus, a little bit extra. In Zuckabar, Maximus, aka the Spaniard, is getting famous but he's nobody's dancing monkey.

[00:18:22] He kills in the arena, but he also chucks a sword into the audience and yells, are you not entertained? Do you want to give the line a go? Nice one. Who? Can? Anyone? Does anyone want to go on? Go on, mate. No, no, no, no, definitely.

[00:18:38] I can't, it's too loud. It's too loud. I'm worried it'll overload the microphone but he does it in a very British accent. Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Yeah. Love it. And the spinning sword, the way it goes, and knocks over someone's wine.

[00:18:56] God, that was risky, but I love it. It's like, not my wine! And there's like moments of silence and then the crowd cheers because they love it. He's crazy. He's telling the crowd that they're disgusting and they absolutely love it.

[00:19:10] Proximo tells him that their gladiator troop is going to Rome to participate in the games at the Colosseum. And we learn that Proximo used to be a gladiator and he gained his freedom from Marcus Aurelius by winning best gladiator.

[00:19:26] Maximus says he also wants to stand in front of the emperor so Proximo agrees to make him a gladiator superstar. The gladiator gang arrives in Rome and they're all in new fetching periwinkle tunics. On the day of the start of fighting, Lucilius' son Lucius

[00:19:45] visits the gladiator cages and comes across Maximus and it turns out he's a big fan. Maximus knows that to get to Commodus he's going to have to do something to win the crowd

[00:19:55] and so the game being put on is like a reenactment of the battle of Carthage, I think? With the gladiators as the barbarians and some other people as Romans and chariots. And Maximus decides to get the gladiators to work together

[00:20:12] with him as their leader which allows them to kill all the people playing the Romans in the game. And change history. And Commodus is so impressed he decides to meet the famous Spaniard so he goes down to the arena with Lucius to say hi

[00:20:28] but Maximus doesn't want to take off his helmet or tell him his name. Commodus insists and this is where we get the reveal and the famous speech which I'm not going to do. Tan will you do it? Tan I'll give it a go, I'll give it a go.

[00:20:45] Please feel free to put some extra gravitas effects on the voice just for maximum machismo. But I absolutely love this scene because this is, you know, he's been, as you say, he's been sort of building up.

[00:21:00] He wants to meet the emperor because he wants to get his revenge on this guy and it's like will he won't he? Will he won't he? And then you realise he has no choice, he has to reveal who he is.

[00:21:09] I think at first he says my name is gladiator and then he just turns his back on the emperor which is an absolute no-no. And Commodus, I think he says something like how dare you! How?

[00:21:21] You will take your helmet off and reveal yourself to me or something to that effect. And you can see Maximus sort of goes, this is the moment he takes a deep breath, his shoulders go down,

[00:21:33] he removes his helmet, turns round and the camera zooms in on his face and there's like as everyone realises who it is and let me see if I can get this right. He says my name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,

[00:21:48] commander of the armies of the north, general of the phoenix legions, loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next. And you're like oh! Amazing!

[00:22:07] And Commodus is like oop but the crowd chants for Maximus to live so Commodus gives him the thumbs up and lets him live. Lucilla manages to visit Maximus in the gladiator cages and offers to help him take down Commodus with the help of a sympathetic senator

[00:22:23] but he's not into it. In the next gladiator game, Maximus has to go up against an undefeated gladiator champion called Tigris of Gaul. In the crowd for this one are some senators and Maximus' old manservant Cicero. Not only does Tigris of Gaul have way better armour

[00:22:41] but some tigers have also been invited to join the fight. I don't know why I was just waiting for you to make like meowing sounds. You think they did the tigers? Well, I was going to say tigers and Tigris but then I realized

[00:22:53] tigers were not, I mean I didn't know what the word for tiger was in Roman because I was like oh you know maybe they were trying to like you know he's Tigris and he got some tigers but no. I mean it's good imagery right yeah yeah works.

[00:23:10] Maximus has to kill one of the tigers when she jumps on him but it looks pretty fake. It's all right. Despite the uneven match, Maximus knocks Tigris down and Commodus gives the thumbs down for him to make the kill but he refuses.

[00:23:26] Now the crowd calls him Maximus the Merciful and they like him even more. Commodus goes down into the arena again and this time tries to bait Maximus into attacking him but he keeps his cool and walks away. After this whole drama Cicero the manservant

[00:23:43] manages to get near enough to Maximus to give him a pouch containing the little figures of his wife and son that he uses in prayer and Maximus instructs him to tell his old legion that he's alive and to come and find him.

