John Milton is often considered too difficult and obscure for today's reader, but to Armando Iannucci Paradise Lost is a thrilling work of creative genius that we ignore at our peril.

In this film, Iannucci journeys through Milton's life and his great poem, taking in everything from Satan and the start of political spin to farting angels and the questioning of God's existence, offering his own passionate and illuminating response to Paradise Lost.

Milton tackles everything from good and evil to human freedom and the existence of God, in language unparalleled in both scope and variety. Iannucci explores Paradise Lost in detail and looks at the way Milton's extraordinary life – encompassing work as spin doctor to Oliver Cromwell, being imprisoned in the Tower of London and losing his sight – fed into his masterpiece.

Along the way, he talks to schoolchildren, politicians and former prisoners to build up a picture of what Milton was like, and why his art may have turned out the way it did.
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Original airdate 27/05/09 on BBC 2 as part of the BBC's Poetry Season.

Presenter: Armando Iannucci
Director: Zoe Silver
Producer: Zoe Silver
Producer : Mary Sackville-West
Executive Producer: Eamon Hardy

© BBC MMIX

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