The Cleopatras Episode 1

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The Cleopatras was intended to be the I, Claudius of the 80s. 'The Cleopatras' was a far cry from the costume dramas that audiences at that time were used to. Sets appeared to float and they did not create a 'real' horizon beyond or a 'convincing' sky above. Authenticity was sought however. Actors playing nobles had their heads shaved, including some of the female characters. Also, true to the custom of the time, the Egyptian palace's retinue of handmaidens were bare-chested. People at the court were painted different colours according to status, and many of them had decorative stencils made round their collarbones and on the backs of their feet. At the centre of all this was 31-year old actress Michelle Newland who played the final Cleopatra to whom the story is told in flash-back. Newland also played the last Cleopatra's great-grandmother. Six other actresses played Cleo's, but only one, Amanda Boxer went so far as to shave her head. Richard Griffiths played the aptly named 'Pot Belly' among whose catalogue of misdeeds were the murder of his sister's son, marriage to that sister and the subsequent dismemberment of the son they had together. "The Cleopatras," remarked Guy Slater, "didn't take itself seriously. It was a hard-hitting, unsentimental look at a tribe of fairly repellent people.

Episodes:
1. 145 BC - Pharoah Pot Belly takes control - but divorces his sister Cleopatra to marry her daughter Cleopatra, although he meant to marry her sister Cleopatra. A vengeful mother has the support of the mob - and persuades Rome she can be just as good a friend as Potbelly. In revenge Potbelly sends a very special present.
2. 128BC - Greek Pharoah Pot Belly schemes to be less scheming - and shows himself to be one of the few men to better the Cleopatras of his family.
3. 115BC - Greek Pharoah Pot Belly decides he is going to die - and so has a last laugh changing the succession. Unusually both his sons are in love-marriages - but with the new succession that will have to be changed. Mother (Cleopatra) and the three daughters (Cleopatra, Cleopatra and Cleopatra) have other ideas.
4. 100 BC - The Ptolemy version of monarchical chairs continues as 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.
5. 80 BC - 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.
6. 51 BC - 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. Caesar and Cleopatra become lovers. She believes that she has found the man to help her realise her ambition to rule the world.
7. 46 BC - Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar's son and takes him to republican Rome to persuade Caesar to declare himself King- with her son as heir. She is only defeated by Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March. She returns swiftly to Egypt, ruthlessly securing her position there. When casting around for the next man most likely to make her queen of the world, her eyes settle on a very successful general named Mark Anthony.
8. 35 BC - Mark Anthony's insatiable passion for Cleopatra saps his military judgement. Living only for pleasure, his downfall seems inevitable. But Cleopatra is a supreme fighter.

The Cleopatras
Cleopatra III/Cleopatra VII Michelle Newell
Cleopatra II Elizabeth Shepherd
Cleopatra Thea Caroline Mortimer
Cleopatra Selene Prue Clarke
Cleopatra IV Sue Holderness
Cleopatra Berenike Pauline Moran
Cleopatra Tryphaena Amanda Boxer

Other characters
Ptolemy Graham Seed
PotBelly Richard Griffiths
Ptolemy XIV Lauren Beales
Ptolemy XIV Daniel Beales
Alexander Zebinas Donald MacIver
Eupator Gary Carp
Alexander Ian McNeice
Chickpea David Horovitch
Flautist Adam Bareham
Arsinoe Francesca Gonshaw
Julius Caesar Robert Hardy
Mark Antony Christopher Neame
Demetrius Stephen Greif
Grypus James Aubrey
Octavia Karen Archer
Irene Lois Baxter
Octavian Rupert Frazer
Posidonius Frank Gatliff
Seleucus Nicholas Geake
Lucullus Donald Pickering
Memphites Sadik Soussi
Sextus Patrick Troughton
Gabinius Moray Watson

Category:

Entertainment

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• The
• Cleopatras
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[RICKANDDIANNE]

this is very well set and dressed, thankyou.

[JBHC2011]

the Egyptian sounds like more of a London boy

[QuestionRenee]

lmao "That bitch!"

[sidious36]

please please upload the rest! this is amazing!