[00:23:58] The men are in Ostia which is on the Mediterranean coast just southwest of Rome. Cicero also delivers a message to Lucilla saying Maximus will accept her help by meeting with the contact she suggested. It turns out her contact is Senator Gracchus played by Derek Jacoby

[00:24:16] and here's the plan they come up with. Senator Derek Jacoby gets Maximus out of the city he goes to grab his army real quick they all come back to Rome do a coup Maximus kills Commodus and then Maximus pieces out and leaves the army to protect the Senate.

[00:24:34] Boom bam no more emperor, Rome is a republic. Yeah sounds like a good plan. While the plan is getting underway Commodus is getting more unhinged and creepy. For one thing he starts putting moves on Lucilla which is deeply gross. Oh gross so gross.

[00:24:53] He also has Senator Derek Jacoby arrested and suspects Lucilla is betraying him by plotting with Maximus and he's right of course and she also makes out with Maximus when she gets the chance. Love that for them.

[00:25:08] Commodus threatens to kill Lucius if she doesn't tell him what she's been up to. So I think it's implied she fesses up right? Yeah. Yeah big time. Commodus makes his move against the Senate by having assassins go around putting snakes in the beds of the senators.

[00:25:25] I assume they're poisonous and not just like pet snakes that he's like delivering as a surprise. They wake up and they're like aww. It's like the snakes are like I don't believe in violence. Just want to curl up by your feet and be warm. Yeah.

[00:25:46] And finally a bunch of soldiers come to arrest Maximus before he can escape the Coliseum but with the help of Proximo and his fellow gladiators he gets outside only to be captured again but he does learn that being a gladiator isn't about the people you stab

[00:26:06] it's the people who get stabbed for you along the way. That makes sense at all? Yes. Yeah. I mean and then there's that scene where Proximo dies. They're kind of sad. Yeah but how else was he gonna die?

[00:26:24] I feel like it's a way that he wanted to go getting stabbed a bunch. Yeah down in a blaze of glory. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Now that Commodus thinks he's vanquished all of his enemies he tells Lucilla that she is going to give him an heir. Major Hork.

[00:26:44] This was in the days before Game of Thrones. I don't know did you guys watch Game of Thrones ever? Yeah. Where they I don't want to say they you know that made incest cool again Yes.

[00:26:57] It was quite so glamorous and this was done before that where it's very clearly not cool and not glamorous. We weren't desensitized to incest yet, to sibling incest. Yeah exactly that's a better way of putting it. Make incest cool again. Sorry I love it.

[00:27:17] But Maximus isn't dead he's chained up in the coliseum so that Commodus can make a big spectacle of fighting him to the death and to even the odds Commodus stabs Maximus in the ribs before having him strapped into his armor. Boo. What a jerk what a dick move.

[00:27:34] Yeah I have notes about that. We'll come to it. In the coliseum Maximus and Commodus have a sword fight surrounded by a ring of guards and Commodus loses his sword at one point and none of the guards around him will give him

[00:27:48] a new one but Maximus is not looking well at all and he keeps hallucinating a door he wants to go through and Commodus pulls a dagger from his sleeve. Maximus grabs that dagger and stabs Commodus in the neck with him so he dies. Oh so good so satisfying.

[00:28:07] Maximus barely manages to tell the guards to free his gladiator friends before he falls to the ground. With Lucilla by his side he dies and goes through that door and back to his farm to see his wife and son.

[00:28:20] The guards carry out his body and in the last scene we see a now free juba burying the wee statues of Maximus's family in the floor of the coliseum. The end. Amazing great summary it was a hell of long movie. Very good summary.

[00:28:36] Now we have what kind of noises should we have now just the clanging of swords. I thought I would start by just you know telling you guys a little bit some little

[00:28:54] trivia about the movie and you know production and then kind of go into you can chat a little bit about history historical accuracies inaccuracies and stuff like that. Okay so I won five Oscars including best picture and best actor for Crow so it was

[00:29:14] a it won for best visual effects best sound and best costume design too. So from this website called Yardbreaker Entertainment News there's some little interesting facts. Did you know gladiator was inspired by a book like the movie was inspired by a novel?

[00:29:33] Like I never knew that so there was a 1958 novel called The Way of the Gladiator and then the book got re-titled after the movie release and is now known as Those About to Die and Mel Gibson was offered the role. No not of Maximus.

[00:29:49] Yeah yeah yeah I know. Wow. Yeah but he turned it down because he thought he was too old. He probably was a bit. Yeah at that time. I think in Braveheart I guess that's kind of like the blueprint for them thinking

[00:30:06] Mel Gibson was right for gladiator and he was quite old in that I thought. You know it sort of suited it. Yeah. Yeah it was a bit odd. Yeah so I was like huh did you know that?

[00:30:17] Oh yeah the guy who played Tigress he like he was actually a really big guy. He's a Danish actor called Sven Ul Thorsen so he's six foot four. He won Denmark's Strongest Man competition in 1983.

