Watch HDToday. Terry Jones (of Monty Python) gives a narrative of the life of and society around Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer's life to middle age, He survived the Black Death as a child, and become actively involved in the 100 Years War, the war that was to leave England devastated. Despite all these catastrophes, English literature went though a short Renaissance, and the program considers the leading role that Chaucer was to play in it.