High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Cleopatras was a 1983 BBC Television eight part historical drama serial. Written by Philip Mackie. Set in in ancient Egypt during the latter part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty of with an emphasis on the Cleopatras. Intended to be the I, Claudius of the 1980s, The Cleopatras met with a decidedly mixed critical reaction. It was regarded and portrayed as a gaudy farce.