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The Divine Comedy

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What to expect

Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dante's epic poem.

Inferno: Thirty-five year old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil, now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife, beginning in the terrifying depths of Hell.

Purgatorio: Dante is led up Mount Purgatory by his guide. They encounter numerous souls who have embarked on the same difficult journey - one that will eventually lead to their spiritual salvation.

Paradiso: Dante's journey comes to a glorious conclusion as he is led by Beatrice, through the spheres of Paradise and into the presence of God himself. As they ascend, they encounter a number of souls who have also achieved blessedness.

Many years later, the older Dante reflects on the episodes from his life that have inspired his great poem.


©2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Critics Review

In a glorious adaptation of The Divine Comedy, Stephen Wyatt takes a potshot at bankers, forced to sit forever on hot sands under fiery rain.
The Stage
He’s done a remarkable job. Out go the cantos and rigid rhyming structures. In comes a flowing narrative that loses none of the evocative imagery of the original. And it does Wyatt’s case no harm that the three central characters — Dante the younger, Dante the elder and Virgil, his ghostly omnipresent guide through hell, purgatory and paradise — are played by Blake Ritson, John Hurt and David Warner.
Radio Times
Author Dante Alighieri and Stephen Wyatt
Narrator Blake Ritson, David Warner, Full Cast, Hattie Morahan, John Hurt
Duration 2 hours and 51 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781910281437
Format Audiobook
Publisher BBC Audio
Genre Poetry, Radio plays, scripts and performances, Religious and spiritual fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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