Step back in time with D
Ten years ago, Dr Simon Elliott was a living embodiment of the modern era. A senior figure at a host of leading public affairs and public relations firms in London, he advised his top level clients on how to handle the worlds of politics and the media.
Today, he spends much of his time peering through the mists of time to a period almost 2,000 years ago. Because he has swapped the cut and thrust of financial institutions for the swords and intrigue of the Roman Empire.
And now he is presenting his very first TV show - being streamed on the increasingly popular History Hit TV a Netflix for the history buff.
Set up in 2018 by the popular historian Dan Snow, the service now has an audience in excess of 100,000 all paying a monthly subscription allowing them to binge on a blend of original and bought-in programming which delves into the history books of anything and everything; from the sinking of the Titanic to global conflicts.
For Simon Elliott, who lives in Mereworth, near Maidstone, it has provided him with the perfect opportunity to elevate himself from occasional Roman history expert to frontman.
“I used to run big PR agencies in the city and the West End before I did my PhD in 2014,” he explains. He obtained his PhD through the University of Kent in classics and archaeology,
‘Now I’ve got to a point where I can begin to make a living out of my knowledge of the Roman Empire which is lovely'
building on his Masters degree in classical history.
“Now I’ve got to a point where I can begin to make a living out of my knowledge of the Roman Empire which is lovely.”
He’s subsequently written a host of books and conducts tours both of Kent and the likes of Pompeii for a travel company.
And he’s got to work alongside a host of top TV personalities - among them Tony Robinson with whom he appeared on Channel 5 in his History of Britain show earlier this month, Hugh Dennis on the Great British Dig and even comic Phil Wang in his homage to video game Rome Total War. “They’re all exactly as you would expect from seeing them on television,” he says of the famous folk, “nobody had a hidden personality. “And when you work with real pros you learn from them all the time. “You realise their success is due to hard work and you have to follow their example.
“When you’re the expert you know what your brief is, you turn up then go home. But when you’re the presenter you’re there all the time. They are very long days. You start shooting at 7.30am and you’re always mindful you’re in an urban setting so you’ve got traffic, helicopters, sirens, planes and like everything else in life, time is money so you don’t want to waste it. “So you have to be able to switch on right away and move fast.
“I hoping this will lead on to me doing presenting on other things, not just History Hit. As you can gather, I’ve a real passion for it and love doing it.”
He’s certainly getting used to appearing before the cameras and has more work lined up.
When we speak, he’s filming for a show to be broadcast on the Discovery channel and admits he’s doing TV work “about once a week”.
History Hit TV has certainly proved a perhaps unlikely streaming hit. Launched by Dan Snow - son of Channel 4 news anchorman Jon its name derives from the series he fronted for Channel 4.
Going live in 2018, it was acquired, just two years later, by production powerhouse All3Media and is now generating more than 60 hours of original programming.
Adds Simon Elliott: “I often turn up to be their expert on Roman stuff. There are two shows with Ray Mears where I’m with him talking about the Roman invasions of Kent.
“There’s one scene, at the beginning of one of the shows, filmed last June, where he and I were on Sandwich beach, in blistering heat, with our boots off paddling.
“We were paddling literally where the Romans paddled ashore.
“They do a great job. And I can go to them as well with ideas.”
Which is where his most recent two-part series comes from: Life and
‘All the Roman skeletons I’ve seen have got terrible teeth because of the way the grain is ground in the millstones to make flour for bread’
Death in Roman London.
“I do tours where you spend the day taking people across Roman London and there’s loads of stuff to see,” he explains.
“London is a Roman city, and there’s a lot of stuff still there if you’re in the City of London, in particular.
“One of my contacts is Dr Rebecca Redfern from the Museum of London who, amongst other things, is in charge of the skeletal collections so we effectively did a couple of autopsies on a gurney in what’s called the bone room where all the skeletons are laid out.
“All the Roman skeletons I’ve seen have got terrible teeth because of the way the grain is ground in the millstones to make flour for bread. Lots of grit gets into it and therefore when they’re eating bread they’re grinding their teeth down all the time. So by the time you get to your 20s or 30s you start to get cusps on your teeth which left you with a mouthful of abscesses. “I asked Rebecca what they would have taken as they would have been in pain all the time. She said it was variety of remedies like poppy juice, which is an opiate.”
He jokes: “So they’re already drinking watered down wine or beer for their normal drink instead of the water because it’s safer but then they have toothache so they’re drinking poppy juice. So it would have led to lots of very relaxed Roman Londoners.”
Life and Death in Roman London is available now on History Hit
TV - it costs £7.99 a month to subscribe.