The Narnia Code, a new documentary based on Dr. Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia, is something we’d heard about late last year. It’s been a few months and is now complete and ready to air. We haven’t seen it yet, but you can watch a preview video for it here.
It is airing on BBC1 this upcoming Thursday, 16 April from 10:35-11:35pm.
Books Illustrated Ltd is exhibiting at the Salisbury Museum from 4 April to 4 July. ‘The Wonder of Illustration’ features original artwork by Andrew Skilleter for C. S. Lewis’ fantastic tales of Narnia. All pieces of art on display are for sale.
In the late 1980s, the BBC began to adapt for radio The Chronicles of Narnia. Brian Sibley, writer, dramatist and broadcaster was responsible for the acclaimed dramatisation of this classic for BBC Radio 4. Brian had earlier dramatised the epic Radio 4 Lord of the Rings, a brilliant realisation for radio of another great classic.
Relive the magic of Narnia as the BBC Children’s Classics Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader are re-released on DVD.
BBC Worldwide invites you to relive the magic of Narnia as the delightful adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ classic stories Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are re-released on DVD. Originally broadcast on the BBC in 1989, these much-loved stories have been digitally re-mastered and will be available for just £9.99 from June 16th 2008.
With the much-anticipated Disney film due to hit the big screen this Summer, Narnia-mania is set to be at an all-time high. The original BBC adaptations of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are timeless classics that welcome children and parents alike to live the excitement of C.S.Lewis’ stories in the comfort of their own home.
BBC Worldwide will also release the full The Chronicles of Narnia: Collector’s Edition boxset on DVD for £19.99. The boxset includes adaptations of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Silver Chair in addition to Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader plus a disc packed with special features. All DVDs will also be available to buy separately.
After saving Narnia from the evil curse of the wicked White Witch, the Pevensie children’s hearts are never far from the land of Narnia. Indeed, the magic they left behind as Kings and Queen of Narnia allows them to be called upon to help Prince Caspian, to defend himself against his evil uncle. Reepicheep’s the courageous and valiant mouse, played by Warwick Davies, and the other magical animals join Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy in their quest to help Prince Caspian regain his rightful rule over the magical land. Aslan, the great lion, is never far away to guide them when the children most need him.
Lucy and Edmond are begrudgingly staying with their annoying cousin Eustace when they are captured by a picture; a picture that once again takes them to their favourite place, the land of Narnia, where animals talk and horses fly. This time Eustace is drawn in by the magic and they find themselves in the sea by Prince Caspian’s mighty ship, The Dawn Treader.
They learn that their mission with Prince Caspian, played by Sam West, is to find the seven missing lords who were friends of Caspian’s father, but who summoned them into Narnia?
On an epic voyage of exploration, temptation, fear, betrayal and trickery the children, Edmond, Lucy and Eustace help Prince Caspian and his trusted mouse friend Reepicheep learn the fate of the seven missing lords. Will they reach the edge of the World? Can they save the Lords? Encountering sea serpents, dragons and invisible enemies, they strive to break the evil enchantment at the end of this momentous voyage.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Collector’s Edition DVD Boxset
We follow the story of the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy as they are transported on a breathtaking adventure through the enchanted land of Narnia. This is a fantasy world full of witches, giants and talking fauns, not to mention Aslan, the unforgettable Great Lion. In the later stories the Pevensie’s cousin Eustace and his school friend Jill also become caught up in dangerous quests and thrilling journeys through Narnia.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Collector’s Edition boxset includes a whole DVD dedicated to special features including: a specially recorded interview which reunites the Pevensie children for the first time in 15 years; several classic Blue Peter ‘behind-the scenes’ clips from the late 1980’s; special effects, costume and set design features; outtakes and a quiz.
No word on if this set is coming to the US, as of yet.
From Narnia.com, Warwick Davis will be playing Nikabrik the Dwarf in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Mr. Davis is 3’ 6″ tall (1 meter).
