The BBC/PBS have shown many great series through the years, but this has to be one of the best. The late Sir John Hurt and Sir Derek Jacoby were fabulous.
Probably my favourite scene from the books... and the series too. My other favourite is when Claudius stops stuttering and twitching in front of Livia revealing to her has been faking it for some time.
Just watching this clip, (why is I Claudius being churned up now?) and I agree. I was quite young and confused by Sian Phillips double role, but yes, when she and Derek Jacobi are sparring and you realise that Claudius has dropped his guard. I think there were a fair few budding writers taking notes.
It isn't easy to cure a stammer. But I know it can be done by turning a switch in the brain. The stuttering is something that the person (who has it) concentrates on.. That is why the person stutters. He knows he has it. Therefore he has it. It's like in the King's speech. When the focus is pulled away, then it starts to go away... Of course it isn't easy, but it can be done. Claudius had great intelligence and he thought his stutter determined his value i.e. he was an idiot and nobody listened to what he SAID... And being an idiot and at least insecure: That is only his own thought pattern. IF someone in his youth teases about it, the stammer stays. And then somebody else teases about it stays even more.. WHY am I saying all this? Cause I cured it myself. It is ALL in the mind...just realise it (I'm not here to teach courses; this is my own secret. Learn from this and it is all yours).
The books I read first when I was 20, immediately after the series had aired here in New Zealand * I loved them, I was always a reader. Then I read them again, about 20 years ago . . . and I had to laugh, 20 year old me, who knew so little about life, how LITTLE I actually understood the first time I read them. * alas, alack, tigger is old, he grows old.
@@ZoolGatekeeper In the books, it makes it clear that he didn't have a stammer as an adult, really. He PRETENDED it all his life, and when he was little, the stammer he did have was 90% fear of his relatives.
Well put.When they made it the writer Jack Pulman and the actors had trouble at first with their parts.Then Pulman revealed that by thinking of the family as a Mafia family he got it right!The actors followed suit.
One of the nice things I've noticed is the scholarly opinions of the real man widening so he is no longer just seen as the tool of his freedman and wives.Mind you Messalina is one of my favourite characters in the books and series also.
