Death in Venice Doctor Who Confidential

-I'm kind of done with running down corridors. What do you think, Rory?

-How about somewhere romantic?

-Venezia!

-This week, Confidential packs its bags and goes abroad.

The best place you could possibly go for a romantic weekend would be Venice.

And gets to meet up with a Venetian count...

Looking for vampires in Venice?

-Aaargh!

-What was that?

It's Venice, but not as you know it.

I think it's alliteration, really. Vampires.

In fact, a few things aren't what they seem to be.

They find out that they're not actually vampires, they're something else.

What there are actually there is...

you know, fish from space.

OK. Move!

What is going on?

And action!

And are the Doctor Who team really in Venice?

Confidential finds out.

Turn over, please.

70, take two, A camera. And action!

The TARDIS touches down and the Doctor sort of bounds out

and starts describing La Serenissima, this impossible, mad city.

Venice! Venezia! La Serenissima!

It really felt like stepping back in time, stepping out into that.

One of the most powerful cities in the world. Constantly being invaded.

And I think there's a real sense of vibrancy and colour to that scene.

Ah, you've got to love Venice.

And so many people did.

It sets the romp off, as it were.

Byron, Napoleon, Casanova...

It's the perfect start to a Venetian romp,

but it's shot hundreds of miles across the sea in Croatia.

We thought from the beginning we would like a foreign shoot,

somewhere exotic and really mix it up a bit.

The trouble with real Venice is you'd have to spend an awful lot of time

covering up the pizza parlours and the shops and all that.

Doubling up as Venice was a small town on the Mediterranean coast

called Trogir.

And it looks so beautifully like Venice.

The Venetians colonised there, so it's a great double.

METALLIC THRUMMING

Venice! Venezia! La Serenissima!

Confidential took the chance to visit modern-day Venice to check out the actual events

behind the Doctor Who story, particularly the great plague of the 16th century.

So writer Toby Whithouse went to meet a man whose ancestors lived through it all.

Architect, historian and TV personality, Francesco da Mosto.

Hello, Toby. How are you?

-Lovely to meet you.

-Looking for vampires in Venice?

Vampires of Venice, of course!

'Francesco tells me of a Venetian vampire story, but that's for later.

'First, I get a tour of the da Mosto mansion.'

How old is the actual building itself?

It's from the end of the 15th century, 16th century.

The period of your plague.

Absolutely perfect. It's beautiful.

'This amazing building has been in the da Mosto family for over a century.'

Oh, my goodness. Look at this.

Here I learnt to ride a bicycle.

It's the perfect space.

Look at this! This is incredible.

Yeah, nice shape.

And your Doctor Who, during the plague, he was a doctor of plague, or...?

No, no, our Doctor is not a medical doctor. He's a time-traveller.

But my episode is set just after the outbreak of the plague

in the late 16th century, and a race of aliens

have arrived in the city and are using the fear

of the return of the plague

as an excuse to close down the city.

'Francesco had something for me which was an absolute goldmine -

'a collection of documents relating to the period in which I set my episode.'

Yeah, it was quite terrible, and here I found also

a lot of the people of my family, like this one, they died of plague.

As you see, "Death by plague."

We say "peste".

Obviously, the Venice of today looks very different to the Venice of 1580.

Too many new shops!

Too many new shops,

so we filmed in Trogir in Croatia.

There is quite a funny coincidence.

During the period of the plague, there was one of my family,

he was a Count in Trogir.

It's quite interesting. This guy was called Francesco da Mosto, like me. Can you imagine?!

There was always a person of a noble family of Venice controlling the different town...

-Oh, all the little...

-Just at that moment of the plague that was in Venice, he was Count in Trogir.

-Where we filmed the episode.

-Yes, strange. I found that out yesterday. Quite strange.

I never looked at all the things. It was quite funny.

Trogir town square.

The cast and crew are preparing to meet a bunch of bloodsuckers.

# Now, baby

# I've got a lot of love to give

# And I've been over, oversubscribed with relationships... #

Ah, the look of the vampire girls.

Where do I begin?

It brightened up our day.

The crew, I tell you what, I have never, ever seen them so occupied

and satisfied and work hungry. Everyone was happy.

The composer was joking with me,

saying, I bet there was only one vampire girl in the script,

and by the time we'd got to the shoot, there were like 12 vampire girls.

# You've got a little thing I haven't seen before... #

They looked like 80s glam rock stars, I think. Sort of bonkers hair.

There's something weird and gothic

and brilliant about them. I think they'll be a real hit. Come back, you're always welcome!

# Maybe I can learn to settle down one day... #

How are you doing that?

I'm thrilled. Oh, this is Christmas!

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls

# I get all the girls, I get all the girls... #

We are Venetians!

'I've invited a friend to come and join me in Venice.'

-Matt.

-Toby!

-How are you?

-Hello.

-Welcome to Venice.

-Thank you.

-Come and meet my new friend.

-Do you get seasick, by the way?

-Uh, no.

-Good.

Matt, this is Francesco. Francesco, this is Matt.

-How do you do?

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, sir.

We're going to come on your boat, are we? Thank you.

Marvellous.

Venezia! La Serenissima!

-It's so nice that it's sunny.

-We're in luck.

'With Matt on board, Francesco gave us his Venetian vampire story.

'A tale that came to life when archaeologists found the remains of a plague victim

'whose burial bore all the hallmarks of something even darker.'

They found a skull of a woman that has a brick inside the mouth.

Because when they died, what was happening, they also, when they were dead,

they found blood coming out.

-And the veil a little eaten.

-Right.

But, blood comes out as a result of the plague?

Yeah, but after the death.

So that was strange.

So they were thinking that the body, this person, could pass this thing to other dead.

And then the plague was going around more.

And so they were putting this brick so she could not move the mouth.

Strange!

'Tales of deadly creatures sucking the blood of the living.

'It looks like I was closer to the truth than I suspected.'

Perhaps there really were vampires in Venice.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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