SOMETIMES....

Sometimes, when you have had a long, hard day and want to watch a long but rewarding programme like Masterchef Italia or Sanremo, or are looking forward, as I am this evening, to watching Beppe Fiorello playing the great singer Domenico Modugno [of Volare fame] in a Rai mini-series, you need good, fast food.  That's when the local butcher comes up trumps:

 Now, here's a golden oldie that I first heard in Italy over 40 years ago. It was the B-side of Anthony Quinn's record [for such was the terminology then] I Love You, You Love Me. Those were the days!

UN CANTANTE E LA LUNA

Sicilian singer Beppe Fiorello, the brother of comedian, actor, singer and presenter Saro Fiorello, is to play the great Domenico Modugno in a miniseries to be screened on Rai1 this autumn, reports La Sicilia Online.

Domenico Modugno was best known outside Italy for his Sanremo smash hit, Nel blu dipinto di blu or Volare, which he co-wrote but he was an actor and politician too.  Modugno also had Sicilian connections, for as a politician he campaigned against the then inhumane conditions for patients in the psychiatric hospital in Agrigento and he had a home on Lampedusa, where he died in 1994.

Beppe Fiorello has always been an admirer of Modugno and learnt his idol's whole repertoire of songs as a child.

The new TV series will go into production in May and will be shot in Rome and Modugno's home town of Polignano a Mare, Puglia.

Here is Beppe Fiorello singing another Modugno song, "The Cricket and the Moon", on his brother's show last year:

Beppe Fiorello - 'Lu grillu e la luna