I watched the whole series as part of my Latin A level...30 years ago. From memory it had Brian Blessed and Derek Jacobi for starters. I just remember the mad caesar, Caligula? ordering someone to cut a boys head off because he coughed too much. great series. not to been confused with up pompeii with frankie howard? ooooooooh
The whole thing is just packed with great actors, there’s even Patrick Stewart with hair.
One of the things I like best about it is that it was obviously made for no money and so much more work needs to be done with the acting and direction rather than relying on the spectacle of something like Rome (which I also enjoyed faod).
Bernard Hepton, John Rhys-Davies, George Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Christopher Biggins, Margaret Tyzack, Stratford Johns, Sheila White, Norman Rossington, Bernard Hill... almost every decent British actor of the era!
The make-up, unfortunately, doesn't stand the test of time. If I won the lottery I might fund a digital re-editing to improve the visuals, but notwithstanding, the acting is just fantastic. Derek Jacobi's portrayal is stellar, the way he exaggerates his 'disabilities' in order to make people think he's not a threat - despite the Sybil's predictions - and then he finds out that Livia was never fooled anyway.
And Christopher Biggins as Nero - probably the most realistic portrayal on screen, for some reason Nero gets defaulted to some saturnine sixty-something when he died at the same age as Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes.
cast if fabulous but the set and production values are truly awful by todays standards they must have spent all their production budget on the actors - better to view it as a long play rather than a tv show.
Dubious sources, and of course a different ethos about what history is for. Nowadays we have a sort-of scientific view of history: we want to know what happened. In those days, history was to big up the bossman and slag off his opponent's forebears. Like Shakespeare with Richard III.
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Excellent, must tune in, some great performances. Someone should mash it up with Caligula.
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Sure you're not thinking of Up Pompeii?
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I watched the whole series as part of my Latin A level...30 years ago. From memory it had Brian Blessed and Derek Jacobi for starters. I just remember the mad caesar, Caligula? ordering someone to cut a boys head off because he coughed too much. great series. not to been confused with up pompeii with frankie howard? ooooooooh
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Have always meant to read the novel. (Have always meant to read Suetonius as well ...)
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Two novels - I Claudius and Claudius The God.
Graves regarded them as potboilers but they financed his poetry and his home in Deia
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Brian Blessed's deathbed scene is unforgettable.
He and Sian Phillips are great together.
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wildly out of d7 with the l7est historiography of the period these days tho
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Yup Sian Phillips portrayal as the evil eminence grise was mesmerizing
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John Hurt was Caligula by the way.
The whole thing is just packed with great actors, there’s even Patrick Stewart with hair.
One of the things I like best about it is that it was obviously made for no money and so much more work needs to be done with the acting and direction rather than relying on the spectacle of something like Rome (which I also enjoyed faod).
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Bernard Hepton, John Rhys-Davies, George Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Christopher Biggins, Margaret Tyzack, Stratford Johns, Sheila White, Norman Rossington, Bernard Hill... almost every decent British actor of the era!
The make-up, unfortunately, doesn't stand the test of time. If I won the lottery I might fund a digital re-editing to improve the visuals, but notwithstanding, the acting is just fantastic. Derek Jacobi's portrayal is stellar, the way he exaggerates his 'disabilities' in order to make people think he's not a threat - despite the Sybil's predictions - and then he finds out that Livia was never fooled anyway.
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And Christopher Biggins as Nero - probably the most realistic portrayal on screen, for some reason Nero gets defaulted to some saturnine sixty-something when he died at the same age as Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes.
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cast if fabulous but the set and production values are truly awful by todays standards they must have spent all their production budget on the actors - better to view it as a long play rather than a tv show.
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oooh! I didn't realise that this was on BBC iPlayer
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agree with all the above: books are great, acting was great, set etc terrible
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John Hurt....yes...he was superb as crazed caligula
I think I need to watch this again....great memories of an A Level class where I was the only boy with 7 girls :-)
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Heh at reading/watching it for A level Latin.
Our ancient history teacher banned it because “it’s a novel, girls. Not history”
Yes the Blessed deathbed scene is astonishing, that’s some real acting.
ofc in the seventies you didnt have HD telly do nomone noticed the makeup.
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Miss Tong, Minkie?
I remember that we had the Victorian school boy versions of Aristophanes and Plautus with the naughty bits edited out.
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Yes thats right Judo!
Also twas she who gave us Suetonius and although it was certainly not a set text recommended we read Petronius’ Satyricon. Porno for teenage girls!
You were in school too late Judo 😉
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Did anyone spot Lt Gruber in Ep1?
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Wouldn't recognise him without his little tank
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I think you'll find it was a liddle tank.
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Clav Divs, we Wayne and Garth would have called him
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Graves followed Suetonius’ account closely, but brought it to life.
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The "Natural Born Quizzers" episode of Coogan's Run in the mid 90s referenced this and was pronounced as "I Clav Divs"
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I was glued to the TV when it was on first time round. Then I read Robert Graves's books and Suetonius, They are definitely worth reading PP.
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I absolutely loved it - then read the books and loved them just as much. Definitely time for a rewatch and reread!
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Everyone called it clav divs at the time, kids.
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And Blackadder nicked the titles snake
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Isn't the consensus though that what people like Livy or Suetonius wrote isn't really "history" either?
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Fvk noes
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Well, PP, quite.
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Suetonius was on Hadrian’s secretarial staff, he had access to the imperial archives. Till he got the tin tack for focussing on the scandals.
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Hadrian's columnist.
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Oh my dont start me on ancient history or should I say historiography, it was a minefield. So many dubious sources.
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Dubious sources, and of course a different ethos about what history is for. Nowadays we have a sort-of scientific view of history: we want to know what happened. In those days, history was to big up the bossman and slag off his opponent's forebears. Like Shakespeare with Richard III.
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Herodotus is one of my faves.
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