[00:30:36] One year after finishing 10th in Europe's Strongest Man so he was like a legit big strong guy. I mean he looked it right you know so he was massive. Just on that note that chap Thorsen I love his delivery it's like classic Arnold Schwarzenegger style.

[00:30:53] We who are about to die salute you. Yes. It's so dumb I love it. Funny you should say that apparently he was in a few Schwarzenegger films. I was. So he must have taken notes. So Oliver Reed actually died during production. Was he stabbed to death?

[00:31:14] That's not an appropriate thing to say. Well he was a known I mean alcoholic. Oh that's starker. Yeah I know so he yeah he was a known alcoholic and while he was filming he died while having drinks with some a bunch of like sailors or something like that.

[00:31:37] He died of a heart attack. So what they did was they kind of like had a digital version of him at the end so they CGI'd him. So it was post yeah I guess I'm not sure which point you know like the you have the

[00:31:51] real actor and which point is a CGI but I guess you could kind of like if you go back to the last few scenes that's all CGI. And then oh this bit kind of blew my mind so in terms of like historical facts

[00:32:07] and stuff so the gladiators famous you know people always talk about oh so many inaccuracies blah blah blah but one thing that they did decide to not put in because they thought people would think it wasn't an inaccuracy was that so apparently in an

[00:32:23] earlier version of the script gladiators endorsed products but apparent and then they were like yeah no one's gonna believe that but it was true apparently the gladiators were like would the real life gladiators like in Rome would be like product endorsements for I god

[00:32:39] knows what it's like use this shield you won't die I don't know that's that's so interesting isn't it they they were gonna do it and they were like no no one would believe

[00:32:51] that that's just too silly and I just I wonder what sort of products it was was it like I always use my armor is sponsored by Decimus Maximus shield makers or was it more like

[00:33:03] you always use ox cream hair gel or something I don't know what was it I don't know I use Johnson's maggots for all of my war wounds brilliant yeah so I made a note to myself to do

[00:33:20] more research on that and then I kind of went down other little rabbit holes as I was doing research so this is going to be an after the fact I'm going to look this up what kind of

[00:33:28] products did the gladiators um you know endorse the movie was shot chronologically which is kind of interesting because you know how like movies you know they don't do it right they would just basically go to one location shoot shoot shoot go to somewhere else

[00:33:42] but they for some reason the director wanted to shoot it chronologically so they basically have to keep flying up and down and my last bit of act of trivia for just about the movie was that Pavarotti was supposed to be on the soundtrack and I found that random

[00:34:01] so yeah Luciano Pavarotti doing what I know right I don't know it just says he was supposed he was supposed to be in the soundtrack he declined and then in three years later he

[00:34:13] released a version of a song from the movie like he decided to sing it so that's something to look up there's there's quite a cool I think there's a sort of a score is it at the start

[00:34:23] when he's having his battle in the forest against the Germans and it's quite sort of dum dum dum dum dum dum dum maybe it was just Pavarotti going dum dum dum dum dum dum dum. I can't think what else it could be.

[00:34:39] I know I was like Pavarotti on the soundtrack what the hell is he gonna get in Pavarotti to riff get him Pavarotti just like scatting on the soundtrack okay so some historical inaccuracies before I go into like historical stuff

[00:34:58] so you know the start when they did it all the you know the battle with Germania the catapult all these dart launches yep that's not you know that didn't happen at that time apparently I mean the weapons those types of weapons would have existed but

[00:35:14] they wouldn't have used it for that sort of conflict I'm wondering whether it was because why would you be throwing giant catapults of fire into like a bunch of trees you know because

[00:35:28] I was like that's probably not a good idea so that's one thing also the whole thing about Marcus Aurelius banning gladiator fights that's not true as well because it was a popular

[00:35:40] thing you know they were doing it and there was no also no historical you know accuracy or no evidence rather that he wanted to restore the republic so you know they kind of took some

[00:35:52] artistic license with that so Marcus Aurelius was a real guy Commodus was a real guy Lucilla definitely you know existed as well we'll kind of you know have some little bits about that Maximus did not you know there was no person he seemed to be like a conglomeration

[00:36:08] of like a few people so there was this guy who was a wrestler his name was Narcissus he was the one who actually killed Commodus and not in the and not in in in the arena

[00:36:22] but actually in Commodus's bath so Commodus died in the bath like a little bitch he was killed by a wrestler in the bath killed by a wrestler in the bath like something yeah

[00:36:33] yeah he was sad so it was like a plot to kill him and then it was also you know Spartacus the famous you know actual Tracian slave who became a gladiator and he led a rebellion

[00:36:44] against the Romans so until like people were saying that he there's some elements of that in him and there was this there was this guy called Tiberius Claudius from Pianus and he was basically like a farmer turned general became a favorite well not necessarily farmer

