NatGeo Doc 'Pompeii: Out of Time' Explores Survivors of Vesuvius Eruption

A new National Geographic documentary series, 'Pompeii: Out of Time With Tom Hiddleston,' shifts focus from the 2,000-year-old disaster's victims to those who may have escaped Mount Vesuvius' 79 C.E. eruption. The three-episode series follows three Pompeii residents—Julia Felix, a wealthy businesswoman; Avianius Felicio, a teenage apprentice; and an unnamed Roman soldier—using historical evidence and dramatization to imagine their fates. Hiddleston, who studied classics at Cambridge after visiting Pompeii in 1998, combines interviews with archaeologists and disaster psychologist Sarita Robinson with fictional scenes. The series draws on Steven L. Tuck's research tracking survivors by matching pre- and post-eruption inscriptions. Felix's rental notice, preserved in ash, shows she leased her estate's bath and shops. Felicio's gravestone in Nuceria suggests the Masuri blacksmith family adopted him after his family died. The soldier, excavated in the 1980s at Herculaneum, carried a Praetorian Guard belt and sword, and coins matching a soldier's monthly salary. Executive producer Kevin Wright, also a 'Loki' producer, used VFX to depict the eruption. The series premieres on National Geographic.