Wonderful

jlacerra

What a wonderful mini-series!  A really excellent use of television to apply the time necessary to do justice to a good book (in this case, two books). Derek Jacobi shines as the lame, stuttering title character.  But, so many fine performances abound in this treasure!

Brian Blessed, the benevolent, cunning, and oblivious Augustus. Sian Phillips, the malevolent Livia. George Baker, the brooding and frustrated Tiberius. John Hurt, the cheerfully insane monster, Caligula.

Look for a swaggering young Patrick Stewart, and an ambitious young John Rhyss-Davies as virile captains of the Guard.

Terrific in DVD, which seems to have corrected the series' sound engineering problems.  Only one minus: Make-up is theatrical and does not hold up well to the TV camera.

Watch Episode 1 ... you'll be hooked for the entire thirteen hours of great this story-telling epic that was made for TV and TV was made for!

score 10/10

jlacerra 10 December 2003

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0145230/