Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Big Finish Reviews+ Cicero Series 1 by Tony J Fyler



Is Ciceronem mira, says Tony. With a bit of help from Google Translate and a Latin option.

When the first Cicero story, Though Scoundrels Are Discovered, was made, it was my pick for ‘release of the year’ from Big Finish – a Roman ‘detective’ story, with Marcus Tullius Cicero (lawyer, lawmaker and orator whose words continue to echo in our understanding of justice, power and due process today, played here by Samuel Barnett) and his brother Quintus Tullius Cicero (George Naylor) treading carefully through the pre-Imperial Roman world, where to cross the Dictator, Sulla and his friends was a terminally bad career move. It was Roman crime fiction with a superstar lead and a cast of nasties, that played like something between Mickey Spillane and John Grisham, with a final oration that sang with an erudition that seems somehow alien today, but which fans of President Obama, or hell, even fans of The West Wing, would recognise as having that ‘fire up the spine’ tingle that exalts us to be better than our base instincts. It was absolutely firecracker stuff from writer David Llewellyn.

If you’re going to make a whole series out of Cicero though, while it would be tempting to go the straightforward route of ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ and simply involve him in a sequence of cases without changing or evolving the character or his situation, Spillane-style, if you’re going to hold a modern audience’s attention, you have to focus on the people, the personalities, the power and the consequences of your actions. If you’re going to have a central character who, while pompous, is an archetypal ‘man of principle in a dirty world,’ you have to show what those principles cost, to him and those around him, otherwise we don’t buy in to the dirt and the danger.

Happily, Llewellyn is no newbie at this kind of thing, and neither is he any kind of slouch. Cicero, Series 1, does exactly what we’ve said it does – it focuses on the people in Cicero’s life, and the consequences of the young, upstanding lawyer being quite so young and upstanding in a world run by a Dictator (we use the capital advisedly, as it was an official title, that would eventually be overwhelmed by a line of Caesars).

In this series, we start off with that pilot episode, which established the Brothers Cicero – Quintus rather more disreputable and fun, while having an excellent ear for language and drilling his elder brother on making his words count in ‘court,’ and Marcus being somewhat priggish and overcautious of his dignity, but having those principles and that work ethic for which we can still admire him.

Moving us forward from that taster though, Llewellyn shows us Marcus, now suddenly a name to watch, choosing his next case, and coming up against a friend of Sulla’s, the altogether plausible senator, Claudius Decimus Arenius (played by Ben Arogundade with a fabulously massive voice, rich in intonation). While Quintus wants him to take a case of hedge-war between neighbours (one of whom is promising to pay – in actual, useable money!), Marcus finds a case of potential fraud in the slave trade, that means worming his way into the affairs of a political mover and shaker. That brings consequences to the whole Cicero family – and yes, there’s a whole Cicero family! Across the course of the series, we meet the senior Ciceros, Marcus Tullius gets a wife, Terentia (played with a glorious line in placidity laced with intellectual fire by Laura Riseborough), and we meet the in-laws too, including her father, Terentius, played by Jon Culshaw. Along the way, there are slave stories, accusations of impropriety with a Vestal Virgin, prostitution, mutilation, conniving with powerful figures – Sulla himself makes some appearances in Series 1, voiced by the note-perfect Paul ‘Treacle Tonsils’ Clayton, and an eventual victory that is at best mixed with disappointment and regret. It all reveals a world tainted with a spreading corruption, where the word of the Dictator creates its own reality, and if you happen to be a fact that doesn’t fit with that reality, you can be ironed out. With extreme prejudice, if necessary.

Which obviously bears no resemblance to our own world today. Not even a little bit. Nope, not a jot.

But besides the stinging, visceral picture of a world falling off from even the idea of the virtues it previously espoused, there’s also the progress of a brotherly relationship between the Cicero Boys that’s pressured by expectations from outside, by family loyalties and position. There’s a marriage which while still relatively fresh is threatened by a figure from Cicero’s past. There are dear friendships renewed, only to reveal how much has changed since they were last a vigorous bond. And ultimately, in a sequence which might be said to be just sliiiightly self-indulgent but is easily forgiven, there’s a choice for Marcus Tullius – whether to be, beyond a shred of doubt, properly, truly happy in his life, but to be forgotten shortly after his death, or to be prone to attack, to misery, to the plots of devious, deadly foes, and have his name spoken, revered and respected for a thousand generations. It’s a moment even younger listeners will appreciate, because it’s the central dilemma of the Harry Potter series – to do what is easy, or to do what is right. Llewellyn doesn’t overly sentimentalise that dilemma though; he clearly shows us that in this case to do what’s ‘right’ also flatters Cicero’s vanity and his view of his own potential. Still though, the point of choosing between an easy, pleasure-filled life and one fraught with difficulty and danger is clearly made.

Cicero, Series 1 is rich and gritty and rough and cultured and corrupt and principled and violent and complicated and brilliant and above all, emotionally true. It’s everything life could be under Sulla, the Dictator. It’s also five and a half hours of continuous drama (there are six episodes in Series 1, each around the 55-minute mark), created by a single writer as a single release. That means the chances of a second series probably depend on the mind and the calendar of David Llewellyn. Get Series 1 right now, and immerse yourself in Cicero’s world. Then join me in a plea for Cicero, Series 2, sooner rather than later.

We all need Cicero in our lives. This version of the great man, written by Llewellyn, is purpose-built to hold a mirror up to our own world, and give us a chance to believe that even when all is going to hell, we still have an individual choice to make, to be part of the problem or to stand against it, to be comfortable or to count, to do what’s easy, or to do what’s right.
Plus, it’s cracking audio drama to boot! Go. Go now – get Cicero, Series 1 in your lugholes!

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