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What's So Great About ...?

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Lenny Henry explores the iconic status of people or things held dear by many

Series in which Lenny Henry explores the iconic status of people or things held dear by many

What's So Great About ...?: Series 3

Lenny Henry

What's So Great About ...?: Series 3: Episode 3: Chaucer

Chaucer

Episode 3

Episode 3: Chaucer

Series 3

BBC Radio 4 Extra - What's So Great About ...?, Series 3, Chaucer

Lenny Henry pockets his prejudice and tries to understand the medieval writer.

Lenny Henry invites enthusiasts and scholars to explain the lure of medieval English writer Geoffrey Chaucer and of his 600-year-old classic, the Canterbury Tales.

In the last of the present series in which he challenges the totemic value of people and works that are widely admired, Lenny Henry asks What's So Great About...Chaucer? Written over 600 years ago, Chaucer's masterpiece the Canterbury Tales is acclaimed as one of the greatest works of English literature. Adapted thirty years ago as a hit West End musical, inspiration to numerous writers and dramatists who've used its tale-telling format to spin their own contemporary yarns, the Tales have iconic status in the literary world. Whether it's for the poetry or the ribaldry, or as many admire, their apparent real-life depiction of medieval England, the work of Geoffrey Chaucer is widely admired. 

But is it really that good? Despite his recent embracing of Shakespeare, iconoclast Lenny Henry has never been able quite to swallow the acclaim accorded to Chaucer. Challenging his scepticism today are Chaucer biographer and eminent scholar Ardis Butterfield, playwright Mike Poulton who adapted the Canterbury Tales for the Royal Shakespeare Company and ex-Python and ardent Chaucerian and medievalist Terry Jones. 

Producer: Simon Elmes.

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