I didn't even think that Caspian IX lived long enough to do that to his young son, but I guess we don't really know the details of how old Prince Caspian was when he lost his father.

But in the book it's definitely Miraz who gets rid of the nurse.

I wonder if anyone here actually listened to the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre of Narnia when it was on the radio.  I think there has been about thirty years since it was first broadcast on the radio somewhere in the 1990’s. or it may be even be longer ago than that.  Does anyone know the date of the recordings and whether the dramas began with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or The Magician’s Nephew?  I think my audio CD’s are about thirty years old (they still work great with excellent audio quality). At least I remember buying them in the 1990’s.  I don’t remember actually listening to the dramas on the radio, although I heard a broadcast version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from Focus on the Family some years later. It would be interesting to know when the dramas were made. 

@narnian78 I heard some of them on our Christian radio in the late 80s. There was LWW and another year HHB. They were each played as a serial. 

Edit:  Typo, should say '90s' not 80s. See my next post. Sorry.

@coracle 

The dramas are older than I thought they were. Whenever I mention them to people who have never listened to them they are often surprised that radio dramas were still made at that time. Audio dramas are still made in the UK where they are popular even today. But the Focus on the Family series is also much loved here in the U. S., which is unusual for a series of audiobooks. The simpler technology still appeals to many people. 🙂

@narnian78 Ooops! My apologies, for my mistake.   "late 80s" is not correct!  I mistyped - it should say "late 90s".

I found information here: https://narnia.fandom.com/wiki/Focus_on_the_Family_Radio_Theatre

This lists years when the stories were presented on air; however the dates of recording must have been earlier, as at least one actor had died before the broadcast date (Derek Nimmo as Glimfeather, died Feb 1999, but SC wasn't played before 2002 according to this website).

@coracle 

It’s really interesting how Focus on the Family sent a CD of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol audio drama to Douglas Gresham and he gave them permission with the C. S. Lewis estate to adapt the Narnia books into radio dramas. Thanks for the interesting link! 🙂 

I think it was in late 1990’s and early 2000’s when I bought the CD’s from a Christian bookstore in my area.  I never regretted buying them even though they were a bit expensive at that time. 🙂

I would strongly recommend the other audio dramas available from Focus on the Family such as At the Back of the North Wind and The Secret Garden. They were adapted from children’s books, but they are also wholesome entertainment for adults. Radio plays are something old fashioned that is a fine alternative to much of modern entertainment.  It is much more family friendly than what most of today’s technology has to offer.

I was in my teens before we had TV, so I was used to radio shows, including kids' serials especially BBC productions. I met many good books that way. We also enjoyed classic and new radio comedy shows. Listening gets one's brain and imagination going, seeing the characters for oneself.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

The way that Tash sounds in the Focus on the Family is how I picture him to sound like

 

As for the cast on the Focus on the Family Radio theatre adaption, they all do a superb job. While I love Stash Kirkebride as Rishda, I feel that he is a bit too over the top at times. Elizabeth Counsel brought Jadis to life really well, though she is bit loud at times. Steven Webb and Jade Williams brought out the innocence in Eustace and Jill, though at times they do come off a little snappy. And David Suchet has a very powerful voice as Aslan.

 

Steven Webb definitely KILLED IT as Eustace! Really got on my nerves in Dawn Treader.

Tonight I found the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre of Narnia on the Moody radio station. I haven’t heard it on the radio before but only on the CD’s I own.  The drama playing now is Prince Caspian. It’s very enjoyable, but on the CD’s there are no interruptions of any kind, which is better. It is also not divided into episodes, but the complete story is on each set of the CD’s.   I’m glad that the dramas are still broadcast.  🙂

Although I like the Radio Drama cds in general, I did not like the voice actor for Adult Edmund: Robert Benfield, he just did not sound like I imagine and I found it weird. But, maybe I could just hear the squirrel voice or Maugrim or Reepicheep's voice in the his immpression of Edmund and was weirded out. (Since the same voice actor does Maugrim's, Reepicheep and the squirrel as well.)

Matthew White who voiced Edmund in LWW and VDT did a better voice in my opinion for Edmund.

Also Edmund was voiced by Gyuri Sarossy in the Last Battle, and I think he did a pretty good job. 

Hello Narnia friends! ☺️
for all of you who love the FOTF Radio Theatre audio drama adaptations. There is a campaign to help revive the series again! 
You can find the details here on the forum:

https://community.narniaweb.com/index.php/community/postid/346486/

I've just started re-listening to the Focus on the Family adaptations of the Chronicles, beginning with LWW... yes, I know they were made to be listened to in chronological order (i.e. beginning with MN), but I'm a publication order purist, so there.  

Overall they did an excellent job, although now that I'm listening again (this is my second hearing of the whole thing), I can pick out a few minor things that I reckon could have been done a little better. For example, they give Susan the line "Of all the poisonous little beasts" in reference to Edmund when he accidentally reveals he has been in Narnia before and he lied about it, but then later Edmund (talking to himself) rails against Peter for calling him a little beast. (It is actually Peter's line in the book.) Plus, although they kept in the prophecy "When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone...", they left out the glorious verse "Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight...", which has stayed with me ever since I first heard it as a 4-year-old (when my mum first read the book to me)!! Only a minor matter, but it does increase the suspense and anticipation of us learning more about Aslan, and it's such an iconic quote that you'd think they could have afforded the minute or so longer it would have taken to put it in...

