Do you remember the very first British TV show you ever watched? I don’t. The earliest I can recall is when I was in junior high school. That was quite a number of years ago, in the pre-cable age when broadcast programming was all there was to watch on TV.
It was on a public television station — WETA-TV — that I watched what I believe was one of my first British TV shows: I, Claudius. It’s based on the novels by Robert Graves, and watching the program was an assignment for my ninth-grade advanced English and History classes, which were taught as a combined class. (As an aside, this 2-in-1 class was one of the best educational experiences I have ever had.)
Not only did I learn a lot from watching I, Claudius, I was utterly mesmerized by it. Pretty much everything about it was (and still is) exceptional, from the plot lines to the cast, which includes Derek Jacobi (Cadfael) as Claudius, John Hurt (An Englishman in New York) as Caligula, Brian Blessed (King Lear) as Augustus, Sian Phillips (Dune) as Livia, and Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Sejanus.
It’s no wonder that Time Magazine recognized I, Claudius as one of the “100 Best TV Shows of All Time” in 2007. And in 2000, the program came in 12th on the British Film Institute’s list of “100 Greatest British Television Programmes.”
On July 30, Acorn TV will begin streaming I, Claudius. The first episode is available for free. Watching the remaining eleven episodes requires that you have an Acorn TV subscription, which costs $25/year. This gives you access to Acorn’s other streaming content, too, which currently includes episodes from George Gently, The Last Detective, and Single-Handed, three of my favorite British TV shows.
If you haven’t seen I, Claudius, I urge you to watch it, especially if you’re a fan of ancient or Roman history, period drama, or any of the actors in the cast. And if you have seen it (and enjoyed it), then by all means, watch it again. Because it is simply brilliant.
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