...And they censor some of the violence and the drinking of wine.

I love the audio dramas! I've used them more than the books. When the movie LWW came out I was disappointed because Aslan didn't sound like David Suchet!

You were disappointed? Hercule Poroit, I mean David Suchet was not a good Aslan. He had the booming, commanding voice but his annunciation just ruined it for me. His Aslan is one of the few things I don't like about the Radio Dramas.

I like David Suchet's voicing of Aslan and Paul Scofield's narration (a very warm, comfy-sounding narrator).

I think Suchet really tried to sound lion-y, which was why he did sound funny in certain spots, but overall I liked him, very fitting for audio. I don't like the voicing of Reepicheep though in the Focus on the Family CDs. As I said previously, Reep sounded like an older woman trying to sound like a little mouse....something was off.

I love the audiobooks! I got the CD set for my birthday after receiving the book series the previous Christmas. My favorite, hands down, is the Last Battle. Horse and His Boy is high on the list, however - my favorite part is when Shasta and Aslan are walking over the mountain pass ("I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.") It gives me the chills every time I listen to it.

I also really enjoyed Prince Caspian. The magic of the story that was lost in the movie was really brought to life in the audiobook. To be honest, I like the audiobooks way more then I'll probably ever like the movies.

As for favorite sections of specific stories, I really love the end of The Silver Chair where Puddleglum stands up to the Lady of the Green Kirtle. Fantastic. I also thought the ending of The Magician's Nephew (where Aslan gives a warning and command to Digory and Polly) was very well done. "Soon, very soon, before you are an old man and you are an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware."

And he called out "Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us now. Let me be killed then, but come and save all Narnia. Oh, Aslan, please. If you will not come yourself, send the helpers from beyond the world. Or let me call them. Let my voice carry beyond the world. Children! Children! Friends of Narnia, quick! Come to me! Across the worlds I call you; I, Tirian, King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands."

^^ This part from the Last Battle definitely a favorite part of mine.

So, yes. I think the audiobooks are excellent. Next to Jim Dale's Harry Potter, I can't think of any I like more (adaption-wise, not necessarily story-wise). The one thing I dislike is the voice of Aslan. He speaks sooo slowly, and his overly-exaggerated expression is very irritating at times. But other than that, yes - spectacular.

Aslan's voice for the most part is not good, some parts of the books are edited out to be more friendly for conservative Christian audiences (oh, the irony). Otherwise, they're great.

Funny, that was also my initial reaction to the FotF audio dramas, which I only acquired Friday week ago. I'm trying to listen to HHB @ this time. The BBC radio dramas have Stephen Thorne as Aslan, which I have long preferred. The Focus on the Family bloke seems a bit 'put on', and it wasn't until I listened to the LWW CD's that I realised what he was trying to do - imitate a wild, lion-like Aslan voice.

I agree that radio plays are great on a journey, and yes, the journey/journeys in my case is the daily trudge to work then home again, since there is no direct public transport link between my home and place of employ. I still have to listen to the remaining CD's, from Prince Caspian to the end.

Is there a thread anywhere in NarniaWeb to make a comparison between the BBC radio plays and the Focus on the Family radio plays? That would be an interesting comparison, especially in the case of MN.

Inspector Poirot (David Suchet) does Aslan's voice on the FotF. Funny, though he voices Aslan completely different in the MN versus later on. Don't know if it's because Aslan talks a lot more in MN....I couldn't figure that out. A comparison thread would be nice.

I really like Paul Scofield as the narrator. He gives the warm and comfy feeling that I like when someone's telling me a story. Plus all of the kid voice actors suit their characters.

Yes, Paul Schofield's voice is good. In some ways it is a more neutral sort of voice, which for a narrator is preferable to Maurice Denham's voice as the Professor on the BBC radio plays. Somehow his voice is too snobby and plummy BBC. Nice for a professor or for someone who is a colonel or something. But he slurs his speech too much. Every time I hear it I think of those upper-class British Gentlemen's clubs where women are not allowed as a rule, and where Sherlock Holmes is free to say, 'elementary my dear Watson', in his most patronising voice. On the other hand, it is the interaction between the Professor, both as a narrator and a participant, and the other characters, which links the BBC audio dramas so well into a cohesive series.

So far, I have only heard Magician's Nephew and LWW completely in both versions, though I have nearly finished HHB, which is startlingly different from my original BBC version. The BBC radio play intersperses Aravis' Tashbaan adventure with Shasta's experiences with Queen Susan's entourage. By contrast, in the FotF drama, Aravis relates her own adventures to Shasta and the horses whilst they are crossing the desert. I'm not sure which version I prefer yet, though I like the BBC Aravis better as a character than the FotF one.

And maybe this is as good a place as any to discuss and compare both sets of audio dramas or radio plays, if the moderators don't mind.

I do not like David Suchet as Aslan at all. The voice was just too high-pitched in several places and he was just trying to hard to sound like a lion. I like the movie Aslan's voice a lot better.

One of the reasons SC is my favorite book is because I have such good memories of it while listening to SC for the first time. I had gotten it for Christmas a REALLY long time ago, as well as an Ester doll (Ester is my favorite Bible story and asked for a barbie-type doll for Christmas and somehow my parents found it). She was dressed perfectly for going on a Narnian adventure in my opinion and I would use her to act as Jill while I listened to it. good times, good times...

