Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is commonly considered the greatest single work of all European literature, but this three-part epic poem isn't only for those with a taste for medieval Italy.

Seven hundred years after Dante's death in 1321, Katya Adler, the BBC's Europe Editor and lover of all things Italian, sets out to discover why the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso are such key works for the 21st century.

With Michael Sheen as Dante.

Three guides conduct Katya through their region of the afterlife - just as Virgil, and Dante’s great lost love Beatrice, do in the original - taking her to hell and back again.

Each guide proposes seven reasons why Dante (a great lover of numerology as well as a great poet) is such a powerful contemporary read - adding up to 21 reasons in the 21st year of the 21st century.

2. Professor Matthew Treherne from the Centre for Dante Studies at the University of Leeds is Katya's guide through the second region of the afterlife - Purgatory. The author of a forthcoming book on "Dante for the Twenty-First Century : Ecology, Finance and Time", Matthew explains to Katya why the roots of the 2008 financial crisis go right back to Dante's Florence, and he draws her attention to lessons we might learn in the era of Covid and political polarisation from Dante's depiction of the souls in Purgatory as they struggle to listen, change and make themselves anew.

Specially commissioned music by Emily Levy, sung by Michael Solomon Williams, Jon Stainsby and Emily Levy.

Further contributions from Joseph Luzzi, Professor of Comparative Literature and Faculty Member in Italian Studies at Bard College, USA, and author of five books including My Two Italies, and the deeply moving In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love

Italian readings by Alessio Baldini

Producer: Beaty Rubens Show less