- The Borgias
"The Borgias" is a
British television drama serial produced by theBBC in1981 .A historical series, "The Borgias" was set in
Italy during the15th century and told the tale ofRodrigo Borgia (played byAdolfo Celi ) - the future PopeAlexander VI - and his family, including his son Cesare (Oliver Cotton ) and daughter Lucrezia (Anne Louise Lambert ).What was intended to be a gripping historical melodrama in the same vein as the previous BBC series, "I, Claudius", soon became an object of utter derision as the series was an outright critical failure. The BBC screened the series at the same time as ITV's lavish "Brideshead Revisited" with critics contrasting the high production values and stellar cast of "Brideshead" with "The Borgias" studio bound production and frequent graphic violence and nudity. The Sicilian-born actor Adolfo Celi is said to have had much difficulty with his lines, and his thickly-accented English was possibly the most derided aspect of the production. It is one of the few failures in the career of
Mark Shivas , its producer.External links
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* [http://www.robinedwards.info/The_Borgia_Fraud.html The Borgia Fraud]
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