Brideshead Revisited (Season 1)

Brideshead Revisited (1981) — watch online on iFILM — is an ITV drama series based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel, directed by Charles Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg across eleven episodes. Location filming at Castle Howard in Yorkshire gives the production a visual scale that feels closer to cinema than television.

Charles Ryder, an agnostic art student from a modest household, is drawn into the world of the Flyte family — Catholic, aristocratic, and quietly falling apart. Sebastian introduces him to Brideshead, the family estate, and over the decades between the world wars Charles comes to know all of them: Julia, Lady Marchmain, and eventually Lord Marchmain himself, played by Laurence Olivier.

Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews both took BAFTA awards for their performances. John Gielgud appears as Charles's father for perhaps ten minutes and fills every frame. Forty years on, the series still sets the mark for what a British literary adaptation can achieve. Stream all episodes of Brideshead Revisited (1981) on iFILM.