The aging Livia begins to look like a witch in a Grimm's fairy tale the moment she sneaks up on Augustus while he's pruning his prize fruit trees, telling Livia that if she ate more fruit, she'd have less wrinkles. He's off to Corsica on a mysterious trip, and she's sure that it's to visit Posthumous. This sets Livia on the most tragic decision that she has yet had to make, and it's some of the best acting in TV history for Sian Phillips as Livia and Brian Blessed as Augustus. "The earth will shake",
George Baker says as Tiberius in his last soft moment of the series, and in watching this over a dozen times, I get chills with that line. Then there's the last minute introduction of Patrick Stewart as Sejanus, sent out to take care of that pesky Posthumous.
Adult enough to truly understand what"s going on, Claudius tries hard to bond with grandmother Livia, but she's filled with hatred towards him and too consumed with her revenge to notice the wool being pulled over her eyes. "Bye bye Claw Claw", she howls at him as he returns to the present, pointing in abject horror at the seat she sat in imperiously years before. The characters of Germanicus and Livilla have brief moments on screen, but it's wisely limited to Livia, Augustus, Tiberius (having a meltdown childishly over the wait of becoming emperor) and Claudius. The scene showing Augustus's descent into immortality is one of the greatest moments in television history.
Adult enough to truly understand what"s going on, Claudius tries hard to bond with grandmother Livia, but she's filled with hatred towards him and too consumed with her revenge to notice the wool being pulled over her eyes. "Bye bye Claw Claw", she howls at him as he returns to the present, pointing in abject horror at the seat she sat in imperiously years before. The characters of Germanicus and Livilla have brief moments on screen, but it's wisely limited to Livia, Augustus, Tiberius (having a meltdown childishly over the wait of becoming emperor) and Claudius. The scene showing Augustus's descent into immortality is one of the greatest moments in television history.