Season 1 • Episode 4
LatestPeter the Great is a 1986 NBC television mini-series starring Maximilian Schell as Russian emperor Peter the Great, and based on the biography by Robert K. Massie. It won three Primetime Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Miniseries.
Acting
Redgrave and Schell devouring every scene like it's their last meal.
Production
Soviet-era locations give authentic 17th-century Moscow grandeur.
Costume
Wigs so tall they need their own credit line.
Maximilian Schell
Peter the Great
Vanessa Redgrave
Sophia
Omar Sharif
Prince Feodor Romodanovsky
Trevor Howard
Sir Isaac Newton
Laurence Olivier
King William III of Orange
Helmut Griem
Alexander Menshikov
Jan Niklas
Young Peter the Great
Elke Sommer
Charlotte
Renée Soutendijk
Anna Mons
Ursula Andress
Athalie
Mel Ferrer
Frederick
Hanna Schygulla
Catherine Skevronskaya
Mike Gwilym
Shafirov
Günther Maria Halmer
Count Tolstoy
Olegar Fedoro
Boyar Lopukhin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Laurence Olivier's final television role—he filmed his scenes while seriously ill, essentially dying on camera as a king.
Shot in then-Soviet Russia during Gorbachev's glasnost, making it one of the first US-Soviet co-productions with real Kremlin access.
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Reactions from the web
As far as I'm concerned, this gets 10/10. Peter is a strong and effective leader, and his staff is efficient. But even they can't be everywhere at once. And they are dealing with outside threats and treason within his own family.
@eternalhalloween1 1
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