Don Camillo and Peppone

In the post-war years (after 1945), Don Camillo Tarocci (his full name, which he rarely uses) is the hotheaded priest of a small town in the Po valley in northern Italy.

Don Camillo is constantly at odds with the Communist mayor, Giuseppe Bottazzi, better known as Peppone (meaning, roughly, 'Big Joe', an allusion to Josef Stalin[3]) and is also on very close terms with the crucifix in his town church.

[4] The Christ in the crucifix often has far greater understanding than Don Camillo of the troubles of the people, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience.

They also appear to have both been partisan fighters during World War II; one episode mentions Camillo having braved German patrols in order to reach Peppone and his fellow Communists in the mountains and administer Mass to them under field conditions.

While Peppone makes public speeches about how "the reactionaries" ought to be shot, and Don Camillo preaches fire and brimstone against "godless Communists", they actually grudgingly admire each other.

Others are tragedies about schism, politically motivated murder, and personal vendettas in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but not everyone necessarily likes everyone else very much.

In another, the arrival of pop culture and motorcycles propels Don Camillo into fighting "decadence", a struggle in which he finds he has his hands full, especially when Christ mainly smiles benevolently on the young rascals.

After an approach from Piers Dudgeon of Pilot Productions, the family authorised him to publish uncut translations into English of all the original 347 stories.

The film was then realized in 1972 by Mario Camerini with Gastone Moschin playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander as Peppone.

[14] Ian Hogg replaced Armstrong as Don Camillo, while Prendergast, Ackland and Moffatt all continued to reprise their roles as Peppone, God and the Bishop respectively.

The Italian Communist era was changed to a Colombian period called "La Violencia" when the Liberal and Conservative parties were fighting to maintain power in Colombia.

The series starred Carlos Benjumea as Don Camillo (Don Camilo in Colombian Spanish), Hector Rivas as Peppone (Pepón in Colombian Spanish), Luis Fernando Múnera as The Christ Voice, and the actors Diego León Hoyos and Manuel Pachón as Peppone flunkies.

The Little World of Don Camillo was adapted by the Thai writer and politician Kukrit Pramoj into his own 1954 novel, Phai Daeng (Red Bamboo).