The Anorak Zone Forums

[dcampbell]

A follow-up to my Blakes 7 Challenge of last year, the idea is to watch a complete series while pacing myself to one episode a week - with videos/DVDs it is far too easy to watch the whole thing in one go - and then write a short review of the episode (sometimes they may be very short - just a few comments, really), which I shall post in this thread. They contain spoilers, if you care about such things.

I first considered a couple of other series - The Prisoner and UFO - but I have watched bits of them relatively recently so decided to go for I Claudius (or I Clavdivs, if you must) which, although I have watched it through three times, I haven’t seen in at least a couple of years.

12 weeks should take me up to the end of the year, and then I can consider what I want to do for 2010.

[dcampbell]

Sun 4 Oct: 1. A Touch of Murder

A double-length episode that seems to have been two episodes edited together, as evidenced by the two halves having separate plots* - the first half is the power struggle between Marcus Agrippa and Marcellus for who should be Augustus’s successor. Although Marcellus dies first, neither of them wins because Livia poisons them both.
The second half is about Claudius’s father Drusus and his relationship with his brother Tiberius, so we understand that when Drusus dies there is nothing keeping Tiberius ‘good’ any more.

The episode is utterly dominated (in both plot and acting stakes) by Livia and her subtle manipulation of everyone to maneuver Tiberius, her son, into position as Augustus’s heir. It’s not long into the series before she poisons Marcellus and claims her first victim, with the audience her only co-conspirator. It’s wonderful to watch, and I especially love the sly asides that only the audience can appreciate the meaning of.

The other great performance in this episode is BRIAN BLESSED as Augustus Caesar, for one scene in particular, where he subtly hints to Drusus that he would make a very dangerous enemy, while otherwise acting like an affable father-figure to him.

*Wikipedia tells me that it was made as 2 episodes and then edited together for the original BBC broadcast.

[broadshoulder2]

My judgement is you will crack by episode four and watch them all one weekend. Its just too much temptation.

[ocpmovie]

I was starting to watch this recently. Maybe I'll join you.

[Sidesk]

It's a shame that on the videos, they're edited together into huge chunks, which is a waste of good credits (!) I first saw this show at school, which meant the teacher had even recorded the recaps at the start of each episode, which are usually just as ace. Whether these are on the DVDs, I couldn't say.

The point is, that you can tell, certainly in some later episodes, that one big name dominates a whole episode and is seen hardly before, and not since (especially if they die!)

[MatSmith]

I first saw this show at school

[Sidesk]

Well, I did! Maybe it was that sort of school...

[dcampbell]

The point is, that you can tell, certainly in some later episodes, that one big name dominates a whole episode and is seen hardly before, and not since (especially if they die!)

That's a good point. Maybe I should incorporate a 'Guest-star of the week' for each episode.

Guest-star of the week (for episode 1): Ian Ogilvy (Drusus), who went on to play Simon Templar in Return of the Saint.

If we were counting the first half of the episode separately, then I guess either of the actors who played Marcellus and Marcus Agrippa could count. But as I have also recently been watching John Silver's Return to Treasure Island, I'll nominate Christopher Guard (Marcellus), who went on to play Jim Hawkins.

And, as Sidesk says, each of them dies by the end of the episode.

[Hancocked]

The only conceivable downside to I, Claudius is that, if you know your Roman history, you know what's going to happen to all the characters, and thus at what point during the series. That's tempered by the brilliance of Graves'/Pulman's/Suetonius's interpretations of those fates, and those of the actors playing the characters.

[Sidesk]

What I would say to that, though, is that even if you know the facts in depth, the strength of the performances and the characterisations makes it all come alive (so to speak).