by Allan Fish
(UK 1976 652m) DVD1/2
Old King Log
p Martin Lisemore d Herbert Wise w Jack Pulman novels “I, Claudius” and “Claudius the God” by Robert Graves m Wilfrid Josephs art Tim Harvey
Derek Jacobi (Claudius), Siân Phillips (Livia), Brian Blessed (Augustus), George Baker (Tiberius), John Hurt (Caligula), Margaret Tyzack (Antonia), Patrick Stewart (Sejanus), Patricia Quinn (Livilla), David Robb (Germanicus), Fiona Walker (Agrippina), Beth Morris (Drusilla), Sheila White (Messalina), James Faulkner (Herod Agrippa), Kevin McNally (Castor), John Castle (Postumus), Frances White (Julia), Ian Ogilvy (Drusus), John Paul (Agrippa), Barbara Young (Agrippinilla), Christopher Biggins (Nero), Bernard Hepton (Pallas), John Cater (Narcissus), John Rhys Davies (Macro), Stratford Johns (Piso), Charles Kay (Gallus), Freda Dowie (The Sibyl/Caesonia), Ashley Knight (Young Claudius), Kevin Stoney (Thrasyllus), Donald Eccles (Pollio), Bernard Hill (Gratus), Charlotte Howard (Scylla), Esmond Knight (Domitius), Moira Redmond (Domitia),
There are few more beloved BBC serials in history than this immensely detailed adaptation of the two Claudian novels of Robert Graves. In truth, the second novel is rather sparsely translated, forming barely 20% of the series at its finale, entirely missing out the massive section on the conquest of Britain and the subduing of Caractacus. But no matter, for as an adaptation of the first book, one could hardly have done a better job than Jack Pulman. For a long time it seemed as if Claudius would have the last laugh, for everyone recalled the disastrous aborted film of 1937, with Charles Laughton, Alexander Korda and Josef Von Sternberg going together like oil, water and cement. One mourns its never being completed, if only because of the décor and the promise of the performances of Laughton and Emlyn Williams from the surviving footage, but it was left to the Beeb to finally complete the job nearly forty years later.
Graves’ work is a tapestry, an inside diary so to speak, a novelised history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty from the grandeur of Augustus through the increased depravity of Tiberius, the insanity of Caligula and the temperance of the eponymous Claudius. It may be liberal with the facts – the real Claudius wasn’t really the gentle soul depicted here, though he undoubtedly was compared to most of his family – but this is hardly the point, for it’s in exaggeration that the best drama lies, as Shakespeare proved so readily in his caricature of Richard III. The series may indeed be a relic of those thankfully gone days of awful cheap sets and costumes left over from BBC Shakespeare productions, with absolutely no footage shot outdoors, but the quality of the script and the performances make up for it. It also gained controversy in its time for the nudity and sexual frankness which, though perhaps tame by today’s standards or compared to say Brass’ infamous Caligula, it still adds a bit of realism to proceedings that it lacks visually.
At the time of its release, it was of course compared to the Philip Mackie series The Caesars eight years previously, which itself had been hailed as a small screen masterpiece. If one is honest, Baker, Hurt and Stewart in particular are outshone by their earlier counterparts, but the rest of the cast are peerless, with the supports including Tyzack as the imperiously cold mother Antonia, Faulkner’s inimitable Herod and Stoney’s astrologer (repeating his role from the earlier series). At its heart, three performances dominate. Firstly Blessed, never better than as the father of Rome, Augustus, finding a role perfectly suited to his unique bluster. Then there’s Jacobi as the eponymous stutterer, a worthy successor to the imperious Freddie Jones. Yet even so the real star of the show has to be the truly wicked Phillips, in her second golden part in twelve months after her Beth Morgan in How Green Was My Valley. Could there be two more disparate mothers imaginable? Here’s one of the truly most evil women in history, the sort who could eat a Medea or Clytemnestra for breakfast, yet Phillips makes her a human monster, and the dinner sequence with Jacobi is justly fêted. One might say “let all the poisons that lurk in the mud, hatch out”, and onto our TV screens.
