Jonty Claypole

That's what the Canterbury Tales is.

They're getting on the road, but the whole thing is just going to collapse into chaos and it never quite happens.

So that's what we're in.

We're in the 14th century, the medieval fire festival.

Back to the synopsis.

They're going to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett.

And we'll be explaining more about that in due course.

But he was the archbishop.

He was murdered by knights in King Henry II's entourage in the 12th century for resisting the absolute power of the monarch.

And over the ensuing centuries, Thomas a Beckett had become a saint and Canterbury had become a hugely important shrine, not only in Britain, but actually all through the Christian world, all

The narrator, who we assume is a version of Chaucer himself, although who can say?

And in fact, I think one of the great innovations in this poem, along with the many other innovations, is the unreliable narrator, the narrator himself.

says things in this prologue, which are very obviously disingenuous.

But he introduces all of the pilgrims that he is amongst.

There's 29 in all.

And he says, I mean, he's basically being the commentator at the Met Gala.

He says, very specifically, I'm going to say who they are, what their status is, what they're wearing.

So he's basically saying, we've got Margot Robbie, Hollywood A-lister, wearing a

you know, dress that looks like a giant tomato.

And so he's doing that here.