Whenever I see Derek Jacobi in another role, I am always amazed that he keeps his stutter under control. The stutter was so good – he sometimes flubbed the most important word, and ruined the dramatic impact of the line – that we wondered if it was real when we first saw the show.
He did fall back into the stutter once. Naming the film would be a spoiler, though. 
Best ending to an episode ever: Caligula (Hurt) exits room after unfortunate encounter with his sister and just says:“Don’t go in there.”
I concur. I’ve never seen the mini-series, but love both of these books.
And if you want even more of Graves’ early Roman-era political historical novels, I strongly recommend that you check out King Jesus.
[nitpick]
The Coliseum was built by the Flavians, about forty years after Caligula’s reign.
[/nitpick]
I love the books, but always found Graves’ use of modern names and words (France, colonel, sergeant, regiment, Colchester–not to mention assagai) jarring.
My main complaint with the TV version is the way they shot it–on video, on obviously fake indoor sets.
It looks like a low budget daytime soap–or even worse, Dr. Who!
Augustus (Or was it Tiberius, been a while) to Caligula: Rome deserves you!
I saw clips of him portraying Alan Turing in a one-man-show (I think). It was weird because he stuttered just like Claudius.
It was almost sad seeing him in Gladiator. His face almost reeked of, “Been here, done this, only a whole lot better!”
Another fine book by Graves is Count Belisarius, about the great 6th century general and his relationship with the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian II.
As I recall, when Livia was talking to the gladiators, she said something like “I will not stand for these games being degraded by the use of illegal tricks to stay alive!”
I also really like John Rhys Davies as Macro, a real bastard. In the novel, Claudius says that he’s known four moral extremes among men: virtuous men with hearts of stone (e.g. a strict tutor he had); virtuous men with hearts of gold (e.g. his favorite tutor); rascals with hearts of stone (e.g. Macro – obviously the worst kind of person to have around); and, rarest of all, a rascal with a heart of gold – his friend Herod.
For a real trip, watch I, Claudius and then Penthouse’s Caligula. (If you’ve ever seen the latter, you probably said, “What the hell are John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole doing in this?”)
I tried to watch Caligula; I don’t think I made it through the opening credits; I know I decided not to date some-one who had watched the whole thing.
Jacobi did stutter in a different way in that other [un-named] show, though, didn’t he?
And I never noticed the quality of the production of I, Claudius. I was too interested in the material.
Now that I think about it, I can not believe my parents let me watch it.
Sorry. I can’t help it. I’m in treatment for it.
Claudius to Caligula: You’ve become a god! (pause) Oh, god.
Claudius to Caligula’s sister: He’s become a god. You’re a god, too.
(to Herod) We’re not.
And some great quotations from this page:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/dvd/B00004U12X/quotes-trivia/ref=pm_dp_ln_d_4/002-5003786-2642455
Tiberius on Mommy Dearest: They say a snake bit her once. And died.
Tiberius: I will make you my successor, Gaius Caligula. Rome deserves you!
Caligula: Is that a joke, uncle?
Tiberius: Not yet, but it will be.
Herod: Trust no one, my friend, no one. Not your most
grateful freedman, not your most intimate friend, not the wife of your bosom, or your dearest child. Trust no one.
Claudius: No one? Not even you?
Caligula: Do you think I’m mad?
Claudius: Mad? I think you set the standard of sanity for the whole world!
And one more, Jack Pulman (the screenwriter) made a little joke in the last episode:
Claudius: In 2000 years the man who opens Graves will speak!
Fifteen Iguana
Interesting…I hadn’t noticed that. I presume it’s because everyone would really be speaking Latin and we’re just “hearing” it in English, right?
Fifteen Iguana – 
BTW, re the visions – doesn’t Antonia tell him to wipe his nose? The trouble with the last couple of episodes is that most of the interesting characters are dead at that point, so it was a real kick seeing them again in the finale.
There’s an I, Claudius drinking game floating around on the web somewhere. Just thought I’d share.
I had an internship at WGBH-TV in Boston, home of MASTERPIECE THEATER (got to see the set where Alistair introduced from!) and worked in Audience Services during one of the last times CLAUDIUS was rerun in the Eighties,
It was shown uncut*, an hour later than usual, and we were given a list of all the objectionable scenes in advance so we knew to brace ourselves. Copious warnings were given before the show and there was an “intermission” with the MT logo and the Roman music playing where the warnings were repeated and written onscreen halfway through. I braced myself for the onslaught, and sure enough–
Nothing happened. We probably got around ten calls per day about it, and most of them were thankful we were re-running it and wanted to know if they could get copies! The warnings and the later timeslot worked!
I must say I wonder if it would work nowadays, when people seem to expect to be protected from themselves much more. But I loved the series when I was 12 or 13 or so, and awaited each episode as though it was a soap opera. Livia, Caligula, and Claudius were the most fascinating people ever on TV. I devoured Graves’ books but you guys have shown me there’s a lot more I should read. Thanks.
SPOILER
- The cut part was when Caligula cut his sister’s baby (and his) out of her womb, killing her of course, and then devoured the fetus as Zeus had in one of the myths. Claudius hears Drusilla’s screaming and comes to see what’s going on; in the original, Caligula comes out with his mouth all bloody and tells him not to go in there, wherein Claudius peeks in and gets a look of horror on his face that I can still see to this day. WGBH cut out Caligula’s appearance. At least we were braver than Bravo network, which used to show things uncut but I was watching it one day and noticed they were carefully panning and scanning so that we couldn’t see Messalina’s tits! What a rip! And she wouldn’t have minded at all.
Sheesh. The footnote should start “The one cut part was when…”
And I can’t help but wonder if poor insane cruel corrupted victimized Drusilla was in Joss Whedon’s mind when he named the evil insane vampire Drusilla in BUFFY. She was supposed to be a middle-class English Catholic girl and surely would not have been given that name normally.
I loved the whole thing. One part I thought was neat was when the woman (I haven’t seen it for over a year, so I forget who) was executed by decapitation, and it showed her vision (literally) spin. Gruesome, but entertaining.