[00:37:02] but he was humble background in syria became the favorite general of Marcus Aurelius and actually marries Lucilla like Lucilla's second husband so so that's there you know everything i've read says that it's kind of like these are the three things which kind of made this

[00:37:18] character of Maximus so going into Marcus Aurelius you may have also known him as a stoic philosopher have you ever seen Marcus Aurelius meditations you know it'd be like books of like

[00:37:30] so if you look at like books of like roman philosophy and all these things so he wasn't just an emperor um he was a big stoic philosopher he ruled from like 161 to 180

[00:37:45] after his death he was kind of like known as like the last of the five good emperors he actually co-ruled with his adopted brother so it was this whole thing so there in apparently

[00:38:01] what was happening in Rome is that you know it's not a necessary it's not necessarily a given that the son would be the heir you know which is why there was all this thing about

[00:38:12] you know it's like into a complex like is he going to name me is he is he not it seems like more often than not they weren't so like the emperor could name an heir and

[00:38:20] anyway so Marcus Aurelius he was adopted and there was someone else was adopted with him this guy called Lucius Verus so when their father their adopted father died Marcus Aurelius was supposed to become you know who was already named as the heir but he was like nah i'm

[00:38:37] not going to do it without my brother so it was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors so this is Marcus Aurelius and Lucius yeah and Lucius and does that name sound familiar Lucius Lucius it's the boy Lucilla's son it's the boy's father

[00:38:58] yes because remember he says the boys the boy is named after his father yeah so so Lucilla was um betrothed to i guess i guess it's not her blood uncle right you

[00:39:12] know but he was a hell of a lot older than her which i guess was not uncommon at the time um so she was betrothed to him at 11 and she did have a son with him she she had quite a

[00:39:24] few children with him actually um yeah i know right but so apparently that the reign the core reign of Marcus and Lucius they were popular like the people you know generally loved them

[00:39:37] it was true that the reign of Marcus Aurelius you know was characterized by a lot of expansionary wars i won't go into that because there's like so many but in general the people

[00:39:48] that liked them because they kind of like they weren't sure offy you know it seemed very down to earth and i guess in there was very much linked to Marcus Aurelius's constoic philosophy

[00:39:59] so even though they were co-emperors he was the stronger one like like i mean there wasn't any animosity between the two brothers like Lucius kind of um you know would like look up

[00:40:11] to Marcus Aurelius so he was kind of like head emperor and it was like co-emperor Lucius did die i think it was from a plague so Lucilla was a widow but then she was remarried she

[00:40:24] remarried very soon after her husband was also much older than her again during Commodus's rule so her brother was Commodus he had he was very unstable not liked by the people not like by the senators and all that bits were true and Lucilla was actually involved in

[00:40:44] a plot to assassinate Commodus so you know so there were little elements there right there were like three plots right to assassinate Commodus yeah and only the third one in the bath yeah successful yes the bath exactly it's like he just wouldn't die so yeah so she was

[00:41:05] involved in a plot he found out he banished her and then later had her executed so now Commodus so Commodus he was co-ruling with his father it did say that you know his father wasn't

[00:41:20] necessarily a fan of him but for some reason he didn't adopt any other person as an heir so you know so and this was not uncommon that they would co-rule so whoever was going

[00:41:31] to be the heir would co-rule with the emperor which i think is you know it makes sense it's like you learn the ropes and then you kind of continue so he was co-ruling with Marcus Aurelius

[00:41:42] he did not kill Marcus Aurelius apparently the guy just died of an epidemic or something like that he died really young though he died at 58 I mean that Marcus Aurelius looks really old

[00:41:54] but then again Commodus looked much older than I think than what he was at the time so everybody's ages were just kind of like pushed up a little so he didn't kill his father his father

[00:42:04] did die he was a dick you know that bit that bit was true if anything I felt like the film made him seem like way less of a dick because he was unhinged and creepy and obsessed with

[00:42:21] killing Maximus but other than that he didn't really do anything like he didn't do any damage you know eventually he put some snakes in some beds but other than that he's just like pacing around his palace crying basically it's not really hurting anybody yeah well real guy hurt

[00:42:41] a lot of people so he was interestingly known as being the emperor who was kind of obsessed with being a gladiator I was yeah so he would he would actually you know he was he was he

[00:42:54] learned to fight like a gladiator and and he would take part in gladiatorial combats in the arena so that bit that's interesting because the very um one of the very first scenes is when

[00:43:07] they're on the the battlefield in Germania and this carriage which I guess is kind of the Roman era equivalent of a stretch limo arrives with Commodus and is it Lucilla his sister

[00:43:20] so they they arrive and they're a bit too late and he gets a bit snubbed by his dad but he does this um sort of training thing where he's stripped to the waist and he's using a

