Inferno

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Dante's 14th-century masterpiece reveals its 21st-century meanings to Katya Adler as she travels through the first region of the afterlife with Dr Margaret Keane. 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. Just as Dante himself starts his iconic journey "nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura....", so Katya learns how, in the middle of the journey of our life, Dante might help us out of the current dark woods of Covid, the American election and post-Brexit polarisation, the environmental crisis and other troubles.... leading her to conclude that each of us contains a spark of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Specially commissioned music by Emily Levy, sung by Michael Solomon Williams, Jon Stainsby, Emily Levy. Katya's guides are Dr Margaret Kean from St Hilda's College, Oxford; Professor Matthew Treherne from the Centre for Dante Studies, University of Leeds; Vittorio Montemaggi, senior lecturer in Religion and Art, Kings College London and Acting Director of the Von Hugel Institute in Cambridge. Further contributions from Ken Hollings, Joseph Luzzi, Fatemeh Keshavarz, Alessio Baldini Producer: Beaty Rubens