The Cleopatras is a 1983 BBC Television historical drama serial created and written by Philip Mackie. Set in Ancient Egypt during the latter part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the eight-part series follows the lives of a series of queens belonging to the Ptolemaic Dynasty of ancient Egypt, culminating in its final active ruler Cleopatra VII. Intended to be the I, Claudius of the 1980s, The Cleopatras met with a decidedly negative critical reaction, and was regarded and portrayed as a gaudy farce. It also produced a number of complaints due to scenes of nudity.
DirectorJohn Frankau
WriterPhilip Mackie
145 BC
Jan 19, 1983
Ptolemy VIII, known as Pot Belly, takes control. A vengeful mother has the support of the mob - and persuades Rome she can be just as good a friend as Potbelly. In revenge Pot Belly sends a very special present.
128 BC
Jan 26, 1983
Greek Pharoah Pot Belly shows himself to be one of the few men to better the Cleopatras of his family.
115 BC
Feb 2, 1983
On his deathbed, Pot Belly stages his greatest practical joke -leaving a will gleefully designed to cause mayhem. It works. Chickpea becomes king against Cleopatra's wishes. However, Cleopatra turns the mob against him, leaving her free to invite her favourite son, Alexander, to share the throne with her. She gets more than she bargained for.
100 BC
Feb 9, 1983
Berenike plots to get rid of her drunken husband Alexander. Chickpea reclaims the throne and Berenike's ambition is realised when he makes her joint monarch. However, his death leaves a dangerous power vacuum - and Rome is now taking a more than friendly interest.
80 BC
Feb 16, 1983
For all his eccentricity, Fluter sees clearly that Rome is the true source of all power, and he sets off on an extended royal visit, dispensing large sums of money to bribe both Caesar and the Senate to back him. The Egyptians, furious at this subservience, depose him in his absence and make his wife, Cleopatra Tryphaena, and his daughter, Berenike, joint monarchs. But the illegitimate Fluter has enough Ptolemy blood not to let go easily.
51 BC
Feb 23, 1983
The youngest and most notorious of the Cleopatras, now 18, becomes joint ruler with her brother Ptolemy. Civil war breaks out. It is only the arrival of Julius Caesar that makes a solution possible. Cleopatra and Caesar become lovers. She believes she has found the man to help her realise her ambition to rule the world.
46 BC
Mar 2, 1982
Cleopatra gives birth to Julius Caesar's son and takes him to republican Rome to persuade Caesar to declare himself King - with her son as heir.
35 BC
Mar 9, 1982
Mark Anthony's insatiable passion for Cleopatra saps his military judgement.
CinemaSerf
@Geronimo1967
Written by Philip Mackie, who also penned "The Caesars" (1968), I recall the furore at the time here in the UK when the BBC started showing "The Cleopatras". This eight-parter was accused of being a seedy, tawdry - and just about everything else pejorative - depiction of the Ptolomeic court in Alexandria that saw a multitude of women called Cleopatra rule Egypt. What those criticisms failed to acknowledge is that this is pretty much exactly how these depraved, incestuous individuals did behave. Mothers married sons, fathers their daughters - indeed it would have been quite possible for your mum, your brother and your camel all to have been the same creature... What is bad about this, though, is the casting - Richard Griffiths as "Pot Belly" and Graham Crowden as narrator "Theodotus" are dreadfully miscast from the outset, and along the line we find similarly misfiring contributions from Robert Hardy ("Caesar") and a dreadfully dry Patrick Troughton ("Sextus"). The visual effects - sliding/mixing VT and virtually no outdoor photography make the staging look cheap and static; and the plethora of indistinguishable actresses portraying the title role give us very little by way of a glimpse into their devious, despotic and debauched existence. Sadly, the thing just hasn't aged at all well - and for such a fascinatingly rich seam of stories and characters, this series falls well short of competent.
