Fall of Eagles picspam
4 Jul 2012 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespirit... And talking of old screencaps and things, I've had this lurking on my LJ since February. Which illustrates that hopefully Tumblr will be better for sharing random old pics, I think. Not that I won't still do picspams of David Collings things here when I feel like it, of course.
Anyway, it was lurking, because I kept meaning to add some more, but I think I may as well post it rather than wait till it's even more out of date.
(I have a sort of backlog of things to work through here; I may post again before the day is out.)
Picspam from the BBC's 1974 historical epic about the fall of three European monarchies from 1848-1918. The cast list is every bit as epic as the premise, but included in this picspam: Diane Keen, Gemma Jones, Denis Lill, Curt Jurgens, Charles Kay, Jan Francis, David Collings, Patrick Stewart & more.
FALL OF EAGLES (1974)
Any comments refer to how this is played out as a drama rather than as actual historical events. I have not read up to check, although I'd be optimistic about it being fairly accurate overall.
Also, the source material is badly in need of restoring, so forgive my caps being shaky in some places - I've done my best. (BBC, so much pretty, so badly degraded.)
Episode 1: Death Waltz
(1848-1860s, Austria-Hungary)
Location filming, interesting angles...
Diane Keen, in a gorgeous blue early 1850s ball gown.
As well as having a narrator (used more in some episodes than others), the series made a lot of use of contemporary material to bridge scenes and portray battles and big events.
A fairy-tale wedding goes almost immediately wrong:
Donald Gee as Elisabeth's mentor and former tutor, who happens to be a Hungarian patriot. The guy next to him is making a brave stab at being the person with the most epic fake hair in episode 1.
The rigid autocracy is nearly enough to kill an idealistic girl...
...but she rallies.
(Pretty dress.)
Episode 2: The English Princess
(1868-1880s, Prussia)
Gemma Jones was amazing, and also simultaneously looked both lovely and as if she really was Queen Victoria's daughter. Thus I may screencap her a lot, but she is the central character in this episode anyway.
Gemma Jones, as Princess Vicky.
Did I mention the pretty?
Denis Lill as the Crown Prince Fritz. (His hair is definitely fake.)
Their wedding is contrasted with Elisabeth and Franz's from Ep1 - Fritz and Vicky are much more a meeting of equals.
(Dress pic.)
Curt Jurgens as Bismarck.
Vicky is punished by not being allowed to go to her father's funeral.
You can see how I could tell the hair was fake? Now there's more of it. Later on there will be even more. (Denis Lill wins Most Epic Fake Hair Award for this serial.)
Okay, and Prussian cabinet meetings? The thing to do, especially if you are v important and powerful, is to cry (this happens more than once in eps 2 & 3):
Bismarck not only cries; he then follows it up with trying to throw himself out the window.
Then the Kaiser cries because his Chancellor cried and tried to throw himself out the window. Fritz doesn't cry and have tantrums; thus he will never get to be a proper Prussian monarch.
All Vicky's efforts result in the two of them becoming virtual prisoners in their home, with their eldest son spending most of his time with his grandfather and Bismarck.
Episode Five: The Last Tsar
Charles Kay as Nicholas was really the main person in this, but that doesn't stop me paying more attention to certain other people who happened to be in it. It is now 1894, in Russia.
"Stuff is wrong in Russia! Nothing moves! Nothing changes!... You're not listening to me, are you?" (David Collings and Freddie Jones as Milyukov and Witte.)
Witte is not bothered. Milyukov is.
There is someone new in town.
He is here to eat pancakes and criticise other people's efforts. Sort of. (It is Patrick Stewart, as Lenin, but you could see that, I'm sure.) With Lynn Farleigh.
Meanwhile, some people are having fun. (Or actually not; I couldn't cap it but there was a contemporary montage-nightmare concerning Nicholas's grandfather's death.)
But then he is permitted to marry Alex...
And therefore must give up pretty ballerinas.
Said pretty ballerina, played by Jan Francis.
"There is STILL stuff wrong with Russia!"
"And, have you seen this? There's this mysterious new radical writer in town."
*worries artistically*
Meanwhile, somebody else is also busy...
Witte is convinced enough to try and tell the new Tsar there must be change or there will be revolution. Nicholas refuses to listen.
Nicholas's fiancee Alex (Gail Hunnicutt) confides in her sister (Isla Blair).
