I always liked that line in the 1960 Spartacus movie when Spartacus's lover Varinia (Jean Simmons) is bidding a silent farewell to the crucified rebel gladiator. "Tell da lady no loidering," growls the Roman sentry standing guard nearby. I can't tell you whether the line will appear in this new and lurid rehash of the Spartacus legend, though if it does it won't have quite the same Bronx ambience about it since most of the accents are from the Antipodes, the series having been shot in New Zealand. It also arrives tooled up with all available digital technology, and whatever it lacks in plot and characterisation is compensated for by lashings of cartoon-like ultraviolence and pneumatic softcore sex. The producers (who include Sam Evil Dead Raimi) have set out to woo the digital generation reared on computer games and "graphic-novel" movies like Sin City and especially the Spartans-in-peril slash-opera, 300.
Sparto's chief adversary is the Roman Legatus, Glaber (Craig Parker). He's a bitter and bloodless fellow, engaged in a campaign of relentless career advancement in which he's egged on by his wife Ilythia (Viva Bianca - no, really). He speaks in an English accent - 'nuff said. Senator's daughter Ilythia (pictured right) is a spoilt wild child who gives us our first blast of full-frontal nudity, though apparently she runs into stiff competition in later episodes from Lucretia, played by Lucy Lawless, alias Xena: Warrior Princess. Lucretia is married to Batiatus (John Hannah, looking a little bit spindly and Scottish in this company), who runs a gladiator school and decides that Spartacus is a good investment.
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