[00:43:29] sword and he's got these eight guys and he's kind of doing like catters like you're doing karate you know going through the motions working on his swordplay and he actually looks like

[00:43:37] he's you know he's a very good nick he's he knows how to handle a sword so essentially he obviously was he did fancy himself as a bit of a fighter well he fancied himself a lot

[00:43:46] apparently I think he's he fancied himself as Hercules reborn from what I from what I read and that's how he would fashion himself so what is the Hercules fashion if you want to dress up like Hercules uh good question you know wear toga walk around swish swash swishing

[00:44:04] swashing with with a wooden sword I don't know I saw a picture of him wearing or a statue of him wearing a lion skin because Hercules famously killed a lion and carrying a club

[00:44:16] oh yeah there we go yep that yep yep yep that's the one that's the one to follow so yeah I mean you know dude thought very highly of himself but at what you know okay

[00:44:27] so all that's well and fine but what he used to actually do was he would kill his sparring partners so he was known as having never been defeated in in arena oh gee

[00:44:38] I wonder why right two reasons one no one's gonna hit an emperor two he would also have already have them wounded before oh so that was a thing interesting yeah sounds like oh okay so

[00:44:52] he's like oh the undefeated comaders oh what a wanker I hate him even more now what a wanker right right and and oh you know if that's not enough sorry I'm just getting all angry

[00:45:05] he was yeah you know he would just be killing innocent maimed roman citizens for fanzies for fanzies like so they would basically bring like for some reason people with like you know

[00:45:18] no legs no feet or whatever for him and he would just kind of kill them like this guy is just I don't know what the fuck is about and and I mean we're not even gonna talk about all

[00:45:28] the beasts he slaughtered he was famous for apparently slaughtering a hundred lions in a day yes in in his little like you know quote unquote gladiatorial games that he would partake in so he was actually worse if they'd shown all that stuff like him just slaughtering maimed civilians

[00:45:45] and killing a hundred lions in a day that would have given the film quite a different tone pretty bleak I know this one you can maybe kind of sympathize with him especially the bit

[00:45:53] where he you know when he's like oh father I always want or you know how he presents himself right oh father I always tried to to live up to your expectations you never you know you never cared for me blah blah blah maybe you know neglected child

[00:46:08] there is you have like a you know smidgen of sympathy right but nah I mean the real dude no way yeah so gosh so I was getting really bad reading all up reading all the stuff about

[00:46:21] him and Alice and I were were talking about about him right and then what what did you ask Alice oh so I feel like this is a pretty low-hanging fruit question but I wanted to know

[00:46:32] did Commodus inspire the word commode because I had also read that so Rome periodically throughout the Roman Empire apparently burned down a lot or at least twice and the time during Commodus's reign it burned down when they were rebuilding it he said we should just

[00:46:53] rename everything after me so rename all these streets rename the whole place like you know Commodus land and all the people will be called Cometites and so I thought surely maybe during this time someone came up with the idea to call toilets commodes but apparently it's

[00:47:15] not true it's like derived from some French word but it's still canon I think to me I know so he really wanted that makes me think of what's that film by Sacha Baron Cohen the

[00:47:27] is it the dictator where he he named renames a hundred words al-adim and it causes great confusion yes that's actually something that Commodus did yeah crazy yeah yeah like sorry are we on Commodus lane or Commodus place or Commodus Boulevard it's it's just really hard

[00:47:45] to figure out where we're going now that's so that this time leads me to gladiators themselves since we're talking about you know Commodus gladiator wannabe so you know did you guys you know we all inspired after watching the movie to take up some gladiatorial sports

[00:48:06] thinking about it yeah totally yeah when back back in back in 2000 yeah wrestling probably yeah well so actually they wasn't just so you know how like in a movie makes it seems like

[00:48:20] it was just enslaved people who were gladiators and now that was true they were enslaved people there were people are prisoners of war but they were actually people who volunteered like to

[00:48:33] there was a job to be gladiator to be a gladiator uh which is kind of bananas I mean given how crazy uh it was not all fights were fight to the death so initially they were and

[00:48:48] and they were kind of looking I guess at demand and supply to keep you know gonna keep the supply going maybe maybe don't kill everybody so like in the later years I mean gladiatorial sports went down for a long time right so somebody was like hmm maybe we

[00:49:03] shouldn't kill all our product so they then had I had it such that you would actually have fights where so you would have different kinds of fights like you say you would have the one-on-one

[00:49:16] combat you would have to the group fights so so to say I mean so to speak yes the Royal Rumble with the tag team and the clothes lining and all that right and even like in like the

[00:49:28] fights you would have you would actually have an umpire and an assistant umpire so I was thinking of like a referee in the lines man you know um yeah and then they two things could happen they

[00:49:41] they could call off the fight if either a just goes on for too long or b the two gladiators are just exhausted and then they so there was a person so there so you have like the

