Write Around The World With Richard E Grant

BBC4, 9pm

Here’s a travel series with a distinctive twist, as actor Richard E Grant (right) explores the settings for great works of literature and best-selling novels.

In this week’s opening episode he sets off for southern Italy, and in Naples he visits the streets captured by Elena Ferrante in the inspired quartet of memoir novels that began with My Brilliant Friend. Not far away he takes a climb to get up close with Vesuvius – the volcano that destroyed the city of Pompeii, as so memorably described in the thriller set in the ancient world by Robert Harris.

Grant’s vivid readings include passages by Charles Dickens, who wrote about the shocking poverty he saw in Pictures From Italy, but the star also stays at the hotel where Patricia Highsmith spotted the inspiration for her Ripley novels. ★★★★★