Based on the celebrated work of the same name by Geoffrey Chaucer; this series presents adaptations of segments of his book, but set in the late 20th Century. The series comprises six episodes each of 50-odd minutes. At this point I will have to indicate this series has ?told? me that I am quite ignorant of too much detail of The Canterbury Tales themselves; though I know that its reputation for rather controversial storylines precedes it - and this is the way this series pans out!

I should also point out that it would appear that the titles of each episode relate to anecdotal tales heard by Chaucer?s pilgrim traveller on his way to Canterbury, rather than characters we actually see on screen in each episode ? in the majority of cases the stories bear no resemblance to their titles whatsoever!

I will deliberately avoid going into too much detail, as the notes on the slick are quite adequate and informative, though somewhat abbreviated:

The Miller?s Tale ? this is a tale of a con artist who, using some particularly underhanded tactics, manages to wreak havoc upon an entire English village community. His prime target is the very attractive wife of the local pub owner. It is a tale of jealousy, lust, adultery and unrequited love (plus occasional drug references and more). The ?hero? of this tale is as evil and manipulative as they come!

For the life of me, I cannot understand how he happened to appear at this small town, but this is a failing of many of these episodes ? one cannot explain many of the causes of these life occurrences.

The Wife of Bath ? this is a reasonably straightforward story of an older ?soap opera? star who falls in love/lust with her much younger co-star, who just happens to share the same feelings toward her. The story follows a fairly obvious ?will they or won?t they?? formula, and the ending ? though a little unexpected ? is not unpredictable. This would have to be one of the more understandable episodes of the series; and stars the wonderful Julie Walters.

The Knight?s Tale ? a stranger tale to the previous episode; it follows two prisoner/friends who fall for the same ?do-gooder? volunteer female teacher, with dire consequences for one of the fellows? Once again, this storyline is quite straightforward.

The Sea Captain?s Tale ? possibly the strangest named tale of the lot, there is no reference whatsoever in the episode to the sea at all! It follows the exploits of a ?godfather? of Indian heritage who marries a younger yet vain, greedy and wanton new wife. The story reveals the consequences of the wife?s impropriety, whilst providing a pastiche of the effects upon others.

The Pardoner?s Tale ? another of the stranger stories in the series. This one somewhat confusingly goes backwards and forwards in time to tell the story of three male misfits and their involvement in the case of a missing girl who is later found dead. It also involves the appearance of another (very) mysterious female who could well be more ?ethereal? than real. This episode would have to be one of the more confusing ? and darkest ? of the lot, but at the same time one of the most intriguing and enjoyable for the above reasons.

The Man of Law?s Tale ? a quite interesting and intriguing story involving an illegal immigrant to Britain and her tribulations with surviving in her adopted homeland. She becomes the victim in a murder of passion that causes considerable pain to more than herself?

Not having read The Canterbury Tales at home or at school (usually a sure way of getting a ?handle? on such literary works) ? I was unable to fully comprehend the relevance between this series and the original story. Remembering (in the deep recesses of my mind) that The Canterbury Tales was rather bawdy, confrontational and controversial; this series certainly contains the right scripts ? the themes of murder, lust, romance, jealousy, greed and light comedy are rampant throughout the series. However, the only relevant direct references that I can determine from the series to the original are the titles of the episodes (the most of which that bear no relevance to the actual episodes) and a sequence of lines in verse on each episode promo (also spoken) that presumedly won?t be in the TV screenings ? unfortunately they are screened too quickly and do not allow the viewer to gain a full understanding of the relevance of them.

The standard of acting is typical of any BBC production ? credible and certainly more than capable. There is a mix of well-known faces (Andrew Lincoln of This Life; the ?mother? from The Kumars from No.42; and the indomitable Julie Waters); several faces I recognise but can?t put a name to; and a plethora of people I have not seen before. The only ?constant? in the series is the producer ? Kate Bartlett (there are even four different directors used in the series!)

THE EXTRAS

There are no special features attached to this package. This is disappointing as it would have been great to understand the basis of each episode and its relationship to the original excerpt of The Canterbury Tales.

CONCLUSION

This is a series totally at odds to my initial expectations ? when I first offered to review it I was fully expecting a period piece with all the trimmings of a typical high-class BBC period adaptation ? how wrong I was! Instead I was faced with viewing six excerpts of The Canterbury Tales set in the 20th Century. I was initially aghast, but after the first two episodes I found myself increasingly drawn into the series. I can already anticipate howls of protest from people fully acquainted with the original Chaucer work, so I should shy away from trying to pontificate, and will apologise for my probable ignorance right away?

This is a very difficult series to give an objective judgement upon ? it?s good viewing, no question about that. As a stand-alone series of seemingly unrelated telemovies; I found the majority quite enjoyable, but I could find no interrelation between these ?shorts?, my limited knowledge of the original work, and any relevance of its disparate settings to the original work, or contemporary life.

Nonetheless I rate it highly on entertainment value.

If ?arthouse? can be used as a method of rating, I rate it highly.