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Well, I have stated my case on this series time and again at this site and elsewhere. “Masterpiece” seems too light, but that is the word we bandy around these parts to denote extreme satisfaction. The performances (Jacobi, Hurt, Blessed, Phillips) are towering and Graves’ source is now seen as THE source. Few works in the culture are as fascinating, and certainly this is one of the BBC’s finest hours.
Good review, classic TV. So glad they kept it intense and the studio without any outside shots, which makes it magical. Will be interesting to compare this to the new version being planned by a creatively bankrupt BBC in tandem with HBO. Let’s see after bringing back ‘Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’, ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’, ‘The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin’, ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘The Liver Birds’, and ‘Dr Who’ – all except the last to poor reviews, it will be interesting to see another series a third rate makeover – all outside filmed battles, widescreen film gloss blandness and sheer emptiness in execution.
That’s it, Bobby, dismiss it before it’s aired. 😉
Not a really a dismissal, but an eyebrow raise at the sheer creative bankruptcy of living in the past, BBC executives paying themselves eye-watering sums (even worse, £600,000 as a pay-off, I think, for an applicant that didn’t get the Director General’s job – all this whilst they offer no reward for the return of incredible lost treasures that were junked from the archives) – patting themselves on the back for public service broadcasting. I’ll watch it when it comes out but I’ll not wear rose-tinted glasses. I’d have the same reaction to it as I did when ‘The Outer Limits’ was revived, the new 6th revival of ‘The Twilight Zone’ that’s in the works, or if someone had stated they were going to remake ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘On the Waterfront’ or ‘Bilko’. Finite resources set on sure fire past icons. I’m sure some executive will think that maybe they should remake ‘Brideshead Revisted’, make it snappier, put some young heart throbs in, widescreen it and 3d it for the modern home TV set-up.
Totally agree on the BBC, Bobby. But this is really a HBO thing. When Rome was brought to a premature end HBO had said they’d liek to work with the BBC again on something similar and more often. They did Parade’s End last year and this Claudius is with two of the makers of Rome.
Few people seem to remember the series was based on two novels, not just one. I Claudius was great, but it wasn’t perfect. Claudius the God, the second novel which is slightly longer than I Claudius, was reduced to only a quarter of the series’ running time and the entire British campaign cut out virtually completely apart from one Peter Bowles speech as Caractacus. That is one thing the new series could do better. Not to mention proper Roman sets and make up that didn’t make the actors look enbalmed. Those sets used for Rome are still there as they’re permanently maintained at Cinecitta.
Do I expect it to be as good? No, probably not, but HBO’s record is pretty strong and I’m looking forward to it. And the BBC have redone adaptations of novels before and improved them. You probably preferred the admittedly excellent 1985 to 2005 version of Bleak House, but many didn’t, yours truly included. And can you say the earlier BBC version of Jane Eyre from the 1980s compares to the 2006 benchmark or that the 1980s Pride and Prejudice matches the 1995 one or that the 1970s Our Mutual Friend matches the 1998.
I Claudius is still just a novel and can be redone for a new audience. If they fuck it up, I’ll be the first to begin the J’Accuse’s, but let’s not do that before we start. People were decrying the same when Dominink announced he was doing Jesse James with Brad Pitt. It’ll never be up to Fuller’s I Shot Jesse James.
Pretty much in complete agreement with you Allan in the vein of a new adaption of a classic novel.
Finally caught up with this series and finished it today. I adored it; hard to imagine any updated take improving upon it, don’t care how much better the production values are. And while I haven’t seen The Caesars, color me skeptical that John Hurt’s Caligula could be bested. The cast of characters are all beastly, yet when they made their ghostly reappearance near the end of the series, all young and vigorous once again, swimming in Claudius’ vision as he gives his farewell address to the Senate, I found myself wanting to cheer each and every one of their cameos. God, but this ensemble just kicks ass. While the sets and acting style may suggest a piece more theatrical than cinematic, Augustus’ death (among other great sequences) is such a purely cinematic moment. I’d be happy to include this miniseries alongside theatrically-released films as brilliant examples of the medium.