HBO\'s "Rome" to present more realistic look at the

[Tarbicus]

Wikipedia's page on the show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series)

And director Michael Apted's view on the BBC's butchering of the first 3 episodes:

In a separate move the BBC also decided to re-edit the first three episodes (all directed by Michael Apted) into two episodes so that the UK broadcast consists of 11 rather than 12 episodes. The BBC claimed that this was because the British audience were more familiar with the history of Rome than their American counterparts and so much of the backstory was unnecessary. However, Apted claims that the purpose was to boost the ratings by increasing the prominence of the scenes of sex and violence. In an interview with The Times [8], Apted said:

"I'm really pissed off with the BBC for bringing down my first three episodes to two and, in doing so, taking out much of the vital politics. What also makes me very grumpy is that I was told that the cuts had been introduced by the BBC because they thought British viewers already knew the historical background. But all that's happened as far as the viewer is concerned is that it has made Rome hard to follow."

Apted also said that he only found out about the cuts by accident claiming:

"I only found out by chance a couple of weeks ago when one of the actors told me."