The Cleopatras

[Methanoid]

I can barely find 2 or 3 mentions of this BBC show on the web.

ISTR it wasnt that bad, although far too many bare breasts (is that a bad thing?)...

Does anyone know if it exists on VHS anywhere???

[Andy Henderson]

BBC Viewing tape?

[Methanoid]

I know I'm gonna get panned but.. "Whats that?"

[Andy]

Guest-Methanoid said:

Does anyone know if it exists on VHS anywhere???

I'm sure it's in the archives. I, too, am looking for this.

[Brian D not logged in]

....and we're definitely not talking about The Borgias....? I can't remember The Cleopatras at all. When was it on tv?

[Stephen Griffiths]

1983

[Mark Ward]

The Cleopatras was an 8 part series transmitted in January/February 1983 on BBC2. It was written by the late and very great Philip Mackie as a belated companion piece to his brilliant Granada 1968 series The Caesars. That show covered the same sort of ground as I Claudius (the reigns of the emperors Augustus to the accession of Claudius). The Cleopatras was basically how the Roman Empire took over Egypt, and this took place due to the power struggles of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the successors of Alexander The Great who conquered Egypt.

All the kings were called Ptolemy and all their queens (usually their sisters or children), Cleopatra. To identify each Ptolemy, they were given nicknames by the ancient writers, which Mackie used as source material. The series starts with Ptolemy Potbelly (the excellent Richard Griffiths) engaged in civil war with his wife played by Elizabeth Shepherd (famous for not getting the role of Mrs Peel in 1964). The series then covers the next 70 years until Antony and Cleopatra and the final takeover by Octavian in 30 BC.

The cast was incredible - Christopher Neame (Antony) Robert Hardy (Caesar), with Patrick Troughton playing a cameo role. Michelle Newell played the famous Cleo who courted both Caesar and Mark Anthony.

The problem with the reviewers stems I think from its structure and style. It was shot using the Quantel video techniques available in 1983 complete with kaleidoscopic effects - the screen would fold over itself or split into segments and so on. The general effect of all this was to make a historical drama look like Top Of The Pops, which upset people who like their dramas stiff and straight. The end result would not have looked out of place on the page of a comic strip.

Secondly, it was very irreverent both in use of dialogue and acting, and this too wasn't popular. At one point, for example, Potbelly says something like "I'm fed up being Potbelly The Monster - I'm going to be Potbelly the Beneficent".

The sets were deliberately stagey, minimal and with subdued lighting, leading to critics comparing it to Dr Who or Blakes 7 rather than I Claudius.

Thirdly, there were a lot of breasts and naughty bits about so some reviewers compared it to a Hugh Hefner soft porn production.

Fourthly, it was extremely nasty - Potbelly cuts up his own son and sends the pieces giftwrapped as a birthday present to his wife. In another scene, a man is quite literally torn apart by the Alexandrian mob.

Generally, it was a very original, very entertaining series, and far more authentic to history than (eg) I Claudius which reviewers tended to forget was fiction not fact. Any viewer would probably have trouble remembering the characters and sometimes (particularly midway) the style was so OTT it began to grate. The early episodes were the best, those involving Potbelly and the equally vicious Syrian royal family, but the whole show was very different to the usual historical dramas; however, this flop followed on from the (equally unfairly lambasted) The Borgias and I think the BBC got cold feet over trying to do something as unique again. It was never repeated.

John Frankau produced the series and Mackie himself wrote a paperback based on his scripts. The fantastic music was by Nic Bicat.