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Rhodes

Rhodes is a 10 hour serial made on a £10 million budget for the BBC and commenced its 8 part broadcast on 15th September 1996, 8.30pm on BBC1.

This epic serial charts the career of Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist who went to Central Africa at 17 years old expecting to live for only 6 months and by the time he was 30 years old was the wealthest man in the Western world, founding the de Beers diamond empire and with another fortune in gold. He is the man behind the Oxford University Rhodes scholars (a certain Mr. Clinton was one of these) and founded and gave his name to Rhodesia. He died rather young (49) of the weak heart that he  expected would kill him in his teens.

Mind you, he wasn't a terrible nice bloke and has been rather forgotten in history now that we are all so PC. He was the man responsible for apartheid and had rather unfortunate ideas about white supremacy. He seized (stole?) the natural wealth of South Africa and was really only interested in expanding the British Empire. But then again he was just a man of his era and if he hadn't done it someone else would have.
Dr Leander Starr Jameson was the brilliant Scottish surgeon-turned-soldier who became his top henchman and the right-hand man who did his dirty work for him. He lead a pioneer army into victorious battle against the Matabele king, Lobengula, though in the end overstretched himself with a disasterous attack on the Boers in Johannesburg.

The serial stars Martin Shaw (Doyle in "The Professionals") as Rhodes and Neil as Jameson. The thing was shot in South Africa in the latter months of 1995. The part gave Neil the opportunity to do a costume drama and ride around on horses (a new skill he acquired on location) sporting a dustcoat and a huge moustache. Jameson was a short balding Zulu-speaking Scot, but at least in this version we are spared the sight of Neil in a `bald' wig, though the facial hair is a bit disturbing.

Women do not feature highly in the Rhodes story (he was said to be homosexual or asexual) and this must be the only part that hasn't required Neil to get his kit off. The only woman in the cast is Francis Barber, an ex-lover of Neils. They are said to have achieved the impossible by working together successfully and amicably. Probably because they don't share any scenes and met on set rarely.

Spin Off Merchandise

There are a number of spin off books from the series: