Also for killing Caligula for personal affronts and reasons as well

@@optimusprinceps3526 Someone who can kill one emperor can kill another. Executing Chaerea was a precaution. Despite being mad, Caligula had showed some method in forcing Macro to commit suicide even though by finishing off Tiberius he had ensured Caligula became emperor. But Macro was a potential danger to Caligula as well.

He wasn't exactly being noble or chilvarious. He did it as a deterrent and cause he knew they would be after him soon.

Credit really, them they its will all be there in the house for the update on the testimonial from the best way to communicate

There was a girl murdered. I remember part of that scene. Soldier: "It is bad luck to kill a virgin inside the city walls." Officer: "Then make sure that she is not a virgin."

Exactly the same for me.

I was fifteen at the time, I can’t remember if I actually watched it religiously….

Brutal but effective.

I agree , I was 17 at the time and never missed it.

Watched with my mother as a child. Nostalgia!

come on ....to us oldies he will always be Yosser Hughes

Gimli in this series as well. He is a general who betrays Sejanus (Patrick Stewart with hair)

I recognised Hill but I didn’t see fit to say so here.

You just sent me into shock. I never noticed

@@mikevecchione4852 Although you never see anything, one of the most evil scenes in the series, which according to historians actually happened. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eN1dmqdlz7WUc5c.html

In history, Claudius suffered mildly from polio and also had an extreme stutter. In the series, it's the historian Pollio who advises Claudius to exaggerate his limp and stutter and play the fool as much as he liked to make himself politically harmless.

He didnt fake it. People just cant accept the fact that some good leaders werent perfect disney lite princes.

@@harukrentz435 yes, he did. He was actually quite brilliant. He just couldn’t let that show.

@@harukrentz435 He apparently said he exaggerated it, although some of the disability was genuine.

The scene as a boy when he was on the patio with the other royal children. Two eagles in flight were fighting over a wolf cub. All the other children scatter. The wolf cub falls into the lap of young Claudius, The oracle makes a prediction. The wolf cub is Rome and Claudius will be emperor. @@philomelodia

✌️🙂

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

@@amtRememberthank you!

@@HeronCoyote1234

I followed his career after watching the original run. His Agent was very keen on answering Fan mail, and John's personal touches were nice. Wish I'd kept that.

Indubitably !

Absolutely one of the seminal tv series of the 70’s, such a joy to watch, both then and now

When the BBC could make quality TV seems a long time ago now.

@@johnholt890 Your remark is banal, insipid, common, and utterly uninspired.

Yes. I confess, I was too young and impateint (@ 12 y.o.) when the series first debuted on PBS if catching glimmers of it. But when Masterpiece Theater (it's name back then) re-broadcast it as a part of its 20th anniversary in 1991, I was absolutely glued. The fantastic theme music draws you in, and the directing is wonderful in terms of its storytelling (the Moviewise channel has a great overview of the directing ) complimented by the great actors (thinking esp. of Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed and John Hurt).

@@michaelfrankel8082 and you managed to top it 😆

Derek Jacobi and John Hurt belong with the CREAM of the cream, when it comes to artistry of acting. Though, in this particular role, Jacobi is slightly, very slightly outperformed by Charles Laughton. Long ago, I happened to see Jacobi's performance first and I was amazed, enchanted... Many years later, I saw Laughton (as Claudius) and I cried like a baby...

@@DrAgan_tortojed Agree with everything you say.

And I bet you watched that re-run on PBS. This was a brilliant production and an outstanding cast.

Or that party he organized for a lot of people without their clothes on.... Hmmm must be some other movie...

Brains tend to figure out how to make it work even without the money. Not a BBC example, but I love the story of how an animatronic dragon came to be for an early 1970s Czechoslovak fairy tale film: The director was told in the studios (back then state-run) that it would be too expensive. He shared his woes over beer with friends, one of whom happened to be some sort of technician/mechanic, and basically said "that sounds like an interesting problem" and built him his dragon out of scrap material.

Check the 80's Robin of Sherwood. Xhena cost more to make.

BBC way no longer. Especially now they're buddy-buddy with Disney.

Wits that username all about

Just look at how much money was thrown at Game of Thrones, and how well it went without brains.

That's for sure ! I saw it when it was rerun on our local PBS affiliate in the late 70s or early 80s. Truly powerful script & cast ! My introduction to John Hurt & Derek Jacobi.