David Suchet overall does a great job with the emotional range Aslan's voice needs to cover (especially when speaking quietly and solemnly), but I did find myself wishing he could have pitched it a bit deeper at times and that they could have perhaps done just a little post-production work to make his voice sound a bit more resonant and... well, a bit more like it's coming from a huge and magnificent wild animal, rather than from a bloke who also played Poirot.   But then, I also felt that except in the bit just before she kills Aslan, the White Witch (Elizabeth Counsell) mostly sounded a bit too high-pitched and even a little too sweet, rather than cruel and dangerous and scary. (Or, as one who grew up with the BBC TV series, am I just too used to the legendary (over-) acting of Barbara Kellerman?? )

But apart from the minor I-wouldn't-have-done-it-that-way quibbles, this is a brilliant adaptation and just listening to one instalment has definitely whetted my appetite for more. But not just more of this version... I have now decided to take the plunge and do a comparative listening to the largely neglected BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of the Chronicles. I've never heard them before and have just bought the complete set on eBay, so once they arrive, I'll listen to LWW immediately, so I can do a direct back-to-back comparison of the two radio adaptations while the FOTF one is still fresh in my mind. And I will do that, bit by bit, with the two radio versions of all seven of the Chronicles.

Reviews and impressions will be posted here as I go! I'm really looking forward to this.  

Posted by: @courtenay

For example, they give Susan the line "Of all the poisonous little beasts" in reference to Edmund when he accidentally reveals he has been in Narnia before and he lied about it, but then later Edmund (talking to himself) rails against Peter for calling him a little beast. (It is actually Peter's line in the book.)

It's perfectly valid that Ed would rail against Peter over this, whoever had actually said it! He didn't have the same issues with Su as with Peter.

Posted by: @coracle

It's perfectly valid that Ed would rail against Peter over this, whoever had actually said it! He didn't have the same issues with Su as with Peter.

Fair enough, but it's just an inaccuracy that stands out — in the book, it's Peter who says the line about "poisonous little beasts", whereas in this radio adaptation, it's Susan who says it, and yet Edmund later names Peter as saying it.

Peter does also tell him off in this version, with most of the other lines he has in the book, and certainly gives Edmund enough reason to resent him specifically. But I just find it strange that the scriptwriters decided to give one of Peter's strongest "anti-Edmund" lines to Susan, then have Edmund later attribute it to Peter. It doesn't add anything to the plot at all, except to make it sound like Edmund has a short memory — or that he's somehow so overwhelmed by his anger towards Peter specifically that he blames Peter for everything and forgets that those particular castigating words came from Susan.

I'd also say it's a bit out of character for Susan "the Gentle" to call Edmund something so harsh. From what we see of her, she's not normally as bluntly spoken as Peter can be and she would be more likely to talk down to Edmund and perhaps tell him how wrong he was, in a patronising sort of way — her talking-like-a-grown-up attitude — rather than calling him derogatory names. In the book, it's only Peter who reacts verbally to the revelation that Edmund has been in Narnia before, and Susan just quickly changes the subject after Peter says "Well, of all the poisonous little beasts —". That's why it then makes sense that Edmund later directs nearly all his ire towards Peter in particular, whereas in this version, you'd think he'd remember Susan told him off as well, even if he couldn't remember exactly who said what! It just doesn't quite make sense. But it doesn't spoil what is otherwise a wonderful adaptation!

While I'm here, I just remembered another thing about this version of LWW that really surprised me. While the Witch gives Turkish Delight to Edmund as they're talking, and he remarks on how good it is and asks for more and she promises him more if he will bring his brother and sisters to her, absolutely nothing is said (not even by the narrator) about this being "enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves."

To me, that's taking out a very important element of the plot. Edmund's own greed and pride and ambition and selfishness are definitely what allow the Witch to sway him to her side in the first place; she wouldn't have anything to work on if he wasn't already nurturing those sins in himself. But the book makes clear that he does still have a conscience and that even while he's trying to convince himself that the Witch is good and his siblings are all against him, he knows all along, deep down, that the Witch is cruel and evil. However, his addiction (there's no better word for it) to the enchanted Turkish Delight plays a major role in driving the bad side of his character to override the good side, repeatedly, therefore ensuring that he will betray his siblings and go to find the Witch.

I wonder why the writers and/or producers of this adaptation decided to leave that aspect out? Were they concerned about portraying addiction in a family-friendly radio play? Did they want Edmund to be more clearly to blame for his own transgressions, by leaving out the potential excuse of "he couldn't help it; he was under the spell of the Turkish Delight"? That omission was just a bit strange, I thought, since I always found the enchanted Turkish Delight one of the most memorable — and chilling — things about this story when I was little. To me, it's always been a powerful symbol of how evil can hook one in and take over one's thinking in ways that are almost impossible to resist without the help of a higher power than one's personal will or human reason. (That higher power being ultimately from Aslan, of course.) But unless there's an interview somewhere with the people who made this version, I guess we'll never know.

I'll have to listen out for how the BBC radio version handles that scene and see how it compares! Knowing the Beeb's traditional reputation, I'm guessing they will be even more faithful to the books than FOTF was — if that's possible — but I could be wrong. It'll be interesting to see, or hear, rather.