[00:49:52] umpire the referees and there was a person who would basically be kind of like you know you know there was that guy who would in the movie he put on the wig and he was kind of like the

[00:50:04] the emcee emcee of the of the whole thing let's get ready to rumble yes that guy right so he was kind of like the boss of it because I guess not all the time the emperor would be there

[00:50:16] you know um you think he has he have things to do well maybe not comodas because you know he he just won't get in on the action but so he that dude would have some sort of powers as well

[00:50:28] so he would he would basically be able to so so let's say the two people here so you could they could sometimes just call a draw you know between him and the umpire they're basically

[00:50:38] like right draw that's fine no one no one loses no one wins but you could also have one of the people fighting um conceding by holding up their left index finger so it's like tapping out essentially yeah but in that case so when when that happens then kind

[00:50:57] of the power is thrown to the crowd to kind of you know the whole like kill kill don't kill whatever right you know and the person in charge the position was called the editor

[00:51:09] like as an editor in the journal yeah so um so basically yeah that the spectators would decide whether or not losing gladiator would be spared and then um the decision of life or death

[00:51:25] usually would belong to the editor i guess you know i would presume if if the emperor was dead and he would you know outrank the editor and then that leads me to the bit where you

[00:51:36] know the whole thing about the thumb right the thumb up thumb down so i looked it up and there is some controversy around it because i remember people were talking about it so the gesture is

[00:51:49] described by roman sources as for lice verso meaning with a turned thumb right so it's you know in the movie it seems like okay thumbs up means someone you know the the gladiator in question lives thumbs down the person dies and apparently that was popularized

[00:52:11] like by a famous painting so the polyche verso right the thumbs up thing yeah so we know it as thumbs up good thumbs down bad right and and thumbs up lift thumbs down kill and apparently

[00:52:26] this image um you know because no one have never no one knows if if that was the real hand gesture or not but this was kind of uh popularized by a 19th century painting where there were all these like vestal virgins so there's just like this gladiator looking

[00:52:43] up at the vestal virgins going what we know what do i do what do i do and they're yeah you know and then they're showing a gesture but then you know which which uh corresponded to

[00:52:53] thumbs up live thumbs down kill but then there was this uh classical studies professor called anthony corbeal he suggested that thumbs up signal killing the gladiator while a closed fist around a wrapped thumb meant sparing him but i guess yeah so that

[00:53:14] was interesting um so you know not really sure but like i said everything in popular culture seems to suggest otherwise yeah yeah i i'd read i don't know if this is correct or

[00:53:26] not but i had read that the thumbs up signifies that your sword is out and then if you wrap your thumb in your fist it's a sheathed sword meaning you're not using it to stab anybody

[00:53:42] okay so oh i have questions so you know how remember when we did the woman king right we talked about like the various like kinds of warriors so apparently there were different kinds

[00:53:57] of of gladiators too based on on how they were dressed what they how what they would you know use to fight which i guess makes sense and i'm going to go to the list of roman gladiator

[00:54:13] types right and you guys can tell me it's a long one but i'm not going to go through every single one i'm gonna give you a few like and you tell me three or four okay so you got the

[00:54:25] andabata a blindfolded gladiator okay you got the sagittarius which as the name suggests basically is a centaur uh with an archer like whoo you have the scissor who i picked that one yeah i know the scissor used a special sort swap with twin blades that looked like scissors

[00:54:50] i presume the the blindfolded guy was fighting another blindfolded guy rather than i hope so because that would have been pretty tough i know i hope so i actually don't need to hear anymore because i want everyone to call me alice the scissor from now on nice

[00:55:08] so that's gonna be my thing. So you're gonna go around with these like giant scissors and it's just gonna be like big kind of a cartoon style scissors uh run around try to chop people's heads off with okay

[00:55:25] that's crazy scissor swords yeah scissor swords it makes me think they must have had some kind of writer's room where they're like oh the people are so bored it's the same old stuff

[00:55:35] what can we do someone's like scissors instead of swords they're like yeah we'll try it i want them to come up with some other giant stuff like what if they just had a giant pencil and that's their

[00:55:47] weapon yeah yeah use the other end i'm gonna erase you so gladiatorics right female gladiators were real because you remember you know the bit where they had the um the chariots you know

[00:56:01] the story and the archer yeah so see that that i paid a lot of attention to her she she shot some arrows from the chariot and then she got cut in half it was really good yes she

[00:56:14] was yeah so they were called gladiatorics so there was a real thing i mean they weren't as popular they were very rare they were banned by emperor septimus severus in 8200 maybe because people didn't want to see women fighting or maybe they weren't as you know popular in

[00:56:27] general but uh yeah anyway ten who you know based on on on what we've said so far what would you know which which gladiator which gladiator would i i mean oh you could just be the

