Books and Media

I Claudius

During this lockdown, it has been rather hard to find something interesting to watch. After the first couple of weeks, streaming sites like Netflix’s seemed to only release old movies I have already seen and enjoyed. TV became dull and I finished all the books I wanted to read. Although new historical dramas like Bridgeton and The Great, none of these programmes hit the spot. Then I stumbled onto something new, or rather something old, a BBC TV series on a book by Robert Graves, I Claudius.

It was amazing, and I am not overreacting. The TV show follows Claudius as he writes an autobiography. It feels like the mist of time was lifted and we were watching real people. The work was incredibly historically accurate. Normally I will talk all the way through history shows about which facts they missed or got wrong, it wasn’t needed at all in this series.
Not only was the series itself intriguing, following the twisted tale of the betrayals and murder that plagued the Julio-Claudio line. Looking specifically looks at the reigns of the first four emperors of the family, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and our narrator Claudius. The author’s inspiration adds to the hair-raising scene at the beginning. Graves states that Claudius came to him in a dream begging him to write his story. And the first line in the series, where Claudius is breaking the fourth wall, creates this feeling that you are actually in the room with him.

The show was aired in the ’70s however for me it held up to the test of time. Not only, like I said before the research and facts still hold true. moreover, I was impressed that Graves got his information from Roman Historians such as Plutarch, Suetonius and Tacitus. But the acting was terrific and drew you into the plot. Not only that the pacing of the whole show allows dramatic build-up to the next strange twist.

I would highly recommend anyone who likes history dramas that are close to actual events that took place at the time to give this show a go. It is really worth it.