Change & Decay In All Around I See

Tuesday 9 December 2008, 10:50PM

Dusting off ‘I, Claudius’

Brian Blessed in I Claudius

Varus - Give me back my legions! If there ever was an actor put on Earth to bellow those lines, it is surely Brian Blessed. Readers of a certain age will know what I’m talking about: I Claudius , the gold standard of seventies BBC costume drama.

I am old enough to have cloudy childhood memories of watching this when it was first screened, back in 1976. I haven’t seen it since, and, intrigued by a few things I’ve read drawing comparisons between it and the most recent BBC Roman epic, Rome, put it on our DVD rental list. I’ve watched the first few episodes over the past few days and, dear oh dear, I reckon that if Rome is anything to go by standards have really dropped through the floor over the past 30 years (can it really be that long?)

The key to enjoying I Claudius, I think, is getting past the first, excruciating, five minutes of each episode. The theme music is intended to conjure an atmosphere of menace, but is truly horrible - nightmarish - and unfortunately has entangled itself in my memory. This leads into an opening scene invariably depicting the elderly Claudius writing his memoirs: a youthful Derek Jacobi caked under layers of prosthetics. The quality of BBC special effects during this era was never cause for celebration, but surely more could have been done: abominable stuff.

Make it past that though, and it gets pretty gripping rather quickly. It isn’t possible to go too far wrong with the script, of course, which is based on Robert Graves’ classic novel of the same name. But it’s the wonderful acting that really draws you in.

The aforementioned Brian Blessed brings his trademark air of jovial menace to the role of Augustus (I have always been a big fan, confirmed by the great man’s compering of a recent episode of Have I Got News For You). When not encumbered by that appalling makeup Derek Jacobi is brilliant as the stuttering Claudius, and Siân Phillips is a creepy pantomime Livia. John Hurt has great fun with Caligula, the role that established his reputation, and, amongst many others, I spotted Patrick Stewart as Sejanus, and Ian Ogilvy as Drusus (I recall when he was in line to become James Bond). And was that Christopher Biggins as Nero? - apparently yes.

All of the big beasts of British drama (of the baby boomer generation) are in it. The acting and the script had to be first rate, really, because the production is in every other way so limited: the budget didn’t extend to any cinematic setpieces, every scene taking place indoors, in only half a dozen or so locations (I have already referred to the quality of the special effects). Compared to the visual splendour of Rome, it is very poky indeed.

But it is so so much better. Rome looked great, and I confess to watching nearly all of it, but my God it was coarse. Generous quantities of murder, treachery, lust and violence are right and proper for drama set in the ancient world, but must be portrayed with a degree of taste and style: Rome’s handling of these matters was, I venture, somewhat indelicate. It proves that great drama can be done on a shoestring, if the basics - a fine script with fine actors - are in place. The next DVD in the series arrived today - looking forward to it already…