I, Claudius (1976)

It's a thoroughly entertaining mini-series. It's a star-making performance from everyone involved, especially Derek Jacobi and John Hurt (as Caligula). It's also fun to see Patrick Stewart playing a bad guy with hair.

Both the book and the mini-series should be required for anyone even mildly interested in the period. The acting especially is as good as anything I've ever seen (TV, movie or theater).

I tried watching it as a kid, but it went over my head. I was fascinated that it was a historical drama shot on videotape.

it is with out a doubt the best mini-series ever made. Roman is more action packed, but I, Claudius is better acted. I, Claudius is a great stage play that was filmed.

Good to see this thing still getting the love it truly deserves.

Brilliant production. In addition to the stellar performances mentioned already, there's John Rhys-Davies downright villainous(!) , George Baker squirms as the ever-under-someones-thumb Tiberius, Brian Blessed seconded as just incredible(the most endearing Roman emperor you're ever likely to meet!) and Sian Phillips, as the machiavellian Livia, steals every scene she's in. Like a python and a kitten, her moments with Jacobi's Claudius are tense nerve-janglers.

Plus, now I'm sure you can appreciate what The Sopranos took from it.

Love, love, love this miniseries. Great performances by Jacobi, Stewart as Sejanus, etc. (Hurt's Caligula was a particular favorite - just watching him go from being a sinister bastard to batshit insane is eerie) When PBS did a pledge drive a few years back, I wound up taping the whole thing and blew through it in a weekend. Great stuff.

Just watched the first disc of this, 3 eps, and I'm enthralled; next installment can't get here fast enough. (Damn my 2-discs-at-a-time Netflix sub! Let's goooooo, USPS.) The opening title and theme rushed back memories of my parents being hooked on this in its original U.S. airing, and my being quickly shooed out of the room (tits!).

I'm not often a fan of framing devices, but so far it's used extraordinarily well, adding depth and character and not just, well, setting the frame. I didn't expect to be so jarred by a young, clean-shaven Brian Blessed; it's like the entire lower half of his face is a special effect (even before the slight old-age jowling makeup). Not a lot to add yet except seconding the great acting, especially Sian Phillips' Livia, as said above. Unexpectedly gratifying so far are the child actors, especially the young Claudius, who could have turned the twitching, limp, and stammer into a parody. Instead, it's quite affecting, even in its showiness.

And, the first scene has TOP SECRET'S Chocolate Mousse driving the beat for a topless African dance troupe. That was also unexpected.

My wife and I watched this again just last year (it's up there with the Smileys as her alltime favorite TV show). Great series, not much to add, apart from the fact that, after all these years, hearing the theme music can still creep me the hell out.

I watched this a few months ago. It's fantastic, and a must see for anyone who's into epic serial dramas. They make all the dense political wrangling gripping and the acting is great all the way through. I think John Hurt was my favourite performance overall, especially in his earlier episodes where he plays Caligula as this unsettlingly gentle mannered sociopath.

And yeah I never quite got used to seeing a beardless Brian Blessed.

His head is a globe! Massive, and round from any angle! Very unsettling. And yet he's such a damn charmer, even when he's pissed off. "Did you sleep with my daughter..? Mm? Mm. And you..? Oh, you didn't sleep..." That whole slow boil up to "Is there one man in Rome who didn't sleep with my daughter!?" was one of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. Tragic for Augustus, but damn is his daughter a slut.

Not to get too spoilery, but it's kind of funny how for the first several episodes Augustus and Livia feel so central to everything that you can hardly imagine the show without them, yet that stuff's only really the beginning. The scale of the story is so large that by the end their whole generation feels like (even more) ancient history. It's almost like four seasons of an HBO drama packed into 12 episodes.

It's a coincidence that this thread should get bumped because I stumbled on a compilation of the Robert Graves books in the library and got it out just a few days back. It's an intimidatingly hefty tome, but I'm interested in how it compares.

"By the way, don't touch the figs."

Disc 2 was gangbusters. And no worries about "spoiling" the scope, it's pretty apparent, though amazing the gorund they're covering so effortlessly.

And, I want Livia's speech to the gladiators engraved on a fancy plaque.

I feel bad about it, but I was never really able to get into this. I hated how it was just ping ponging through history, and characters would disappear never to be seen again after only an episode or two*. I've never finished it, even though my family owns it on DVD

I we got it after I'd already seen ROME, and somehow it just couldn't stack up.

The classics geek inside me tells me that it should be one of my favorite things ever, but I just don't really enjoy it that much.

PS Though some day I'll go back and give it another try.

*I call it 'Into the West' syndrome

I'll be honest, it's pedigree and reputation didn't prepare me for the very stagey feel of it. And the video quality by today's standards only amplifies the effect. I won't pretend I wasn't worried as the first ep played out that I'd end up hating it, or worse be utterly bored, or just find it dated and tired. An event "of its time," more admired than enjoyed anymore.

The writing and performances, however, and direction -- Augustus's death, what a hell of a scene -- soon enough made that worry moot. I'm not any sort of classics expert so can't speak to it on that level, but this is fine, artful stuff. Though I'd probably have hated it as a kid.

No John Hurt yet, but the child Caligula cracked me up (where does Britain pump out these classically trained kids?). "Stop trying to fuck your sister!" "She wanted to be naked, too!" "Wow, that boy's creepy."

I could not have said it better myself. That was precisely the impression I took away from the episode and change that I watched.

But, if you felt that same way but ended up finding IC a valuable experience, perhaps I really should give it another go

It's true that that distinctive videotape look instantly signposts it as a 70's BBC production, and it's really not very cinematic at all. But so long as you can get past that and look at it as an elaborate piece of filmed theatre, I don't think it will ever date that much - it's all about the writing and performances.

I'm interested to check out Rome to see how it stands up.

The masochist in me wants to set up ROME, Claudius, Spartacus and that wretched Empire (Is that what is was? I dunno.) and various other classics flicks in chronological order and see if it makes some sort of absurd, chronological sense. Spartacus before Rome, Then I,Claudius, then something else....Maybe put Taylor's Cleopatra between Rome and that....


Yeah, I think it would break my brain. Maybe in a good way.

I,Claudius is basically a play that was video taped. The show starts with his birth and end with his death. That said the show got many of the most classic scenes ever shown on TV. It also start slow and then builds. By the time you get Patrick Stewart it pretty much at a boil.