I, Claudius

Absolutely glorious series. All the actors in this series are in or have been in American films but they have always been underrated and are some of the best actors alive. There are more dames and knights than you can believe. Derek Jacobi is breathtaking in his performance. Sian Phillips is subtly evil. John Hurt as Caligula shines with madness. The sets are unbelievable considering the small budget they had. The most shocking thing is that everything in one sense or another is true. These people really did die these ways. It will take you completely out of your everyday life and deposit you in the world of the Romans.

One of the best British imports on Masterpiece Theater in the USA, the series was a real bicentennial gift from the United Kingdom.

Over a dozen chapters, the series held the interest throughout, there's not a moment that it flagged. So many wonderful performances by the players. Derek Jacobi got his career role in this series as the club footed stuttering Claudius who survives by just making sure everyone thinks him a fool and not worth bothering about. In the meantime he secretly records his family's inner history.

The really evil one here is Livia played by Sian Phillips. I'm pretty sure that such prime time bitch goddesses as Joan Collins on Dynasty and Jane Wyman in Falcon Crest modeled their characters on Livia because these women were Girl Scouts compared to Livia. Livia was the wife of Augustus Caesar played by Brian Blessed and Phillips also got a career role.

I'd be hard pressed to decide who was the best Caligula ever. John Hurt in this series is up against some pretty stiff competition in Malcolm McDowell in the title role of the film Caligula or Jay Robinson in The Robe and Demetrius And The Gladiators. Insanity gallops in the Caesar family as in The Brewsters and in the case of Caligula it breaks the three minute mile.

George Baker is very good as the pleasure seeking Tiberius whose succession to the throne Sian Phillips is working overtime to achieve. Patrick Stewart with a full head of hair plays the opportunistic Sejanus who reaches for power, taking advantage of the increasing hedonistic tendencies of Tiberius in his later years. Sejanus would have been his career role had he not become Jean-Luc Picard.

Margaret Tyzack who was Queen Anne in The First Churchills gets another fine role as Antonina, mother of Claudius. Her other son Germanicus falls victim to Caesar court politics and her daughter takes up with Sejanus. Her children disappoint her throughout and she like the others fail to see that Claudius is not the fool he appears to be.

Probably Sheila White's Messalina is far closer to the truth than Susan Hayward's worldly woman in Demetrius and the Gladiators. White plays her like the Catherine Howard of her day, like the legendary nymphomaniac wife of Henry VIII who was one of the two who Henry executed. You've got to love that coitus contest between Messalina and the head of the guild of prostitutes. Guess who wins.

Robert Graves lived long enough to see his historical fictionalization come to life and I'm sure he must have approved. Graves did some considerable research into ancient texts for I, Claudius. His interpretation is as valid as any others we'll find of those wild and crazy ancient days of the Caesars.

I Claudius is quite possible the supreme example of television drama. It is limited in budget and studio-bound, yet freed from the shackles of a 90-minute theatre slot it can encompass an entire dynasty of rulers and seventy years.

It is sustained by a succession of brilliant performances. Brian Blessed as Augustus combines pathos with violent outbursts that dominate the stage, Sian Phillips as Livia shows us just how charismatic a murderer can be, and over the whole series hangs the shadow of Derek Jacobi as Claudius, fighting against senility and plotting to the last, under the cover of being "Clau-Clau-Claudius the Idiot".

The series mingles comedy with horror and tragedy, and ends with a profoundly pessimistic note about humanity- understandable, given that the reign of Nero, Claudius' successor arguably proved even more bestial and savage than any of his predecessors. Write no more, Claudius, write no more. We have learned no lessons.

I won't add to the many superlatives ascribed to this wonderful series, well-deserved though they are. But I would like to point out a few vital details that help explain just why it is so wonderful.

(1) Much has been said about Siân Phillips' intense projection of evil, but just how does she do it? If you watch carefully, you'll see she never blinks in her close-up takes, some of which are very long. This gives her a snakelike appearance, which enhances her voice and cold beauty in imparting such an air of menace to everything she says.

(2) Much has also been said about the lack of expensive sets, location shots, or special effects. But the point is that this series is successful because of these apparent deficiencies and not despite them. So much modern cinema and TV is swamped by expensive irrelevances to the detriment of the basics -- writing, acting, and timing. 'I Claudius' shows just how important these things are, and how unimportant those expensive special effects can be.

(3) I had the good fortune to read both books before the series was made, and then to watch it with a critical eye. It was satisfying to see such an expert adaptation, but especially so to see how the central point of the story has not been lost: the inability of any ruler, however powerful, to control what happens at the end of the long chain of command that inevitably forms. I found this a message of lifelong importance in both politics and management, and it is rare indeed that such a remarkable piece of drama and entertainment is also so fundamentally educational.

Nobody, absolutely nobody on planet Earth could do such an intelligent, superbly acted and brilliantly directed drama series like I, Claudius than the British. If one wanted to learn how to act, they should watch I, Claudius, if one wanted to learn to write drama, they should watch I, Claudius. In an age of dull, repetitive and childish immature television, I, Claudius stands out as a show that seems to good to be true. The viewer is spoiled with the staggering quality offered by the series.

With all due respect to American actors, and there are some very fine ones, they could never have achieved what the British actors did in I, Claudius. What we see are actors doing what they love so effortlessly without the benefit (or hindrance??) of mega-Hollywood bucks.

The show is, and I know this from my own experiences and from seeing the reaction of others, incredibly addictive. One simply cannot get enough of it. The series treats its audience as intelligent individuals which is such a refreshing change from the attitude of most current and past programs.

Without any hesitation, watch this series. Television can never get any better than this!