From the very first episode, Netflix ‘s historical romp The Decameron is a solid gold comedy banger. None of this “give it three episodes to get going” nonsense; Kathleen Jordan’s highly entertaining, luxuriously produced comedy might be “loosely based” on Giovanni Boccaccio’s hefty 14th century book, but with some superlative writing she has made it entirely her own. It’s 1348 and the Black Death is ravaging Italy.
The canals of Firenze overflow with sore-covered corpses and the nobility are fleeing the city in the hope of outrunning death. A group of posh knobs and their servants arrive at a remote country villa for two weeks of indulgence while the plague does its worst outside the gates. Like every good houseshare comedy (think Ghosts or Father Ted ), this assortment of flawed characters, most harbouring secrets, are forced to share the same space as the fabric of their miniature society crumbles.
It’s The White Lotus in jerkins with a much higher body count. While the writing gleams like a new blade, the cast is also pretty dazzling. Zosia Mamet from Girls and Veep ‘s Tony Hale are arguably the two biggest names on the ticket (perhaps just because they are American), but they’re ably supported by Soairse-Monica Jackson (Erin in Derry Girls ) and the quite outstanding Tanya Reynolds from Sex Education .
It is perhaps pointless to pick favourites when the quality of the cast is this high, but Reynolds steals almost every scene she’s in. Pity the oth.