[00:56:38] regular one with the sword and shield too you know be fair i quite like the idea of the uh the trident and the net guys yes uh the fishermen the fishermen guy that yeah there is

[00:56:48] they were the fishermen people what would your name be uh oh gosh i can't think of anything the fisherman at the moment um would be the the net master the net master

[00:57:00] tanissimo the net master tanissimo the net master yeah nice oh i was going to say notice that that i didn't give give y'all the option to be the the guy who kills animals because no one

[00:57:13] no one wants to be there no no one wants that yeah considering i would if i were a gladiator scissors or no i would probably be dying very quickly in that case i'd probably go up against

[00:57:24] an animal because if someone's gonna kill me i should at least maybe be a tiger snack yeah fair speaking of animals we always ask the question when we watch period dramas with animals are the animals okay did any animals get hurt because unless you're watching a bollywood film

[00:57:43] it's very hard to know at the start of bollywood films you always get a disclaimer saying all of these animals were treated super well they were taken to the spa twice a day they had massages

[00:57:56] and they had the best steak tartar um but for hollywood films not so much but there is i found a website run by the american humane association called humanehollywood.org and on this site so

[00:58:13] they give special accreditation to films that use like the best practice for how they treat their animal actors and i don't know how new this is but gladiator does not have that accreditation specifically but in the description of gladiator from this website they get a score of

[00:58:37] believed acceptable so it gives a description of all of the animals that were used in the film how they were taken care of where they came from what kind of traveling they had to do

[00:58:49] whether their handlers were there that kind of thing whether they came from a zoo and then at the end they either get certification as being humane or not so gladiator i don't know if they

[00:59:01] got grandfathered in but their level of animal husbandry was acceptable during the film so we can assume that no animals were harmed they used apparently a lot of fake horses and as

[00:59:15] we know as kim said earlier a stuffed tiger that got kind of thrown at russell crow and then he like pretended to stab it and then he fell under it like oh and before we go

[00:59:29] before we talk about awards for this film one of the reasons we did want to do this film as you mentioned tan is that this year gladiator 2 is coming out and we still don't know a lot

[00:59:39] about gladiator 2 but i looked up the imdb page and there are some clues the most important thing i found out is that the role of lucius so the boy who's eight years old in gladiator

[00:59:53] is grown up and will be at the center of gladiator 2 he's played by paul miscal and my instagram tells me that paul miscal got very jacked for this role our listeners might remember paul miscal from a little show called normal people and it may surprise you

[01:00:16] to know that he is a full human actor and not just a chain necklace and a willy that's mean you can just cut that out yeah so paul miscal super beefy for this role as baby lucius all grown up some other people who are

[01:00:41] in the film derrick jacoby is back as as senator grackis and connie nielsen is back as lucilla also in gladiator 2 we're going to see denzel washington and peter pascal and joseph quinn nice who we might remember as eddie from stranger things i love him

[01:01:04] who's eddie from straight which one's eddie the the long head um the the guy who the last season let me the most recent season he was the one whom everybody thought killed the girl i've not

[01:01:17] seen the most recent season oh is he one of the kids kind of no yeah no he's a new character for the season he's basically one of the kids um so the only other clue that i

[01:01:28] found interesting is that if you look at the chronological list of emperors after comodus you get three emperors called lucyus caracalla and geta and all three of those are characters gladiator 2 so historically accurate i don't think we can hope for that or maybe we can

[01:01:54] insofar as to the same level that gladiator was historically accurate which was not very but we will have some interesting historical characters awesome yeah i'll definitely go be going to see that i think yeah me too it feels like something you've got to see in

[01:02:09] the cinema as well for the uh the full cinematic grandeur yeah so should we give some awards to this film yes will i start to get it out of the way so go go go i awarded

[01:02:21] this film well first of all i want to give a special commendation for queer giraffe representation we don't see the giraffes on screen but proximo does tell us that there are two giraffes who won't mate but for my award i've given this film worst hug

[01:02:39] uh which which one which hug the hug that kills marcus aurelius obviously which is also pretty sus because i do we believe that someone you know an emperor who is used to battle would be suffocated just by being pressed to someone's torso

[01:03:04] well supposedly he was already sickly right so maybe you know i don't know i mean at least that's what they were they were trying to go for that he was already sickly hence he knew

[01:03:14] he was going to die at the ripe old age of 58 it's a stretch that's all i'm saying that's true yeah i mean yeah he didn't even break the guy's neck or anything he's just like

[01:03:28] i thought he was gonna go in for a neck break and i would have accepted that and i need to i understand he's bringing it back to father you never hugged me and then the one time he does get embraced he gets suffocated about it

