I, Claudius 5

This miniseries from '76 is a stone classic, I saw it for the first time about 3 months ago. Whoever played the wicked and conniving Livia was perfect. At first, I wasn't impressed by Brian Blessed, who resembles Fred Flintstone a lot more than he does Augustus, but he won me over with his humor. Derek Jacobi was great as the title character, though his portrayal made the emperor far more sympathetic than he historically was, John Hurt played Caligula memorably, and Patrick Stewart was fine as Sejanus. The part where Claudius and two others were kept waiting in fear of their lives until Caligula came out in drag and started singing was hilarious. There may have been a few historical inaccuracies here and there, but this adaptation of the Robert Graves work had me hooked after 10 minutes. One of the best mini-series ever. It's funny, very well acted, and always engrossing.