I don’t know if I’m really the right person to review the 2003 TV mini-series Byron, the Lord Byron biopic starring Jonny Lee Miller as the Romantic poet, as I’ve NEVER gotten into poetry and so don’t give a toss about him or any of the other Romantic poets. That being said, it popped up on Amazon, and I wanted something to watch, so watch it I did, so here’s my review! Feel free to disparage me in the comments.
The series focuses on Byron’s romantic entanglements, rather than his writings. I’m guessing if I were a Byron fan that might annoy me, but as someone who isn’t invested, it was all fine. It starts with Byron traveling in Greece, enjoying the supposedly indolent lifestyle of “The East” and getting his Orientalism — and bisexuality — on (note, although he’s shown briefly kissing a man, his bisexuality is mostly referred to; I’m not sure if that’s straight-washing him, or if he really did focus on boys in early life and girls later in life? That’s what Wikipedia makes it sound like).
He comes back to England, publishes Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and there’s some hilarious scenes where he consciously plays the melodramatic poet. He becomes involved with portrayed-as-crazytown Lady Caroline Lamb — who, I’m guessing, may not have been quite this bipolar? You tell me. (There was a great Noble Blood podcast episode about her recently, check it out if you’re interested!).
Most of the film focuses on his (supposed/possible) romantic relationship with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and his doomed marriage to Anne Isabella (“Annabella”) Milbanke, in which he’s basically a total jerk:
Then it’s on to Venice, ennui, and Greece where he dies — which was far too drawn out, in my opinion. I was perplexed that while the Shelleys briefly show up, there was NO trip to Switzerland/scary stories/Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. Okay, so this is about Byron, not Mary Shelley, but he was there and part of that whole thing!
Now, on to the costumes, which were designed by the great Jenny Beavan (A Room With a View, Impromptu, Howards End, Jefferson in Paris, Sense and Sensibility, Ever After, Casanova, and so much more); she won the Costume Design (Drama) category at the Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards for this production.
Byron himself is in pretty standard Regency wear. He starts out, while traveling, with long, shaggy hair:
Fast forward a few years, when he’s the toast of London. He crops his hair, and looks pretty spot-on to his portraits:
The only real costume highlight is when he dresses in what he says is an ensemble he brought back from Albania, which is clearly referencing his portrait by Thomas Phillips:
On to the women! Lady Caroline Lamb is pretty damn fabulous with her spiky cropped hair, totally perfect for the period and one of the better women’s “crop” hairstyles I’ve ever seen:
Half-sister/lover Augusta Leigh is played by Natasha Little, and she starts off all bubbly charm, but does a decent job showing her conflict and kindness. Her wardrobe is generally decent, but she wears her hair half-down a LOT, I think trying to show her approachable personality.
Wife Annabella is portrayed as intellectual, kind, prim, and totally wrong for Byron. Dress-wise, she’s ALWAYS dressed the proper picture of a good Regency girl:
Vanessa Redgrave plays Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne, who takes an interest in Byron (she has a GREAT line where, at their first tête-à-tête, he says something flirty about if she were younger; she responds with something like “If I were younger, dinner would have ended LONG ago”). She’s got a definite Orientalist vibe going:
Teresa, Contessa Guiccioli, Byron’s Italian lover, is very blond and pretty:
Mary Shelley is played by Sally Hawkins, and she gets one dowdy dress:
And, side note:
Have you seen Byron?
Bipolar probably explains Caro Lamb as well as anything can. The poor woman was not normal and the affair with Byron certainly didn’t help her mental balance.
I read a bio on William Lamb/Lord Melbourne and she was def bi-polar, at the least…they did not exaggerate her behavior…
It’s hard to blame Byron for cutting and running. Melbourne on the other hand deserves all kinds of credit for standing by his wife.
Melbourne refused to divorce her despite severe family pressures…he was extremely loyal indeed…and never would turn his back on her no matter what she did or said. Very unusual for his day as he likely could have “put her away”.
Her upbringing probably had a lot to do with Caro’s mental state. She was the niece of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Her mother was Henrietta, Countess of Bessborourgh, known for her many love affairs, mainly with Lord Leveson-Gower, by whom she had two children (who later married Georgiana’s second daughter Harriet). Definitely need a program to keep track of all the folks in this menage!
Oooo, I really liked this Byron (& you beat me to a full review of it, hah!). It paints him in a very sympathetic light, tho’ I suspect he was more of an asshole. And re: bisexuality, from what I’ve read, he was a dabbler & experimenter, willing to try anything once or twice. But he liked the ladies mostly.
I pity any woman who got involved with this infamous cad. I suspect the assholian portrayal of him in “Mary Shelley” is a bit closer to the truth, unfortunately. Haven’t seen this. May or may not.
I’ve always seen cropped hair like how Lady Russell’s hair did in Persuasion (1995), and now I know there was an actual style it copied, and not at all the clean cut that she had.
*was. Jeez.
And he was the father of Lady Ada Lovelace, mathematician and inventor of the computer.
I may have seen it. Don’t remember much but will watch again
Just a point of clarification: Ada Lovelace didn’t invent the computer. She was the first computer programmer. She programmed Charles Babbage’s invention – the Babbage engine – which is considered to be the first computer.
I also felt that it was sadly lacking in the Villa Diodati episode, I feel that it was an important moment for most of the group and inspired two important works ‘The Vampyre’ by Byron’s physician as well as Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ : and for Byron it was a period when he had been forced to leave England and live in exile in Switzerland after some major scandals (including several allegations of Sodomy) at home so it must have had some effect on him.
I do also feel that his bi-sexuality was seriously under played – it was more prevalent when he was younger, but he continued to have the odd affair with men through out his life – Shelley being the most obvious, although that seems to have been an on and off fling and mixed up with Byron’s affair with Claire Clairmont (Shelley’s sort of step sister in law type thing). But obviously his male affairs were less obvious for the simple reason that it was illegal and had to be hidden for safety. I have read of various free love episodes involving threesomes/foursomes and such like being mentioned; so that Switzerland episode, with them all enclosed together, must have really been quite interesting! Actually it sounds a tad like my university years!!! ;)
Lord Byron’s separation from Annabella Byron was just horrible. According to the court records and gossip of the time, he forced himself on her right after giving birth. She claimed when he realized that she was unable to receive him “naturally” he used her “unnaturally”. As Ada grew older, Annabella forced her to study mathematics for long hours to steady her and to suppress her father’s influence.
I see this Caroline and remember Sarah Miles playing her in that dreadful 1972 movie isn’t tooooo bad but it could be a lot better I remember her hair looking like I don’t know Anna karenina post illness but worse
I am a bit of a Byron fangirl, and I remember watching this at the time! I was really disappointed in the lack of the Villa Diodati in this, as it was effectively during a self-imposed exile due to the scandal around his divorce from Annabella, and the allegations made about Augusta were ruining her life and reputation. Basically, Byron never met a scandal he didn’t embrace and quite often let people believe things about him that were quite untrue because they added to his legend.
Byron is no favorite of mine. He introduced a particular kind of angsty, self involved, I’m-so-misunderstood hero/love interest that’s been afflicting romantic fiction ever since.