A window onto Renaissance with gripping Netflix drama

Nigel Booth steps back in time to 15th century Italy

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Historical dramas are not for everyone, but if you enjoy stepping back in time for a good romp from the past look no further than a Netflix series now showing on Amazon Prime, Medici.

The Borgias and The Tudors TV series preceded this small screen drama and here is another Renaissance dynasty romp.

The series is an Italian-British historical drama created by Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer and follows the House of Medici, bankers of the Pope, in 15th-century Florence.

The first season titled Medici: Masters of Florence follows the events of a particular moment of the family's history exploring the political and artistic landscape of Renaissance Italy.

The action takes place in 1429, the year Giovanni de' Medici, patriarch of the banking family and played by none other than Dustin Hoffman, died, in the series through poisoning, but history tells us through natural causes.

His son Cosimo - played by another acting heavyweight, Richard Madden - succeeds him as head of the family bank, the richest in Europe at the time, and follows his fight to preserve their power in Florence.