Amazon.co.uk Review
Herbert Wise, who had previously directed part of
Elizabeth R (1971), and who would helm the BBC Television Shakespeare
Julius Caesar (1979), concludes his study of the ruthless conflicts of Rome's First Family. Events become increasingly frenzied as Caligula bloodily slaughters his way to power, making a senator of his favourite horse along the way. Fresh from
The Naked Civil Servant (1975), John Hurt plays the tyrant with psychotic fury, a role reworked for the big screen by Malcolm McDowell in the world's first, and last, hardcore pornographic epic,
Caligula (1979). This is fortunately more subtle, with the drama seeing Claudius effectively age from youth to old age, eventually becoming Emperor. Derek Jacobi is simply magnificent in the intensely moving finale, which is not to overlook the rest of a fine cast, including George Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Christopher Guard, Stratford Johns, John Rhys-Davies and Bernard Hepton. Patrick Stewart meanwhile moves through the ages, from the murderous Praetorian Guard Captain Sejanus, to the rather more heroic Captain Picard of
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1986-93).
I Claudius was abortively filmed in 1937 by Charles Laughton, and it might be supposed the original novels at least partly inspired Mervyn Peake's
Gormenghast, serialised by the BBC in 2000.
--Gary S. Dalkin
Amazon.co.uk Review
A truly epic saga of dynastic conflict at the heart of Imperial Rome,
I Claudius was the landmark BBC drama series of the 1970s. Originally transmitted as 13 50-minute episodes, the series dramatises the human face of ancient Rome as interpreted by Robert Graves in his two enormously complex
novels,
I, Claudius and
Claudius The God. Derek Jacobi gives one of the greatest television performances ever as Claudius, the appalled chronicler of the decadence, corruption, intrigue and carnage which comes with the absolute power of his ruling family. Augustus (Brian Blessed) is Emperor and Livia (Sian Phillips) his scheming, ambitious wife, Claudius' aunt. By virtue of his stammer and uncontrollable twitches, Claudius passes for a fool, thus escaping the poisonous machinations of Livia, all the while recording the comings and goings of the Imperial household. Events become increasingly frenzied as Caligula (John Hurt playing the tyrant with psychotic fury) bloodily slaughters his way to power, making a senator of his favourite horse along the way. Claudius eventually becomes Emperor himself, and Jacobi is simply magnificent in the intensely moving finale, which is not to overlook the rest of a fine cast, including George Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Christopher Guard, Stratford Johns, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hepton and Patrick Stewart as the murderous Praetorian Guard Captain Sejanus. Inevitably lacking the visual scale of cinematic features such as
Ben-Hur, and today looking more studio-bound than ever,
I, Claudius remains a television masterpiece of intelligently written and rivetingly intense character drama. --
Gary S. Dalkin
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