The Essay

The 100 stories that make up Giovanni Boccaccio's humane and comic masterpiece, the Decameron, come from all over the world. They are vividly reset among the flourishing merchant classes in the cities of Renaissance Italy, and Radio 3 is retelling 10 of these choice Florentine Fancies, adapted by Robin Brooks. Like the original, the stories are told over 10 days, each with its own theme. All is not what it seems when a 14th-century Tony Soprano makes his deathbed confession. With Colin McFarlane (Ciappelletto), Sam Dale (Musciatto), Michael Bertenshaw (Holy Friar), Monty d'Inverno (Federico), Paul Heath (Anselmo) and Ian Conningham (Doctor).