# Anyone seen I, Claudius? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2008, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555 "2008-07-15T10:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/61 "2008-07-16T14:08:41Z")
[QUOTE=aruvqan] People who were invalids or deformed were frequently in history [not just Rome] were frequently locked away ‘decently out of sight’ hence the trope of the deformed child kept in the attic or basement .. or the woman who went insane being kept chained in the basement, or even the cursed and deformed brother in the movie The Oblong Box being kept locked up and word out and around that he had died inafrica… [/QUOTE] It may be apocryphal, but I’ve heard second-or-third hand a story about Japan in the present day: a young Japanese person visited the US or some other western country and remarked how strange it was that all the public facilities had accomodations for disabled people. When asked if it wasn’t the same in Japan, s/he replied: oh, of course not, we don’t _have_ any disabled people in Japan. Kind of chilling when you think about it (and of course assuming it’s true). ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/62 "2008-07-16T14:42:35Z")
[QUOTE=phil417] I remember watching _I, Claudius_ when it was on “Masterpiece Theater”, too. I agree that Derek Jacobi was masterful as the title character. I remember it for one other reason. It was one of the few times I remember seeing Patrick Stewart (sorry, I don’t remember his character) with hair. Not much hair..just a curly fringe & mostly blonde/grey, but _hair_. Love, Phil [/QUOTE] He had a pretty full head of hair in this [scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs_mMpBpDn4). I always thought it was a wig - he’s pretty bald by Excalibur, which was only 5 years later. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/63 "2008-07-16T15:53:00Z")
It was a wig – Steward offered to wear one again when he was cast in STTNG, but the producers liked him without one. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/64 "2008-07-16T16:00:08Z")
IC was a very good series. I always think ancient Rome was inhabited by englishmen…partly because of this. IC portrays Claudius as a well-meaning, ethical man…was the real emperor like this? One must admit, Claudius accomplished quite a bit-he conquered England, and rebuilt thye city of Rome. I have always wondered if the premise of Robert Graves’ novel was correct-thet Claudius regretted his role, in strengthening the tyranny of the imperial rule ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/65 "2008-07-16T19:29:05Z")
In the documentary on the miniseries on YouTube, Derek Jacobi says that _Charlton Heston_ was considered for/interested in the role. I can see him as just about any other male character from Augustus on down, but as Claudius… just… no. (Jacobi was very disappointed when he got the role- he’d auditioned for a production of Hamlet as the title character and when told he was wanted for Claudius he thought they meant Hamlet’s stepfather.) Another great British actor’s [screen test](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYDPTAS8r6I) for the role. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/66 "2008-07-16T19:31:58Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I have always wondered if the premise of Robert Graves’ novel was correct-thet Claudius regretted his role, in strengthening the tyranny of the imperial rule [/QUOTE] Not according to most biographers. Claudius does seem to have been more intelligent and more sane than Tiberius/Caligula/Nero, but he also had a cruel and vicious streak. (Also, unlike the Graves version, he LOVED gladiatorial games.) Still, the primary sources weren’t written to be objective, so who knows. (I don’t believe any of the books written by Claudius survived, but I may be wrong.) What was Claudius’s most likely diagnosis? I would guess a form of CP perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/67 "2008-07-16T20:04:08Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] He had a pretty full head of hair in this [scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs_mMpBpDn4). I always thought it was a wig - he’s pretty bald by Excalibur, which was only 5 years later. [/QUOTE] A funny thing I noticed is when Claudius is offered a bust of Sejanus in the market, the bust appears to be of a bald Stewart. I guess someone didn’t know he was going to have a hairpiece when they made the bust. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/68 "2008-07-16T20:41:21Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] …(Jacobi was very disappointed when he got the role- he’d auditioned for a production of Hamlet as the title character and when told he was wanted for Claudius he thought they meant Hamlet’s stepfather.) [/QUOTE] That’s in the documentary? I once read an interview with Jacobi where he talked about how hard he worked to convince the producers to give him the role of Claudius. (In the same interview he said that many people have since believed that he actually has a stutter.) ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/69 "2008-07-16T21:19:48Z")
