Author:Giovanni Boccaccio,Terry Jones,John Finnemore,Samuel Barnett,Colin McFarlane,Tim McInnerny,Neil Pearson,Louise Brealey,Paul Ritter,Tameka Empson,Full Cast

Terry Jones introduces ten dramatisations of choice Florentine Fancies, adapted from Giovanni Boccaccio's classic human comedy by the BBC

Monty Python star and medieval historian Terry Jones presents ten BBC Radio dramatisations of tales from Giovanni Boccaccio's humane and comic masterpiece.

Composed in the early 1350s, in the wake of the Black Death, The Decameron comprises 100 short stories from all over the world, reset by Boccaccio among the flourishing merchant classes of Renaissance Italy. Their universal themes - love, sex, religion, fate, morality - resonate with us to this day, and their witty, satirical, bawdy voice sounds utterly modern. Beautifully realised in vivid, vernacular prose, they have become a bedrock of our storytelling tradition, mined ever since by authors from Chaucer to Shakespeare, Keats, Molière and Thomas Mann.

The scene is the onset of the Black Death, Italy and a group of seven young women and three young men escape to the countryside to shelter in a secluded villa just outside of Florence in order to escape the Plague. There, they tell each other tales from all over the world.

These ten radio retellings are performed by a stellar cast, including John Finnemore, Ingrid Oliver, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Lydia Leonard, Tim McInnerny, Samuel Barnett, Neil Pearson, Louise Brealey, and Tameka Empson.

Cast and credits

Saint Ciappelletto

Ciappelletto - Colin McFarlane

Musciatto - Sam Dale

Holy Friar - Michael Bertenshaw

The Burgundians - Monty d'Inverno & Paul Heath

Doctor - Ian Conningham

Federigo and His Falcon

Federigo degli Alberighi - John Finnemore

Monna - Ingrid Oliver

Elena - Carrie Quinlan

Beppo - Shaun Mason

Niccolo - Adam Thomas Wright

How Elena Blew Hot and Cold

Elena - Lydia Leonard

Violante - Elaine Claxton

Rinieri - Cyril Nri

Pyrrhus - Paul Heath

How to Get It Off Your Chest

Zeppa - Ian Conningham

Mrs Zeppa - Hannah Genesius

Spinelloccio - Shaun Mason

Mrs Spinelloccio - Bettrys Jones

Narrator - Jude Akuwudike

Kind Hearts and Bayonets

Mithridanes - Samuel Barnett

Nathan - Sam Dale

Beggarmaid - Bettrys Jones

The Sweetest Young Man in Perugia

Pietro - Tim McInnerny

Madam - Hannah Genesius

Pandara - Jane Slavin

Masetto - Monty d'Inverno

Ercolano - David Acton

The Wager

Musciatto - Michael Bertenshaw

Ambrogiuolo - Geoffrey Streatfeild

Bernabo - Paul Ritter

Zinevra - Louise Brealey

Sultan - Jude Akuwudike

Captain - Shaun Mason

A Job for the Boys

Masetto - Neil Pearson

Sister Donna - Tameka Empson

Sister Lisa - Rhiannon Neads

Hildegard - Jane Slavin

Nuto - Sam Dale

Steward - Michael Bertenshaw

Love Lies Sleeping

Silvestra - Laura Molyneux

Beppo - Rudi Dharmalingam

Giovanni - Joseph Drake

Mother - Jane Slavin

Rinaldo - David Acton

A Quiet Night in Naples

Andreuccio - Gunnar Cauthery

Filomena - Roslyn Hill

Scarabone - Shaun Mason

Neighbour - David Acton

Ludo - Paul Heath

Bruno - Ian Conningham

Sister Lisa - Elaine Claxton

Sister Donna - Hannah Genesius

First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1-12 December 2014

Written by Giovanni Boccaccio

Adapted by Robin Brooks

Music arranged and performed by Robert Hollingworth and Paula Chateauneuf

Translations by Silvia Reseghetti

Script consultant: Guyda Armstrong

Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting

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