Cast
Jeremy Irons (Charles Ryder)
Anthony Andrews (Sebastian Flyte)
Laurence Olivier (Lord Marchmain)
Claire Bloom (Lady Marchmain)
Diana Quick (Julia Flyte)
Jane Asher (Lady Celia Ryder)
Phoebe Nicholls (Lady Cordelia Flyte)
John Gielgud (Edward Ryder)
Simon Jones (Lord Brideshead)
Brideshead Revisited Miniseries
First Broadcast:
12 October 1981
Locations
Yorkshire UK (Castle Howard)
Oxford UK
Production
Granada Television
Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 television miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh. The book was adapted to the screen by producer Derek Granger and Martin Thompson after the initial script by John Mortimer was rejected. It was directed mainly by Charles Sturridge, but part of one or more episodes by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It starred Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder, Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte, Laurence Olivier as Lord Marchmain, Claire Bloom as Lady Marchmain, Diana Quick as Lady Julia Flyte, and Jane Asher as Lady Celia Ryder; also featuring Phoebe Nicholls as Lady Cordelia Flyte, John Gielgud as Edward Ryder, Simon Jones as Lord Brideshead, Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche, Stéphane Audran as Cara, Lord Marchmain's lover, and Charles Keating as Rex Mottram.
The Oxford scenes were largely filmed at Waugh's alma mater, Hertford College, Wadham and Christ Church Colleges. The location for Brideshead, the fictional 
manor, was Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Scenes on the deck of a transatlantic liner were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. By the standards of British television, the drama series of the late 1970s was lavish; Granada Television's broadcasting franchise was up for competitive renewal in 1981 so the company designed Brideshead Revisited to prove themselves a quality company.
It was shown in the United States on Public Broadcasting Service and was considered daring at the time for its willingness to show an extended sex scene between Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte. Tom Wolfe wrote that the series was successful in the United States because it was a plutography, i.e., a "graphic depiction of the lives of the rich."
The memorable theme with a high baroque trumpet was composed by Geoffrey Burgon.
In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, the adaptation was placed tenth.
This program received so many votes that it finished seventh in the the Best of Masterpiece Theatre vote conducted for the 35th anniversary of that anthology series. Anthony Andrews came on at the end of the program to explain that it was not a Masterpiece Theatre production. It had aired in the US as a part of the PBS series Great Performances in 1982.
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