A good story in any century

That feeling that you've heard it all before isn't exclusive to the information age. In Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century page-turner, The Canterbury Tales, a man of law among a bunch of pilgrims complained, when his turn came to entertain his fellow travellers with a yarn, that all the good stories had been told already.

The lawyer, being a quiet, religious type, did limit his options, however. The best stories as far as he was concerned were those about virtuous women - not the most exciting stuff for a pot-boiler, you might think. Nevertheless, he managed to oblige the tour group with an elegantly told little ripper about a pious woman named Constance.

The Man of Law's Tale, last night's instalment in a fascinating series of modern updates of some of the tales from Chaucer's medieval masterpiece, certainly did justice to Chaucer's character's narrative achievements.

Writer Olivja Hetreed rose to the challenge of turning a morality tale about a God-fearing woman into a compelling watch, delivering a standout offering in TV One's Sunday night (often mediocre) Brit drama slot and a fitting tribute to the great medieval author's powers of creative reinvention.

Constance Musa, a Nigerian refugee, washed up on British shores and was harboured by Adam and Nicky, an Englishman and his African wife, who recognised she had suffered great trauma and were reluctant to hand her over to the immigration authorities.

The quiet and demure Constance, Christian to the point of fanaticism, began to exercise a powerful effect on those around her. Most were enchanted by the diminutive African woman's luminous air of suffering and inner strength.

But Adam became repelled by her extremist faith, doubted her claims of amnesia and wondered who this mysterious woman was and what she might be capable of.

Constance's power to cast a spell over others became her undoing. A member of her church congregation was obsessed with her and maddened by her close friendship with the irreligious but charismatic Alan (Andrew Lincoln), a friend of her rescuers who wanted to marry her. Tragedy struck and Constance was deported back to Nigeria.

The story was masterful in its construction, moving effortlessly back and forth in time and place, from a chilly washed-out Britain to a baking desert town in Nigeria, and creating edge-of-the-seat suspense as to who Constance was - angel or psychopath? - and what her fate would be.

As the grief-stricken refugee, actor Nikki Amuka-Bird, was mesmerising both as the Madonna-like Constance and Constance, the screaming war victim.

In the spirit of Chaucer's original, last night's tale was a complete change of pace from the previous week's bawdy romp Wife of Bath, a story based on Chaucer's pioneering feminist tale and dominated by an excellent performance from Julie Walters as an ageing actress exploring the eternal question of what women really want.

TV One, in its wisdom, is playing only four of the six-part BBC Canterbury Tales series.

With two still to come, it's well worth making a Sunday night pilgrimage to the couch.