Better than Gladiator (I, Claudius - Five Disc Set (DVD))

Name: hogsflesh

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	I, Claudius - Five Disc Set (DVD)
Date:	15.10.05 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent old-school BBC costume drama

Disadvantages: Runs out of steam slightly towards the end

I, Claudius is one of the BBC’s most celebrated costume dramas, and rightly so. Made in 1976, it adapts Robert Graves’ novel (and its sequel, Claudius the God). It tells the story of the first four Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius. It’s pretty monolithic, consisting of 12 hour-long episodes, but the pace rarely flags, except towards the end. The production values are of an exceptionally high by 70s TV standards, and it contains some absolutely brilliant acting. It also has a fantastic opening-titles sequence, involving a snake, which was entertainingly piss-taken by Blackadder a few years later.

The series is narrated by Claudius (Derek Jacobi) as an old man, looking back on the history of his family over the previous half century – this is a slightly odd approach to take, as it means that we know he will end up as Emperor right from the start, but it’s a lot of fun seeing how he gets there. Roughly the first half of the series is taken up with the reign of overgrown schoolboy Augustus (Brian Blessed, sans beard), as his scheming and murderous wife Livia (Sian Phillips) ensures that her son, the bitter and paranoid Tiberius (George ‘Inspector Wexford’ Baker), will be the next emperor. The most entertaining episodes are probably the ones that deal with the utterly bonkers Caligula (John Hurt). Claudius himself, lame and with a stutter, is regarded as a complete idiot by his family.

The two things that really make this series stand out, and make it hold up after so many years, are the script and the acting. The writer, Jack Pulman, was fortunate in that the novels themselves contain very little dialogue. This means that characters can speak in modern-sounding ways without having to contend with all that ‘La, Mr Darcy, let us take a turn around the park’ stuff that you get in other adaptations. This means that the actors are able to give far less mannered performances than you typically get in costume drama, and also that the characters are much easier to identify with. It’s also very funny, and deals with issues that you don’t typically find in Jane Austen (incest, murder, blackmail, oppression by the state etc).

The central performances in the series are superb. Derek Jacobi is incredible, one of the best bits of acting I’ve ever seen on telly, allowing the character’s personality to shine through despite all the twitches and stuttering that he’s been lumbered with. Sian Phillips is also exceptional, a brilliant performance, making a potentially one-dimensional evil stepmother role genuinely believable. Brian Blessed proves that he can be a great actor when he wants to be, and he gets to do some great shouting (his greatest strength, after all – no one can shout like Blessed). And John Hurt is on excellent camp form as Caligula.

Also very good are Margaret Tyzack as Claudius’ ferocious mother, and, in a small role, Kevin Stoney (Dr Who fans should know who he is) as a mountebank astrologer. George Baker as Tiberius is fine, although he never quite reaches the depths of deviant depravity that he needs to. Similarly, Patrick Stewart (a long time before Star Trek, and with a splendid curly wig), who plays Tiberius’ chief of police, Sejanus, isn’t quite as evil as you imagine him from reading the book.

Inevitably in a series this long there is some bad acting. It’s mostly confined to the smaller parts, although Messalina, Claudius’ third wife, is rubbish. She’s supposed to be a power-crazed nymphomaniac; she just comes across as a bad actress trying to play a power-crazed nymphomaniac. A pity, as she’s one of the more interesting characters in the book. There are lots of other familiar faces, as there usually are in 70s drama, people like Ian Ogilvy, Simon MacCorkindale and Nursey from Blackadder.

It’s not perfect, of course. The pacing is sometimes a bit too slow. A problem with the last few episodes is that most of the interesting characters aren’t around any more, and it becomes difficult to care about those who are left (apart from Nero, brilliantly played by Christopher Biggins, of all people). So the series kind of fizzles out a bit. Visually it looks its age, having all been filmed in studio sets, with the typical 70s shot-on-video look that’s quite badly dated (compare this to something like Edge of Darkness, shot entirely on film, and the difference is staggering).

The direction also feels quite old-fashioned. Because it’s very dialogue heavy, the camera tends to stay on the face of whoever’s talking at the time, perhaps with an occasional slow zoom. This isn’t a huge problem, as the dialogue is very good (the series could almost be a stage play, albeit a very, very long one). But it’s a pity that the budget didn’t stretch to any location scenes at all, as the book describes battles in sinister German forests and such like that would have been great to see. Also, the orgy scenes (there aren’t many, sadly) are extremely tame – I’ve never been to an orgy, but I’d imagine they’re a little more interesting than they are in I, Claudius, where no one really seems to be doing anything, and everyone keeps most of their clothes on. (Maybe I’m wrong. Anyone been to an orgy? Let me know what it was like. With diagrams, please.)

There’s the odd bit of nudity thrown in, although given that it’s the 70s, not much. There are also some nicely nasty bits (Caligula does something *really* horrible at one point), although again, gore and death are quite tame. The sets and costumes are very good, although at one point it becomes all too obvious that a mosaic on a floor is just a plastic sheet. It seems that real effort was made to have everything look as historically accurate as possible. The make-up could be better – the problem is that most of the characters have to age, and by the ends of their lives they’re smothered in latex. Sometimes it works reasonably well – Claudius’ old man makeup is pretty good, but other times it certainly doesn’t (Brian Blessed occasionally looks ridiculous as an old man).

The BBC’s released a nice box-set of the entire series. Four disks cover the series itself – the picture and sound quality is an improvement over the old VHS release, obviously, but the series is always going to look quite old-fashioned. There’s a fifth disk of extras. There’s a good, long documentary about the series, with the director and most of the important cast members talking about it (not Patrick Stewart, though). This is a good complement to the series, as there are no commentaries (obviously it’s too long, but other BBC dramas – some of their Dennis Potter series, for instance - have commentaries just on selected episodes). The actors also get to choose their favourite scenes, which is a nice touch (Brian Blessed’s favourite scene was also mine. Hurrah!). There’s also footage of Derek Jacobi and Sian Phillips accepting their Baftas, and a rather pointless family tree, showing how all the characters are related to each other.

The other extra is a 70-minute documentary from the 60s about an earlier attempt to film the book. Alexander Korda tried to make a film of I, Claudius in 1937, starring Charles Laughton. A few scenes were shot, but the film was abandoned. The documentary is introduced by Dirk Bogarde, and features interviews with various surviving actors (Merle Oberon, Flora Robson), Robert Graves, and the film’s director (Joseph von Sternberg!). It also shows all the footage that was actually shot, which looks like it might have made for quite an enjoyable film, albeit one very much of its time. It’s interesting to see how documentaries were made back then – basically, the camera just focuses on whoever’s talking and stays on them until they’ve finished talking – several minutes at a time, in some cases. This does tend to make for rather a dull viewing experience, though. Ah well, I guess it’s nice that it’s there.

Anyway, this is well worth getting if you like old drama series, as it’s one of the best. It may look old fashioned, but the script and acting make it well worth a look. If it isn’t so great towards the end, that’s more the fault of Robert Graves (and, I suppose, history) than the BBC. At almost 12 hours it may seem a little daunting, but I find it to be well worth it.

£45, but obviously cheaper online. Rated 15.

Summary: A nice box-set of a seminal series