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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