List of I, Claudius episodes

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I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC TV adaptation of Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it became one of the BBC’s most successful drama serials and helped launch the careers of actors like Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, and John Hurt. In Britain the series was shown in 12 parts, with the opening episode titled A Touch of Murder as a double-length premiere. In the United States, Masterpiece Theatre aired 13 episodes, with some linking scenes added at the end of A Touch of Murder and the start of Family Affairs.

Set in Rome in AD 37–38, the story begins after Tiberius’s death, smothered with Caligula’s help. Caligula and Tiberius’s grandson Gemellus become joint heirs, while Claudius, a lifelong friend, is chosen as Caligula’s co-consul. Caligula soon shows signs of mental instability and proclaims himself to be Zeus. Claudius hopes the Senate will depose him and restore the Republic, but the Senate accepts Caligula’s divine claims. Caligula grows increasingly cruel: a Senator who warned Macro about Caligula’s condition is forced to commit suicide; Gemellus is killed; Claudius is removed as consul; and Caligula marries his sister Drusilla, declaring her a goddess. Antonia, disgusted by the state of Rome, commits suicide. In a shocking moment, Caligula even tries to imitate the birth of Athena by cutting his unborn child from Drusilla’s belly and eating it.