''The Canterbury Tales'' is a series of six single dramas that originally aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

in 2003. Each story is an adaptation of one of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus ...

''. While the stories have been transferred to a modern, 21st century setting, they are still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to Canterbury. Repeats of the series in the UK have been on channels including ITV3.

Production

The anthology series was conceived by executive producers Laura Mackie and Franc Roddam in 2001, and produced by Kate Bartlett, while a number of writers and directors were chosen specifically to work on individual episodes. Bartlett said of the productions that:

I wanted to be as faithful to the stories and spirit of the Tales as possible and we have tried to achieve that. ... They had to appeal to those more familiar with Chaucer but also work in their own right as single films, to an audience unfamiliar with Chaucer, and this was important to all of us.

The production filmed in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, at

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, which is the setting for "The Pardoner's Tale" and features the castle,

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

, Chertsey Gate, the High Street, Esplanade, and various streets, pubs, and restaurants. Gravesend is the setting in "The Sea Captain's Tale", where old waterfront warehouses, the pier, and Town Pier Square feature. The river scenes in "The Man of Law's Tale" were filmed on the River Medway and the Medway Estuary.

Episodes

From Chaucer's original collection, the producers chose six tales:

Awards and nominations

On 29 March 2004, ''The Wife of Bath'' was nominated for three awards at the British Academy Television Awards, for Best Single Drama,

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

for Julie Walters, and Best Costume Design. Walters went on to win the award.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Canterbury Tales, The 2000s British drama television series 2003 British television series debuts 2003 British television series endings BBC television dramas 2000s British television miniseries 2000s British anthology television series English-language television shows