Remember Radio 4’s The Lord Of The Rings?

Dramatist Brian Sibley chats to us about adapting that and TH White’s The Once And Future King…

So, were here to talk about your new radio adaptation of TH WhitesThe Once And Future King.

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He took out the witch that appeared in the Disney film, didnt he?

He took out Madam Mim, yes.

Would you like to say a few words about how you first came across TH Whites work?

But I dont know why, I kept coming back to it.

where you could request a licence to put on a Lerner and Loewe show.

This whole process began in January 2013, and it ended in February 2014.

It took an entire year, but we stuck at it.

Thats quite a tight schedule!

It was, and it was very, very hard to compress the work into that time.

Was covering all five books especially challenging, given the differences in tone between them?

Youve gone from turning into a bird to deep moral dilemmas very quickly!

In the book theyre accompanied by all the animals that Wart knew as a young boy.

As a framing rig?

I think thats inevitable!

Youve adaptedThe Lord Of The Ringsand all sevenChronicles Of Narniafor radio in the past.

How did adapting TH White compare to adapting Tolkien or Lewis?

It was harder becauseThe Lord Of The Ringsis a very clear, linear story.

They had their own issues and problems and difficulties.

But this project was harder than any of them for lots of reasons.

What White brings to the stories is something which nobody else has done.

White calls him the ill-made knight.

Hes not physically attractive in any sense, and yet he still manages to win the love of Guenever.

Thats a really interesting take.

But it allows him to mention things that he couldnt conceivably know about.

Those moral questions are as big in the story as anything to do with battles.

I was thrilled to have David.

Ive worked with David twice before.

Some years ago I did a version ofTitus GroanandGormenghastby Mervyn Peake and he played Lord Sepulchrave in that.

And for that, David Warner played the artist essentially, he played Mervyn Peake.

I love his performances and when it was suggested that he might play Merlyn I was thrilled and delighted.

I love what hes done with it, I think its fantastic.

Hes sensational, and the pair of them together are terrific.

And its a brilliant company of actors filling out the other parts.

And some really interesting sound pieces have been created, which is what I love so much about radio.

There are a couple, not a great number.

I hope people will not find it too quirky or weird!

That would be interesting.

TH White just says, Well, thats fine.

He was simply interested and intrigued as to how it was done.

I hope he would.

And if Ive captured any of that, that would be fantastic.

Brian Sibley, thank you very much!