Warwick Davis got his start in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. He went on to star as Willow. He’s since been seen in many films playing short characters including the Star Wars prequels, the Harry Potter films, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
This also marks a return to the world of Narnia. He was last seen in the BBC Narnia films as Reepicheep the Mouse in Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Glimfeather the Owl in The Silver Chair!
Welcome back to Narnia, Warwick Davis! I’ve very excited that you’ve joined the cast. I’ve been a big fan of yours since I was very young. I hope that you enjoy your stay in Narnia again!
[View our Warwick Davis page, here on NarniaFans.com!]
Richard Dempsey is the actor who played Peter in the BBC’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” He’s now 33; and will be in the stage show “Dirty Dancing” starting next week at Aldwych Theatre.
He told the WHT: “I knew I wanted to be an actor when I played Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Holy Family School in WGC. I was about nine years old at the time and I had this ‘lightbulb’ moment. It came out of the blue for me as no one in my family is in the profession, but I just fell in love with it. I used to go to the Barn Theatre in WGC too.”
However, it wasn’t until he was 14 that he got his big break in the CS Lewis Narnia tales on TV.
“I was really shy at the auditions though,” he said. “Everybody was putting up their hands to play parts in the auditions apart from me. But the BBC recognised something different in me and being in the series was a great experience which never leaves me. People still talk about it now.”
Since then the former Sir Fred’s pupil has gone on to star in ITV’s Sherlock Holmes series, Inspector Alleyn, Wycliffe and stage shows including Fame.
He will play Neil Kellerman in Dirty Dancing, the geeky son of a holiday camp owner.
“I’m trying not to play him as a geek though,” he explained. “If you think of him like that it makes him harder to play, so I’ve concentrated on the subplot where he is involved in civil rights.”
Richard will be appearing at the Aldwych Theatre from Tuesday.
Geoffrey Burgon for gave Narniaweb the opportunity to ask him some questions about his Narnia scores. Burgon wrote the music for the BBC productions of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian/The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair.
NW: How did you first become involved with the BBC Narnia project?
The producer asked me to write for the show, probably because of other scores that I’d written for TV.
NW: When did you first come into contact with the Narnia stories?
Although I’d heard of them I had never read any of the books, until I got involved in the series.
NW: Did you take inspiration from the books when writing the music?
The inspiration came from the films, rather than the books.
NW: How did you go about inventing memorable themes for characters like Aslan and Tumnus?
I watch the videos over and over at home, in a “rough cut” form, and wait for ideas to come.
NW: Did you have an idea about what “Narnian” music should sound like?
Not until I’d watched the films. Then I tried to write a theme that embodied Aslan’s nobilty and strength.
See the source link for the rest
[Order the The Chronicles of Narnia Score by Geoffrey Burgon from Amazon.com]
Silva Screen Records has announced the release dates of “The Chronicles of Narnia: Music from the BBC Television Series” by composer Geoffrey Burgon. It will be released in the UK and other territories on October 10th, and in the US on November 8th. **SPOILERS**
The suite is scored for strings with flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, horn, timpani and percussion and begins with the stately “Aslan’s Theme” – the lion who is the Lord and saviour of Narnia and its people. Horn and trumpet fanfares introduce “The Great Battle,” where Aslan and his followers, including the children, fight against the wicked White Witch and all manner of repulsive creatures under her power. On her arrival in Narnia, Lucy has afternoon tea with Mr. Tumnus the faun, afterwards he plays to her – “Mr Tumnus’ Tune” (flute and strings). In “The Storm at Sea” the ship, Dawn Treader, encounters a turbulent ocean after leaving the Lone Islands – a scherzando for full orchestra. In order to save Edmund from being killed by the White Witch, Aslan offers himself up for sacrifice – the sombre music quotes the “Crucifixus” from the Bach B Minor Mass. A march signals the exciting exploits on the road to Harfang before the horn introduction to the finale as the children bid farewell to Aslan and Narnia – their adventures at an end… for this time being.
