Landmark: Watership Down

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An ecological fable about a perfect society which terrified children when it was first animated. Matthew Sweet reads Richard Adams' classic as a new version arrives on UK TV screens. He's joined by Dr Diana Bell, conservation biologist at UEA; Victoria Dickenson, author of Rabbit, a cultural history of rabbits; Brian Sibley, adaptor of the novel for a radio version and New Generation Thinker Lisa Mullen to debate rabbits both real and fictional.

First published in 1972, Adams' novel follows rabbits escaping the destruction of their warren. Adams said that he told the tale to his daughters on car journeys and he rejected comparisons with the Bible tale of Moses and other religious symbolism. What do portrayals of rabbits in literature and film, from Peter Rabbit to Bugs Bunny, tell us about our own society? Matthew Sweet remembers being scared by the first animated film released in 1978. Now a new one from BBC TV and Netflix features the voices of James McAvoy, John Boyega and Gemma Arterton.

Producer: Harry Parker

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. Hello, I'm Matthew Sweet.
0:38.5	Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program,
0:42.4	which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate.
0:47.4	If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe.
0:50.2	Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast.
0:52.9	And while you're there, please rate and reviewers. It'll help other people find us.
0:58.0	Hello, I'm composer Michael Barclay, and I just want to let you know about my podcast, which I think you might enjoy.
1:04.5	It's called Private Passions. Every week, a different guest chooses the classical music they're passionate about.
1:11.0	People like Alan Bennett, Jan Ravens, Grace and Perry.
1:14.1	And what I love about it is how much people reveal of themselves when they're talking about
1:19.0	and listening to the music which moves them.
1:22.1	Just search for private passions in BBC Sounds.
1:25.8	Download the free app now.
1:28.6	It's never a bad idea to begin a programme with a quote from the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch.
1:35.4	So here's a quote from the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch.
1:40.1	Nora, what do you mean? How can you slander the bunnies that I love? You obviously haven't read the book.
1:47.2	They are not fascists. There are fascist bunnies in the story, but they are the baddies who are defeated after many exciting adventures by the goody social democratic rabbits.
1:57.9	It's a marvellous tale and highly moral. The hero is a saintly rabbit
2:02.9	with excellent moderate ideas on how a warren should be run. I loved it. Now, you probably
	...

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