Season 1 • Episode 8
LatestRhodes has to battle against his two greatest enemies - his health, which is failing fast, and Princess Radziwill, who is determined to hound him to the last.
Martin Shaw stars as Cecil Rhodes, the man whose controversial career included the creation of de Beers, the addition of nearly one million square miles to the Britain's African Empire, and had given his name to a country (Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe) larger than most of Europe. Martin Shaw's son plays the younger Rhodes and other cast members include Neil Pearson, Frances Barber and Ken Stott.
Acting
Martin Shaw's mesmerizing descent into obsession
Production
Authentic 1880s South African mining camps
Writing
Unflinching portrait of colonial ambition
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Martin Shaw cast his actual son Joe to play young Rhodes, creating an unsettling visual through-line of inherited ambition.
The real Cecil Rhodes's will established the Rhodes Scholarship; recipients have included Bill Clinton and Malcolm X—a complicated legacy the series deliberately mirrors.
GB