Sorry, I haven't listened to the SC one yet, though it is the next story to hear. I only bought the Focus on the Family audio drama from Amazon a few weeks ago. I think the VDT CD's were on the end of the package, and that customs might have been looking at my legitimate purchase due to the recent VDT DVD release. When I took the cellophane wrap off it, the casing fell to pieces and there was some difficulty in playing all the CD's, either because of the casing scratching the CD's or because of finger prints over the playing side of the CD.

However, they worked fine on a different CD player. It was interesting to listen to this version. The music was partly based on Gustav Holst's Planets suite. The Deathwater scene has a different version to that of either the book, the BBC radio play or the BBC television series of VDT. In this version, Caspian accuses Edmund of wanting to take the gold out of Narnia, and it is easy to see how the recent film used that version and was influenced by it.

In other ways it was true to the book, such as in Eustace's undragoning, though I think Eustace bringing back the mast for the Dawn Treader wasn't mentioned, unlike the BBC radio play or the book. In yesterday's FotF version, just like the book, Lucy noticed the beauty spell but read the eavesdropping one. Aslan reprimands her for eavesdropping on friends, and explains that Adela Pennyfather and Margery Preston were trying to impress each other at Lucy's expense.

This contrasts sharply with all other versions which tend to omit this spell as well as the one with the good story. All three other versions, ie the BBC radio play, the Walden film and the BBC television production all emphasize the beauty spell. In either the BBC radio play or the television spell, can't remember which, Aslan reprimands Lucy, asking her how long she has envied her sister.

Another difference I noted between the BBC and FotF audio plays/dramas, was that the BBC version spells are read out by a chorus of people which mades a really good effect I always enjoyed, whereas in the FotF version, it is Lucy's commentary I heard.

Whether because I was listening more carefully or not, I noted that the book and the audio plays have a sprig of heather to test the golden water at Deathwater, whereas both the film and the BBC television production have a shell being coated with gold. It would be quite interesting to compare all four versions on their own thread, if the Moderators think it is a good idea.

But when these versions were made? You all don't like Aslan's voice, so maybe it's an old version which needs to be re-recorded? Or maybe something was wrong during the recording?

The Focus on the Family Radio Dramas of The Chronicles of Narnia were made and broadcast between 1998-2002. I think the reason most people said they disliked David Suchet voicing Aslan is most likely because they didn't like how he pronounces his words as Aslan....not that these versions are old. He sounds really slow at times and trying hard (maybe too hard sometimes) to sound "lion-like". Though when I recently listened to The Magician's Nephew, he actually didn't sound too slow in pronunciation to me compared to how he sounded in The Silver Chair.

The Focus on the Family Radio Dramas of Narnia are the best of the audio versions of the stories out there, in my personal opinion.

Oh. 1998 wasn't so once upon a time. Also 2002. I didn't hear audio versions, because I'm Polish. But I really want to do it and I'm sad because of it. I am only 11 years old and I love all Narnia versions.

Yes there are two types of audio drama. The BBC version has a copyright of 1994, whilst the American Radio Theatre (Focus on the Family) version was a bit later on. I think that both versions are available from Amazon UK. Both are good versions, but it was only recently I could get the American FotF version. Unfortunately, I wouldn't know if there are Polish or any other language translations available in either product. Buying a whole set of the chronicles in either BBC or Focus on the family can be very expensive, but I think that each FotF audio CD Narnia story can also be bought individually. I know the BBC ones are sold that way in Australia, normally, and not usually as a set.

Listening to audio CD versions, like the Narnia stories, is a good way of learning and understanding English, if you are studying it, and much more fun than merely looking at grammar and vocabulary etc. Also, I like to listen to CD's on the car audio, whilst travelling or driving.

The two versions are completely different although they recognisably relate the same story. Neither is a straightforward reading of the book.

Take the Horse and His boy, the first of the BBC ones I bought. I have always loved this book, and loved the CD as well. Unlike the other BBC audio plays, which join the rest of the chronicles, with the Professor and the children providing linking commentary, this 2 disc pack tends to be a stand-alone. When Aravis and Shasta reach Tashbaan, their stories intertwine. Unlike the 3 disc FotF version, there is a change of CD where Shasta is at the Tombs, being defended by Aslan from the jackals.

I'm beginning to love the FotF version as well. It is not only Douglas Gresham's commentaries at the beginning and end of each story which adds a bit of value in the FotF versions. But also the little opening snippets at the start of each story are quite good, especially the HHB one. Here we hear Aslan pushing the baby Shasta in his boat for Arsheesh to collect, and we also hear the battle when Shasta was abducted from King Lune's castle.

Aravis's adventures in Tashbaan are told differently, however. Shasta's story is the main one, and Aravis tells Shasta what happened in Tashbaan later on, after they were reunited and were travelling through the desert. I wasn't sure I liked this way of telling her story, as Lazaraleen is seen more through Aravis' eyes rather than as a different character in her own right. But I agree it is a good way of organising the story.

The FotF HHB version Bree and Hwin characters are spoken as you would imagine horses speaking, with little neighs and snickers, just like a horse. This is a pleasant contrast to the FotF Silver Chair, where the owls didn't really sound as owlish as in the BBC version. However, the Aslan for FotF takes some getting used to. Perhaps he tries too hard to speak the way you would imagine a lion would speak. As for other characters, I prefer the Edmund and the Rabadash of BBC. Somehow their voices are more distinctive and appropriate, especially the BBC Rabadash.

Otherwise, these are both enjoyable versions I love. I'll do comparisons of the two Last Battle versions later on.