[01:03:41] i just think he could have struggled a little more i misunderstood i thought uh i thought there was just a really awkward hug that i hadn't spotted somewhere but uh no obviously so i was originally going to give my award to whinyest little twat

[01:03:58] but since i'm just gonna give it to the stuffed tiger for cutest kitty pounds that's a nice award yeah it was really cute i'm gonna i'm gonna send the photo to yeah it was adorable it's adorable it's like yeah and so kian do you have any awards for

[01:04:25] gladiator i would like to give the award for best use of wigs oh okay i'm a big fan of uh cassius but he was just dapper all around really he hasn't only got the wig but he's

[01:04:39] also got his these eyebrows that you kind of they go up yes they're like really long and uh he's just a very stylish dude but it was just the way that he gave like a really

[01:04:48] serious kind of speech to someone uh and then just like popped on his little curly perm wig and then just like goes on with his day um i really enjoyed that and it just the fact that

[01:05:00] no one was looking at him going what are you why are you wearing that like it was just it's just completely accepted completely normal to wear these fantastic wigs if anything it gave him

[01:05:10] authority right yeah i'm trying to learn a bit about the uh what is behind these wigs and apparently it was quite normal back then i guess because maybe to do with julius caesar

[01:05:20] and roman empires the statues they always have these like um hair so i think it's a nod to that do you think he wore eyebrow wigs like yeah oh he stuck them on maybe extensions yeah possibly

[01:05:34] because i don't think it's possible to to grow over extensions yeah yeah yeah and then and then he just kept them on after after the film and he's like you know what i really

[01:05:41] like these yeah i'm gonna run with this yeah yeah brilliant that's a good one thank you thank you so much for being here with us all right cheers guys tan will you please tell us

[01:05:53] so mine is i was thinking of most pleasingly uh macho moments but we've kind of covered that as the big reveal of who who maxis is so i'm just going to go for a classic best beheading

[01:06:05] which is where it's very much with a thwop noise as i think you described at the start alice where he um he cuts off a man's head with two swords at once it's a sort of a kind

[01:06:14] of like a scissor i was gonna say maybe he maybe he should have had scissors so so that's that's my sort of very straight award and i think it's actually worth giving a few honorable mentions to commodus for creepiest moment awards and he's got quite a few

[01:06:31] and they start quite early partly the way wakian phoenix delivers the lines when he's looking at lucius and he says he sleeps so well because he is loved and it just like

[01:06:42] oh so lucky he wasn't loved uh and then the worst bit though is uh whilst he say what am i going to do with you you simply won't die which i love maybe that's what his all

[01:06:55] the people plotting against the real commodus were thinking yeah yeah exactly just two more of his lines one where he um like you say he's sort of getting really sinisterly close with his sister uh and he's kind of like nuzzling her and he says open your mouth

[01:07:13] and then he like touches her touches her on the lip and then like puts his finger in his own mouth it's just it's just like properly revolting yeah but then his best moment and

[01:07:22] this is the one i think gets the award is where um he's having this little one-to-one with with maximus at the end of maximus is all strung up ready for the final battle

[01:07:31] and uh maximus says something about uh if you smile at death death smiles back at you and uh a commodus says ah okay well smile for me now brother and then he whacks him in the ribs with

[01:07:44] the uh knife and then he turns to his uh assistants and says strap on his armor conceal the wound and you're like oh you villain i know you crappy villain and knowing that he actually

[01:07:55] used to do that it's really interesting yeah yeah i bet he didn't do it on his own he just got people to wound people for him so what a shit just a quick note for listeners kim and

[01:08:07] i are going on holiday we're actually going to take a break for the summer so we'll be back with more new episodes of fetch the smelling salts in september yes so listen up um or you don't listen to us then

[01:08:25] and where can we find passmaster you can find passmaster you can just find it on all your normal podcasting platforms of choice we're on instagram at passmaster pod and we don't really use twitter so yeah instagram passmaster pod and uh passmaster on podcast places so

[01:08:48] brilliant that's great if you want to email us with suggestions for more macho masculine period dramas to watch and cover you can email us at fetch smelling salts at gmail.com or you can

[01:09:01] hit up our instagram at fetch smelling salts we're also on uh tiktok also fetch smelling salts and if you want you can go to buy us a coffee slash fetch smelling salts and kick

[01:09:15] us some coins which we'll give to helen great right well i'm off to go you know practice some gladiatorial moves i need you all to pray to all of the roman gods and ancestors

[01:09:26] for me because i'm about to take my kids to ikea good luck thank you and uh yeah just from us uh thank you so much for having us on the on the show it's been an absolute pleasure to

[01:09:39] to reminisce about gladiator with you and uh i'm sure we'll be uh there with you in spirit watching when gladiator 2 comes out yes we'll message you guys for sure like no he did what cool and then we all say an awkward goodbye goodbye bye bye it's all finished