watership-downBBC Radio 4, 6/13 November 2016

The odyssey of a travelling group of rabbits as they seek a new home…

Unlike a lot of the material that Brian Sibley has adapted for radio over the years, I’ll admit that I’m not that familiar with Watership Down – I can remember reading the book in my early teens and I’m pretty sure I saw the animated movie when it came out – so I came to this two-hour version pretty much fresh. Producer Gemma Jenkins and director Marc Beeby have once again assembled a very strong group of actors who do justice to Adams’ story – the anthropomorphized rabbits at its heart (and one very important black gull!) feel like three-dimensional characters, with their hopes and fears, loves and hates. Sibley gets to the heart of the story I remember, inevitably having to jettison some of the “world-building” in which Adams indulges, but still making clear that these rabbits have a clearly defined culture – both in terms of their social structure, and their beliefs (something that perhaps is clearest in the narration).

There’s an interesting dilemma for anyone taking this story into another medium – how much of the human world do you portray? Radio drama can live or die by the pictures it creates in the listener’s mind, and a certain amount of “human” sound effects are needed to tell the story properly – yet at the same time, the weirdness of that, and its alien nature as far as the protagonists are concerned, can’t be lost or the effect of the tale is diminished. This production walks that fine line successfully, focusing its attention on the rabbits’ perspective (not a line that I’d normally expect to be typing in a review!).

You can choose to read a lot into this story if you wish, in terms of escaping from dictatorial regimes, and standing up for what you believe in despite the world being full of dangers that you can only do your best against; or you can simply enjoy a two-hour fable. Either way, it’s a very enjoyable and well-made piece of radio drama – and not a note of Mike Batt to be heard!

Verdict: Time for another run down through the wood. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to access part 1 (available until December 11)

 

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