Sir Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi star in "Vicious," also starring Frances de la Tour.
McKellen and Jacobi play, for want of a better term, two old queens, and de la Tour plays their upstairs neighbor Violet. McKellen's character, Freddie, was an actor with so-so success who talks about his fan mail ("You only had one fan," Stuart (Jacobi) reminds him. "Yes, but he wrote a lot of letters," Freddie says.) In the episode I saw, the two were mourning, if that's the right word, the death of an old friend who apparently had been the lover of Freddie at one time, though he also managed to have two wives and six children. "Wasn't there a wife?" Penelope (Marcia Warren) asks. "Oh, yes," Stuart says, "but that was only for 19 years." Basically, it's the two guys throwing insults at one another and having a bad reaction when someone opens the curtains and lets in the light. The one-liners for the most part are very funny, delivered by two great actors who are obviously enjoying themselves camping it up.
I have to say I found it quite enjoyable, funny, and on a higher level than some of the comedies on TV today.
McKellen and Jacobi play, for want of a better term, two old queens, and de la Tour plays their upstairs neighbor Violet. McKellen's character, Freddie, was an actor with so-so success who talks about his fan mail ("You only had one fan," Stuart (Jacobi) reminds him. "Yes, but he wrote a lot of letters," Freddie says.) In the episode I saw, the two were mourning, if that's the right word, the death of an old friend who apparently had been the lover of Freddie at one time, though he also managed to have two wives and six children. "Wasn't there a wife?" Penelope (Marcia Warren) asks. "Oh, yes," Stuart says, "but that was only for 19 years." Basically, it's the two guys throwing insults at one another and having a bad reaction when someone opens the curtains and lets in the light. The one-liners for the most part are very funny, delivered by two great actors who are obviously enjoying themselves camping it up.
I have to say I found it quite enjoyable, funny, and on a higher level than some of the comedies on TV today.