He was excellent in Gladiator. I think of that scene Commodus tells young Lucius about Claudius, I always thought of Derek’s performance in this series. Great acting, cinematography, and some interesting history. Although I think the actual people were less eloquent and more bloody.

John Hurt wasn’t ‘hurt’ in the making of this production.

@@heli-crewhgs5285 Ha !!

Same here, during a lazy summer in 79. This was our generation's Game of Thrones. Still a masterpiece!

Roman logic...

Astute.

Philo of Alexandria was terrified of Emperor Gaius

If only there had been time to shoot a POV from Cal on the floor, hearing the thundering hooves...

@@stevetheduck1425 There is the POV when the last guy stabs him "for our wives". But possibly Caligula was already slipping away.

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

Thanks@@amtRemember

A lot of people probably don’t realize that how the Praetorian guardsman says “Caesar” (“Kaiser” instead of “See-zar”) isn’t only the way a German would say it, but was actually the way it was pronounced in Latin to begin with. And yes, I also chuckle whenever I see that scene, especially at the German guardsman’s slack-jawed response.

Four pronunciation deviations in a six-letter name. That always cracks me up too.

Oh,we laughed. This was such a good show. Americans got a slightly abridged version.

Ever see Caligula with Malcolm McDowell? Supposedly thr movie was a turkey but McDowell is a terrific actor and had played Alex in A Clockwork Orange, who was also barking mad.

I like Caligula's dance 🌿😜🌿👍

​@@nhmooytis7058I would have done that film better, and not have portrayed Claudius as a dice rolling effeminate halfwit

@@nhmooytis7058 McDowell was also very good as Caligula, and with a less effeminate performance than Hurt's. The trouble with that film was that everything else was pretty bad.

@@stevekaczynski3793 at the time it was denounced as a massive stinkeroo.

As he's dying he calls of for his sister Drusilla, with whom it's alleged he had an incestuous relationship.

Drusilla 🌿😆🌿

​@@optimusprinceps3526Drusilla. He's not Elvis

@@SanFranDentist94301 🌿😜🌿 Thank you, thank you very much...

@@optimusprinceps3526 😅

Modest budget by today standards but the sets and costumes must have been pretty expensive for the 1970s.

Don’t forget The Onedin Line. Look at the rubbish we get from the BBC nowadays 😢

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

So well said and so well put.

@@davidlucey1311 for the BBC it was a fairly standard budget. Which would have easily been dwarfed by any American production at the time

The thing about germanic bodyguard is that unlike praetorian guards. They are extremely loyal to the emperor. The germans had a reputation for very good fighter. And they wont take it well that the emperor they guard just got killed.

In the 80s miniseries Masada, a Roman legionary who gets killed early on in an ambush talks what I always assumed was Cockney. I think the idea in British productions was to convey the rustic class origins of the legionary by using cultural markers the audience would "get". This particular choice probably worked even on a North American audience, who might not know regional accents from England but would hear "Not how the Queen speaks" and draw inferences.

@@randomobserver8168 - it was just what the BBC did with everything in the 80s - everyone was .northern' from blue peter presenters to drama series. They had a special obsession with scousers and carla lane.

I’ve always found the American accent in films such as Dangerous Liaisons pretty wierd. The Soviets in Death of Stalin had quite an array of accents too…

@@randomobserver8168 Nope. In Masada they made the good, jewish guys American and the bad guys English. They are always doing such stuff.

That was Yosser Hughes (Bernard Hill).

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

🤨Rather challenging material for a child, full of things requiring adult understanding, and quite advanced adult understanding at that. Also, it's Graves.

Books, you mean!

@@joelperry8187 Yeah. Fishy story perhaps.

@@dixonpinfold2582 I, Claudius and Claudius The God, by Robert Graves. I read ‘em in college.

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

More than the just the script and the actors is the superb use of blocking and camera work. Because the production is limited to a TV budget and small sets, the director decided to have the actors move around a lot and frequently moves the camera to keep the viewer engaged in what's happening. It's very theatrical without looking static. Modern shows would do a more basic shot-reverse-shot set up of alternating closeups which focuses more on the actors' facial expressions.

I've just been warned that a huge number of BBC productions have been taken down & will continue to disappear, so please do tuck in while you can! If I get deleted again, I'll try to come back as: AMT3.0 Remember? if at all possible

As an original but not so much later Trekker, I still think of him as Sejanus

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

@@williamcurtin5692 he’s a very good actor. When you can forget who the person is that’s playing a character, that actor has done his job.

