In June of 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 4-part dramatic (or should I say "comedic"?) adaptation of The Little World of Don Camillo. Each half-hour episode was a self-contained story including elements from the plots of several of Guareschi's stories; Peter Kerry did the adaptations.

The series, which was re-run a few months after its debut, was evidently successful (however "success" is measured in government-subsidized radio terms), for another series of original episodes was ordered for June of 2002. That second series has just begun its run.

Series Information: Here is the credits information for the dramas, along with plot summaries. My overall thoughts/review follows:

My review: As I listened to the first episodes in 2001, I recalled a conversation I'd had with a British friend in 1998. He remembered listening to The Little World of Don Camillo read in installments on BBC Radio, as "Book of the Week," in the 1950's, and told me that even back then he'd found the reader's standard BBC "posh" accent all wrong for the stories, especially for Guareschi's deliberately informal exchanges between Don Camillo and the Lord. Well, in these new radio dramas, at least part of my friend's complaint was addressed. Don Camillo, Peppone, and their fellow-villagers no longer hold forth in the professional reader's Oxbridge tones, but instead sport broad Northern English accents!

I have an idea that the Guareschi family, who've said they prefer dynamic equivalence translations in general, would approve. But I, an American English-speaker and viewer of much British television, found the accents somewhat distracting. Instead of evoking post-war rural Italy, I think they put one in mind of "Last of the Summer Wine" or "All Creatures Great and Small". Meanwhile, my British friend might not like it that the Lord retains the plummy voice of a don; however, that voice is attached to the wonderful Joss Ackland, who renders Christ's lines with appropriate irony and thus keeps Him from seeming too remote.

My other problems with these radio plays, on first listening, were that (1) there was too much (IMO) use of flashback in order to stitch together bits from various Don Camillo stories, and (2) Mr. Kerry alters Guareschi's original plots sufficiently that I didn't have to check my books to notice that this or that was changed. Of course, I have never tried to adapt short fiction for half-hour radio presentations; I'm sure it's a challenge.

All of the foregoing notwithstanding, I must also admit that I enjoyed these plays when I listened to the rebroadcasts. I guess once the shock of the accents and the alterations wore off, Guareschi was still Guareschi.