The Life and Legend of Cecil Rhodes (1996) was an 8-part television co-production between the BBC, CBC (Canada), WGBH (Boston), and SABC (South Africa), with Martin Shaw in the title role as colonial politician-businessman Cecil Rhodes, and his son Joe Shaw playing the young Rhodes in his first onscreen role.
Rhodes, who died in 1902 aged just 48, knew his health was precarious, and this injected a great sense of urgency into his African ambitions. He is portrayed not entirely unsympathetically, but as an aggressive, slightly hysterical and rapacious tycoon (and Cape Parliament MP and Prime Minister), with a strong sense of destiny, and who never lets minor ethical dilemmas like conflict of interest hold him back. He engineers the consolidation of Kimberley diamond mining under the banner of De Beers Consolidated Mines, and sees the monopolistic conglomerate as much more than a commercial enterprise, but as the basis of an African version of the East India Company to further his dream of British control from 'Cape to Cairo'.
Rhodes' (often reluctant) associate, diamond mogul Barney Barnato (a boisterous, scene-stealing performance by Ken Stott), sums up Rhodes' ambitions to annex the future Rhodesia (mineral rights are just the beginning) and deal with the Matabele King, Lobengula (played by South African actor Washington Sixolo);
"…See if I've got this right…His Dusky Majesty signs on the dotted line, up we go and and do a bit of digging; when his back's turned we 'prips' him on the side of the head with a shovel and nicks his bloody country… that about the size of it?..."
Neil Pearson plays Leander Starr Jameson, a highly competent, hardworking yet readily corruptible physician who leads what is in effect Rhodes' private army into the Transvaal Republic (the Jameson Raid) to encourage the foreign miners (uitlanders) to rebel against Paul Kruger, thereby paving the way for British annexation of the Republic (and control of the world's richest goldmines).
Not surprisingly, it all ends in tears and Jameson is captured and then deported from the Transvaal in disgrace. (It didn’t do his political career any harm in the longer term - he subsequently served as PM of the Cape Parliament).
Rhodes' declining years are haunted by Catherine Radziwill, a Polish-Russian princess played with an icy, sinister charm by Frances Barber, who desperately wants her own piece of Rhodes' wealth and power by either marriage or fraud - neither plan is successful. The character helps to tie the story together through flashbacks, and may have been the only way to bring in a strong female protagonist.
European settlers are shown (probably quite accurately) as a mixed bag - some are motivated by a genuine (if perhaps naive) desire to appreciate local culture and improve the lives of the indigenous Africans, while others are deeply racist, on the make, and motivated by greed. Exactly where Rhodes falls in between these two extremes I’m not sure is resolved to anyone's satisfaction.
It was an ambitious, high quality, entertaining and thought-provoking production with authentic locations, use of indigenous actors and language, and some very fine performances and action sequences. It was nominated for a BAFTA (production design) and Ivor Novello Award (music). Despite all this, it was a ratings disaster for the BBC in the UK (started badly and got worse), and copped an unaccountably vicious pasting from the British media.
The Telegraph, acknowledging the 'problematic' subject matter, later described it as a '10 million pound megaflop'.
"...Perhaps fittingly for a portrayal of Rhodes' vast endeavours, making the show turned into an epic undertaking. The idea was first pitched in 1984 but development, filming and production took 12 years to complete – longer than its subject took to conquer a territory the size of central Europe..."