@@amtRemember thx, good to know.😎👍

Another one was Brian Blessed going from Augustus to Vultan, leader of the Birdmen in Flash Gordon.

Till he was assassinated himself, of course.

well if a lot of it wasnt political smears. the monopolies that the book claimed his wife of the time foiseted on him didnt do the roman empire any good. And remember caligula was really popular with the masses, hard to seperate the truth from the story.

@@rory7590 - wasnt that the 'poisoned feather thing. I seriously dont know why anyone wanted to be emperor , it was a basic death sentence to them and their families long (sometines short) term.... as seemingly was being a senator or even a general.

@@rory7590Wow !!! Thanks for spoiling the ending !!!

@@captaincoffeecake3595 well it did happen 1,969 years ago. Can't keep secrets forever.

Admit it. It was also way much more fun than the text books 😉

I knew i recognized his voice. He was the recruiting sergeant in Sharpe's Regiment.

Norman was in "The Krays" and of course "A Hard Day's Night."

Now that's soldiering

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

Sir John Hurt. He was wonderful in Harry Potter as well.

Especially the Caligula dance 💃

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

I think the entire series is available on KZfaq.

It was broadcast on wednesdays on BBC4 last September....

Definitely. It would be a reminder to people of what real acting ability is!

There is an alternative train of thought (unprovable) that Claudius knew what was coming and was already on 'nodding terms' with several high-ranking members of the Praetorian Guard. Thus when they killed the lunatic (or just extremely malicious, take your point of view) Caligula he had already agreed with them that he would become Emperor. Immediatley after he let spill the tale that he had been caught hiding behind the curtains and they enforced the laurel wreath on to his head against his will. The truth will never be known, although Tom Holland in his excellent book 'Dynasty' explores this theory a little more, and finds some evidence to back it up.

The actors of that series were very good. It was shown in my country Finland in in the mid 1970:s. I was 17 when I saw it . I was lucky to find it on DVD decades later.

I binge watched this thirty years ago on video while at university (A little too young to watch it first time round) I loved it and my husband and I have watched it a few times since. Derek Jacobi takes Claudius from youth to old man so very well. I admit I was pleased to see him as Emperor Claudius again in the Horrible Histories film my kids watched. It was a nice nod to all us oldies who remember him in arguably his greatest role.

Cope

He was also in a great TV series called 'Boys from the Blackstuff' and he was in a play called 'John, Paul, Ringo and Bert' (playing John Lennon). These initiated in Liverpool, created by Liverpool authors Alan Bleasdale and Willy Russell. I remember seeing both of them and he was very good.

Ooh, which one was he, I seem to have missed him. He was so in Shirley Valentine as her husband.

@@suebursztynski2530 He was Gratus head of the Praetorian guard in this.

is he related to Benny Hill ?

@@davidjacobs8558 He's his granddaughter

Little shout-outs to 20th century events...

Special mention for the blocking, absolutely!

They can't; it's all women and minorities making the programmes, with the inevitable decline.

Half the cast would be black.

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

Another UK Roman age classic. Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in "Carry on Cleo". Worth watching just for Amanda Barrie as Cleopatra - SO sexy!

I have this on You Tube purchases

Also conquered those barbaric British.

​@garethhanby, and what have the Romans ever given us?

@@davesy6969in practice? Land expropriation and heavy taxes.

He played stupid to stay safe and avoid being killed at someone's whim

An idiotic asseveration. Aurelian, Constantine and Trajan wanted to be emperors and they got amazing achievements.

Here's the full series: kzfaq.info/sun/PLbSdRxOcJ4yv3gzomKpYdz_FRioqjT5O7

Excellent example of that very old and usually-ignored idea: 'anyone that seeks power should never have any.'

Later Roman historians were less flattering to Claudius. They tended to have a pro-Senate bias and it is possible they exaggerated certain aspects. Seneca, who lived in Nero's reign, wrote "The Pumpkinification Of Claudius", which ridicules him. The text, not all of which has survived, ends with Caligula claiming Claudius is an ex-slave of his and Claudius is sent to be a law clerk in Hades. Seneca was trying to flatter Nero by ridiculing his predecessor, but ended up being forced to commit suicide.