I,Claudius

Newest Review: ... and 'Claudius the God'. It met with a lukewarm reception from the critics, but during its long run on BBC2 it gained a steadily rising audience figure and is now regarded as one of the defining television shows of the seventies. A youthful cast of future living room names, including Brian Blessed before he became so bearded and jolly as in Blackadder and Flash! Ahhh!; Derek Jacobi before his deserved knighthood; and even Inspector Wexford and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in early roles. The story encompasses about a century of Caesar rule in ancient Rome, from Augustus (Blessed) to the beginning of Nero's reign. The scheming, Mach... more

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I,Claudius: A true c-c-c-classic! : ) (438 words)
by - written on 31/05/01 (Very useful, 147 readings)
Rating:

I first saw 'I, Claudius' during my GCSE Latin course when we were studying Messalina. I was interested from the start and found the beheading of Claudius's nymphomaniac wife particularly moving, in the way the camera span around to simulate the decapitation. Then I found out that the series was about 14 hours long :). Last year I got the entire collection out of the library and watched it over a weekend, and it was a pleasure watching such an accomplished production. Made celebrating forty years of the BBC, 'I, Claudius' was the adaptation of Robert Graves' acclaimed book of the same name and 'Claudius the God'. It met ... Read the complete review

Classical Roman soap opera (1696 words)
by - written on 23/04/01 (Very useful, 1061 readings)
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I first wrote this ages ago - it's one of those early opinions that are quite embarrassing when viewed in retrospect. Anyway, due to colossal public demand (one person suggested I write about I, Clavdivs a few weeks ago) I'm now re-writing it. Here goes: Based on the Robert Graves novels I, Claudius and Claudius The God, this is an enormous series. Originally 13 hour-long episodes, it's been cut down to about 11 hours for the video release. Obviously it'll take you a while to get through it all, but it's well worth it. There's an awful lot of good stuff in this series. It's the darkly comic story of the first few Roman ... Read the complete review

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