SHOGUN (1980)

STARS: Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, John Rhys-Davies, Damien Thomas, Michael Hordern.

DIRECTOR: Jerry London. DURATION: 550mins.

SYNOPSIS: Epic mini-series based on James Clavell's best-selling novel, chronicling the saga of an English navigator shipwrecked and washed up in Japan, who wins the respect of the local lord and becomes the first Shogun - or samaurai warrior chief - from the Western world.

RC PLAYS: John Blackthorne.

Sword-wielding shenanigans in South East Asia. The role of sailor and navigator John Blackthorne has become one of Chamberlain's most popular among fans - yet it's one he almost didn't get a chance to play.

Author and executive producer James Clavell was horrified at the thought of having Dr. Kildare play his swashbuckling hero. Instead, he wanted either Sean Connery or Albert Finney for the role, but luckily for Chamberlain, Finney was never really seriously considered by TV bosses and Connery was unavailable - paving the way for Richard to take the part, which he did just two weeks before filming began on an arduous five-and-a-half month shoot on location in Japan.

Chamberlain had realised the novel would make a great TV series when he read the book three years before - so he was pleased when his hard campaigning for the part paid off. And in spite of a distinct lack of time to ready himself, screenwriter Eric Bercovici said of the actor, "He worked 125 days of the 130-day shooting schedule, and he was never unprepared."

"I read the script hundreds of times, looking for clues - hints about what's going on inside," explains Chamberlain, describing how he researches roles. "What the character wants, what he's trying to make people do, what he needs. If, God forbid, it's an historical character, I read as much information as possible. But I was terrified of doing Shogun, but that sense of danger was what made me want to do it."

As usual, Richard's worries were unfounded. "What you get from Richard Chamberlain that you don't get from most television actors," recalled Bercovici, "is a true performance. He is a real pro."

But Bercovici wasn't the only person impressed by the actors' performance. Chamberlain received his second Emmy nomination and it was a major surprise when he didn't win. He also found himself at the centre of mass fan adulation - something he hadn't experienced since his Kildare days. In the end, Shogun became one of the most-watched mini-series of all time, and is still regarded as a TV masterpiece.

NBC were particularly thrilled by its success. The network was struggling at the time and needed a blockbuster to revive its flagging fortunes - and what they got surpassed all expectations.

Down the years, epic productions have almost always pulled in the crowds, and Shogun was certainly an epic by anybody's standards: "What we have here is Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, Gone With the Wind and Intolerance all in one," claimed director Jerry London. Well, perhaps that's going a little too far, but it certainly contained all the attributes of a good, old-fashioned yarn.

The major surprise was the sheer quality of the acting performances - after all, many of the thespians involved were responding to speeches made in another language which they didn't understand fully or couldn't comprehend at all.

Despite the success of the series, Chamberlain still had one big regret - not being able to communicate with his fellow actors and many of the crew. "I was too stupid and too busy to learn the language," he later revealed. "At the wrap party, five Japanese people told me, in English, how much they liked me. They never spoke to me before because they didn't want to speak English poorly. I regretted that - we could have been great buddies."

Never mind. What Richard couldn't have known at the time was that Shogun would put him back at the top of the TV tree- although the best was still to come.

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