And I really did mean to post more - particularly Barry Foster as the Kaiser (his Mills & Boon moment with Tsar in Ep7 is quite something), the amazing end sequence of ep 12, where Lenin returns from exile (aka Everybody Wants to Hug Patrick Stewart), surprise Christopher Timothy, Michael Gough and probably other things. At least I gave you Colin Baker elsewhere. I'll put them on Tumblr. ;-p
Anyway, it was lurking, because I kept meaning to add some more, but I think I may as well post it rather than wait till it's even more out of date.
(I have a sort of backlog of things to work through here; I may post again before the day is out.)
Picspam from the BBC's 1974 historical epic about the fall of three European monarchies from 1848-1918. The cast list is every bit as epic as the premise, but included in this picspam: Diane Keen, Gemma Jones, Denis Lill, Curt Jurgens, Charles Kay, Jan Francis, David Collings, Patrick Stewart & more.
FALL OF EAGLES (1974)
Any comments refer to how this is played out as a drama rather than as actual historical events. I have not read up to check, although I'd be optimistic about it being fairly accurate overall.
Also, the source material is badly in need of restoring, so forgive my caps being shaky in some places - I've done my best. (BBC, so much pretty, so badly degraded.)
Episode 1: Death Waltz
(1848-1860s, Austria-Hungary)
Location filming, interesting angles...
Diane Keen, in a gorgeous blue early 1850s ball gown.
As well as having a narrator (used more in some episodes than others), the series made a lot of use of contemporary material to bridge scenes and portray battles and big events.
A fairy-tale wedding goes almost immediately wrong:
Donald Gee as Elisabeth's mentor and former tutor, who happens to be a Hungarian patriot. The guy next to him is making a brave stab at being the person with the most epic fake hair in episode 1.
The rigid autocracy is nearly enough to kill an idealistic girl...
...but she rallies.
(Pretty dress.)
Episode 2: The English Princess
(1868-1880s, Prussia)
Gemma Jones was amazing, and also simultaneously looked both lovely and as if she really was Queen Victoria's daughter. Thus I may screencap her a lot, but she is the central character in this episode anyway.
Gemma Jones, as Princess Vicky.
Did I mention the pretty?
Denis Lill as the Crown Prince Fritz. (His hair is definitely fake.)
Their wedding is contrasted with Elisabeth and Franz's from Ep1 - Fritz and Vicky are much more a meeting of equals.
(Dress pic.)
Curt Jurgens as Bismarck.
Vicky is punished by not being allowed to go to her father's funeral.
You can see how I could tell the hair was fake? Now there's more of it. Later on there will be even more. (Denis Lill wins Most Epic Fake Hair Award for this serial.)
Okay, and Prussian cabinet meetings? The thing to do, especially if you are v important and powerful, is to cry (this happens more than once in eps 2 & 3):
Bismarck not only cries; he then follows it up with trying to throw himself out the window.
Then the Kaiser cries because his Chancellor cried and tried to throw himself out the window. Fritz doesn't cry and have tantrums; thus he will never get to be a proper Prussian monarch.
All Vicky's efforts result in the two of them becoming virtual prisoners in their home, with their eldest son spending most of his time with his grandfather and Bismarck.
Episode Five: The Last Tsar
Charles Kay as Nicholas was really the main person in this, but that doesn't stop me paying more attention to certain other people who happened to be in it. It is now 1894, in Russia.
"Stuff is wrong in Russia! Nothing moves! Nothing changes!... You're not listening to me, are you?" (David Collings and Freddie Jones as Milyukov and Witte.)
Witte is not bothered. Milyukov is.
There is someone new in town.
He is here to eat pancakes and criticise other people's efforts. Sort of. (It is Patrick Stewart, as Lenin, but you could see that, I'm sure.) With Lynn Farleigh.
Meanwhile, some people are having fun. (Or actually not; I couldn't cap it but there was a contemporary montage-nightmare concerning Nicholas's grandfather's death.)
But then he is permitted to marry Alex...
And therefore must give up pretty ballerinas.
Said pretty ballerina, played by Jan Francis.
"There is STILL stuff wrong with Russia!"
"And, have you seen this? There's this mysterious new radical writer in town."
*worries artistically*
Meanwhile, somebody else is also busy...
Witte is convinced enough to try and tell the new Tsar there must be change or there will be revolution. Nicholas refuses to listen.
Nicholas's fiancee Alex (Gail Hunnicutt) confides in her sister (Isla Blair).
And I really did mean to post more - particularly Barry Foster as the Kaiser (his Mills & Boon moment with Tsar in Ep7 is quite something), the amazing end sequence of ep 12, where Lenin returns from exile (aka Everybody Wants to Hug Patrick Stewart), surprise Christopher Timothy, Michael Gough and probably other things. At least I gave you Colin Baker elsewhere. I'll put them on Tumblr. ;-p