I Watch TV: I. Claudius

 

I, Claudius

Based on Robert Graves novels I, Claudius and Claudius The God, this 1976 historical TV series claims to be the secret family history written by the Emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known as Claudius. It begins when the first Emperor Augustus has seen off all rivals and is now ruling Rome with a combination of an iron fist and open-handed generosity.

Augustus wants to bring back virtue to the Roman state which he thinks derives from good, solid family values. Indeed the TV series might be best thought of as a family drama. He’s planning for the future, looking for a successor. The opening conflict is when he favours Marcellus, his nephew and son-in-law. This aggravates his long time ally Marcus Agrippa – his general and junior partner in the civil wars. Agrippa leaves Rome rather than have an open break; later Marcellus dies and Agrippa is recalled.

Agrippa is Augustus’s age so Augustus keeps searching for a younger successor. He passes over his step-son Tiberius. Unfortunately for Augustus his efforts to create a virtuous family and also an empire has created a snakepit of plots, adultery and poison. He can’t see it because the heart is his wife, and partner in both family and empire, Livia.

Between Livia, risks and chance, several promising and skilled potential leaders are struck down as Augustus deals with various crises. Tiberius, his step-son sent in when needed but only grudgingly, becomes increasingly disillusioned. When his brother dies he’s completely embittered, and when he becomes emperor he’s a tyrant, eventually leaving Rome for his pleasure palace at Capri, his orders enforced by the Praetorian Prefect Sejanus.

In the meantime Drusus, Tiberius’s brother has got married, had several children, and died. Amongst his children are Claudius, who has a stammer, a limp and a twitch. (Derek Jacobi, who played him, has said that with all that business it’s easy to create the character, or something like that). Everyone thinks he’s an idiot and so counted out of the succession, though when people spend time with him they realise he's a shy, bookish, scholarly type, smarter than he seems and adept at keeping his head down.

This keeps him safe through Augustus’s and Tiberius’s reigns, though eventually Livia realises he’s not stupid, and confides in him. She has prophecies and concludes that Claudius’s nephew Caligula will be emperor. She has helped him in return for him promising to make her a god. Caligula ingratiates himself with Tiberius when Sejanus oversteps his mark, and so becomes his successor. Claudius’s hardest test comes during Caligula’s reign, when the mad emperor engages in incest, murder, self-deification and other insane behaviours. He also marries his old, limping, twitching and stuttering uncle Claudius to the young and beautiful Messalina, because he thinks it's funny.

But it’s not the twists and turns, the various depravities of the Roman Imperial court that make this TV show unmissable. Or rather, yes it is. But there are two other elements that make it engaging. Firstly is the budget it was shot on in the 70s. There aren’t huge crowd scenes, great spectacle. Almost every episode features the same dining room that we first encounter Augustus and family, with Marcellus getting up Agrippa’s nose. The garden of the palace is used again and again. It’s staged like a play, the odd crowd scene with twenty people, or the outdoor market. But it's not filmed like a play, the camera joins in the action, following characters and leaving them, picking out people in the middle ground or back ground, weaving between characters. They make up for the lack of spectacle and sets with craft.

On top of this is the generally high quality of acting, with almost every role no matter how small having real impact. Though there are many medium sized roles, with a character appearing in one episode, having a bigger role in the next then being shuffled off to make room for the next, often worse one in their place.

I’ve got distracted. There are some fantastic performances, the bluff Augustus of a pre-beard Brian Blessed hiding his fury and plotting. The deranged Caligula played by a mercurial John Hurt. Livia is played by Sian Phillips, running Augustus’s empire for him, arranging the family and doing what he needs, but must never know. And many more.

Watch This: Fantastic TV drama with more than enough historical detail, acting ability and cinematography to lift it out of bloody family soap opera drama
Don’t Watch This: The crimes of the Imperial family are manifold and disgusting