I recently came across this magnificent miniseries. Forget about big budgets, forget about spectacular effects and lavish action scenes, this is a simple production yet at the same time a masterclass in how TV can be done. Despite its simplicity, the acting and writing blew me away, combined with a captivating story, how much more is there to say? Not often does one encounter a masterpiece such as this, this truly is one of the finest TV productions!

History? Only the imperial machinations around the throne. Drama? Plotting and counter-plotting spoken around a room. Acting? It's only great if you're impressed by good posture and enunciation. (I was impressed by this Livia, her steely determinism)No, history for me to be effective in a lasting sense has to surround the lived atmosphere. This is stagebound artifice around the supposed events. There's no life here, only staging about staging. It's a Roman Days of Our Lives with the only lofty difference that the actors impersonate historical persons and the same tempestuous games about power are enacted in costume and sandals.

This is simply an amazing show. The cinematography is incredible and the intrigue is great. A show that depicts a both dark and bright era of the Roman Empire when the Roman Republic has become something of the past yet still held in many people's hearts. The show sets the tone early when with it's mixture of sadness, dark humor, violence, joy, anger, and intrigue. One of the best drama of it's time with characters from our pages of history. The acting is fantastic and the dialogue is simply surreal and fascinating.Derek Jacobi and the rest of the cast simply out do themselves in this great show with their top quality acting I rarely see. The make up and the sets are incredibly well done despite it's time. I truly recommend this show to fans of Roman history and fans of suspenseful shows with a lot of intrigue within the life of the Imperial Roman families.

"I, Claudius" was the most tedious TV series of my childhood. It promised a lot, and delivered nothing, to satisfy my childhood expectations. No land battles, no naval clashes, no chariot races, not even a sword fight, for Mars' sake! In fact, you didn't even get to see the sky! It was a show in which people dressed like Romans moved about indoors, talked, laughed, sometimes screamed and sometimes got killed in dramatic scenes that lasted only 5 to 10 seconds, and then moved and talked more. Yet, this BBC production, set in the early decades of Roman Empire, had my parents, elder siblings and our relatives and neighbours, most of whom were from Kurdish country-side, glued to their television sets week after week, and talking about the characters and plot twists day after day.For the next thirty years, each time I heard about "I, Claudius", I was torn between the almost traumatic claustrophobia that the series left on my memory and the ever growing curiosity to find out the story that enthralled my childhood elders. In the last fifteen years, I hired "I, Claudius" from the video store twice, and returned them after watching only the first 15 minutes, still unimpressed.Then, it happened. Three weeks ago, bereft of choice in the video store, I again hired the DVDs, promising myself that I'd watch no less than the first hour, no matter what. Well, I ended up watching the 650 minute saga three times, back to back in nine days. I watched nothing else on TV for nine days; no news, no sport, no music clip. It was "I, Claudius" and me; I was happy. I even signed up to IMDb to write about it.The series showcases the mother of all internal family conflicts. The Roman Empire features like a family business that the dynasty is quarreling over. If you are not a 'fool' like Claudius, you are either killed or banished. Power kills, and absolute power... well, you know what it does. By the time young Marcellus stands up in the Arena and says "Let the games begin!" (at around 30-minute mark), you know you'll be glued to the TV for a long time, and say, "What a story!" at the end.This is TV at its best. The story, the script, acting, direction, camera angles, sets, costumes, they are all flawless. Close up shots of the faces are unmatched except perhaps by those in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. The series is teeming with memorable quotes (Augustus to an orator: "What gifts you Greeks have"; Tiberius about her mother Livia: "They say a snake bit her once and died"; Tiberius' astrologer: "Excellent! I knew it. It's all here. The chart doesn't lie." Claudius to Caligula: "You set the standard of sanity for the whole world"). There are many laugh-out-loud scenes in the series. Augustus Caesar walking before and questioning an endless line of men that has slept with his daughter is unforgettable. Claudius saluting the crowd in the arena and sitting in Caesar's chair is a calculated 'foolishness', yet still hilarious. Augustus' speech to Rome's bachelors, Messelina's competition with a prostitute, Claudius and his ordeal with his very tall wife, and many many others. In fact, there were many more comic scenes than tragic ones.It is impossible to praise individual performances. It is as though just under the characters' competition for supremacy in the Roman Empire, there is another, an invisible competition among the actors to win the hearts of the audience as the best character performer. And just the way Claudius is pulled behind a curtain and declared an emperor against his will, one feels like pulling out Derek Jacobi from the pack and declare him the best actor. Just like Claudius understates his intelligence, Jacobi understates his presence in the company of others, giving them the floor with minimum interference. He never seeks to dominate the screen until he's chosen as the Caesar. He has plenty of screen time by himself as the narrator.Only one downside. A technical one. The sound in the DVD recording was inconsistent, sometimes loud sometimes low volume.Do yourself a favour and watch "I, Claudius". You won't regret it. 10/10