Haven’t seen _Rome_, but as others have said – if you’re interested in watching a series with brilliant acting, knife-sharp wit, chilling suspense, kinky sex, fully-realized characters (for all her perfidy, Livia has her vulnerabilities) and all-round _smart_ writing, you can’t do better than _I, Claudius_. One of the best miniseries ever, anywhere. The cast is just … off the charts talented. Derek Jacobi, John Hurt and Siân Phillips go without saying, but also Brian Blessed (yes he’s a deceptively avuncular Augustus, but he’s in the later part of his life and we primarily see him dealing with family, not as a leader/warrior); Margaret Tyzack (as Claudius’s cold-as-a-stone and twice as strong mother Antonia); Patrick Stewart’s cruel Sejanus; George Baker’s dissolute loser Tiberius; Patricia Quinn as spoiled sicko Livilla; Fiona Walker as one of the few laudable characters Agrippina; sexy John Castle as noble, flawed Postumus; even sexier James Faulkner as Claudius’s sly & savvy Jewish pal King Herod Agrippa; John Rhys-Davies as ambitious (but that rather goes without saying since just about everyone’s ambitious!) soldier Macro; and Sheila White as ultra-slutty, ultra sadistic Messalina. And those are only the absolute highlights – the bench goes much deeper. Full marks to extraordinary script by Jack Pulman. For a taste, here’s Livia’s speech to the gladiators before a bout: > [@](#): > > You’re all scum, and you know it, but some of you have a chance here to prove that you’re a bit more than that. And for those whom death doesn’t liberate, there’ll be plenty of freedoms handed out afterward, to say nothing of gold plate and coin. > > But I want a good show. I want my money’s worth; and I don’t want any kiss-in-the-ring stuff, I don’t want my family watching two grown men pussyfooting round each other for half an hour before one of them aims a real blow. There’s been too much of that in the past. > > These games are being degraded by the increasing use of professional tricks to stay alive, and I won’t have it, and don’t think you can fool me, either, because I know every trick in the book including the pig’s blood in the bladder–there’s been too much of that, too, lately. > > So put on a good show, and there’ll be plenty of money for the living and a decent burial for the dead. And if not, I’ll break this guild up and send the lot of you to the mines in Numidia. That’s all I’ve got to say to you. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/70 "2008-07-16T21:22:37Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] (In the same interview he said that many people have since believed that he actually has a stutter.) [/QUOTE] He also stammers in “Dead Again” and as Alan Turing in “Breaking the Code.” Because of this, my friends and I refer to him as “D- derek.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/71 "2008-07-16T22:25:35Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] That’s in the documentary? [/QUOTE] Ayup. It’s in either [Part 1](http://youtube.com/watch?v=og3J_s1-bHc&feature=related) or [Part 2](http://youtube.com/watch?v=eNAJg_XTqlo&feature=related) (of 10). Jacobi is apparently very good friends with Phillips in real life. Leastwise, according to one article she attended his wedding when he married his partner of 28 years. (Speaking of The Jacobian Gayness, Sir Ian McKellan said he and Jacobi had major crushes on each other when students in RADA together but would never address the matter as neither was ready to come out.) I _loved_ Jacobi as the world’s worst Shakespearean actor on an episode of _Frasier_. I’m guessing he had a lot of fun with that part. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/72 "2008-07-16T23:00:01Z")
Oh, and I suppose I should add that Derek Jacobi absolutely owns the role of my namesake, Ellis Peters’ **Brother Cadfael**. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/73 "2008-07-17T12:50:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \* **BrotherCadfeal** : > Oh, and I suppose I should add that Derek Jacobi absolutely owns the role of my namesake, Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael. It’s really a topic for its own thread but I don’t think so! Jacobi never convinced me as the old Welsh soldier/sailor who had been on Crusade and knocked around the Holy Land for years. Every time he was on screen he just seemed like the middle aged Claudius without the stutter. Too posh and not hard enough. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555/74 "2008-07-17T15:17:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] What was Claudius’s most likely diagnosis? I would guess a form of CP perhaps. [/QUOTE] Traditionally, it was seen as polio, but nowadays, most people say cerebral palsy, with some suggesting Tourette’s [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-seen-i-claudius/456555.md?page=3)