On November 8th, Geoffrey Burgon’s score for the BBC’s Chronicles of Narnia series will be released by Silva America. Not much else is known about this album at this time. I have contacted the company involved in the release to find out more information and hope to have some very soon.
To order this album:
Amazon.com – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Television Scores of Geoffrey Burgon
With the building expectation for the feature-film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, BBC Audio Books have recently reissued Brian Sibley’s classic radio dramatization of CS Lewis’ entire Chronicles of Narnia (from The Magician’s Nephew to The Last Battle) in a limited edition.
Featuring a cast that includes Maurice Denham, Martin Jarvis, Fiona Shaw, Sylvester McCoy and John Sessions, the seven double-CD sets come handsomely boxed in their own ‘wardrobe’ and are accompanied by a booklet ‘Beyond the Wardrobe Door’, in which Brian tells how the series was brought to the microphone.
The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia Radio Theatre) [ABRIDGED VERSION]
With work under way on a film of CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, BBC News Online’s Greg McKevitt investigates the roots of its Belfast-born author and the Northern Ireland settings that fired his boyhood imagination.
A statue was unveiled in Belfast in 1998, the centenary of Lewis’ birth.
Ever since the Lord of the Rings trilogy came to the cinemas, New Zealand’s spectacular scenery has been associated with the Oscar-winning recreation of Middle Earth imagined by the books’ author JRR Tolkien.
Hoping to repeat this success, the Disney company has announced it is backing a movie of CS Lewis’ most famous tale.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe describes a war in a frozen fantasy land between the forces of darkness, led by the White Witch, and the forces of good, led by the lion Aslan.
With its fantasy setting and cross-generational appeal, Walt Disney executive Dick Cook obviously had the Tolkien adaptations in mind when he said it had “the potential to be just the start of an extraordinary series”.
Although it will be filmed in New Zealand, many believe the imaginary world of Narnia was inspired by Lewis’ childhood in east Belfast.
The author left for boarding school in England in his early teens after his mother died, and spent much of his adult life as an academic in Oxford, depicted by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the 1993 biopic Shadowlands.
However, Northern Ireland always remained in his heart, and he would return for annual holidays.
In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis wrote: “Heaven is Oxford lifted and placed in the middle of the County Down.”
When he was seven-years-old, his family moved to Little Lea, a detached Edwardian home which still stands on Circular Road in east Belfast, privately-owned and marked only by a commemorative blue plaque.
CS Lewis’ boyhood home, Little Lea, which sparked his imagination.
Tony Wilson, Chairman of the CS Lewis Association of Ireland, said this was the home of the wardrobe where the author would hide and dream up his make-believe worlds.
“I’m sure this set off the idea in the book of opening the wardrobe and the young boy getting inside,” he said.
“Once you shut yourself inside a wardrobe, you can imagine anything.”
Lewis wrote in his autobiography that he lived “entirely in (his) imagination” during his time there.
“I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstair indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also of endless books.”
Mr Wilson said some believed that Lewis got the inspiration for Narnia’s topography from the view near Stormont of the distant Mourne mountains and Strangford Lough in County Down.
But what about the lion?
The author’s grandfather was a minister about a mile down the road at St Mark’s Church in the city.
At the old rectory, an ornate handle in the shape of a lion’s head can be found on the door, at about head-height for a child aged five or six.
The door knocker which some say inspired the character Aslan.
It’s not clear whether this was the direct inspiration, as the character of Aslan the lion was intended as a metaphor for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Tolkien even had an indirect influence on Lewis’ Christianity.
The two men were both lecturers at Oxford and they were close friends who shared an interest in medieval history and mythology, according to Mr Wilson.
“While Tolkien was writing the Lord of the Rings, he would meet Lewis and a number of other lecturers at a private room in an Oxford pub,” he said.
As a devout Catholic, Tolkien had an indirect effect on Lewis’ eventual conversion from atheism to Christianity, as the pair would have long conversations about religion and theology.
David Bleakley, author of the book CS Lewis: At Home in Ireland, said the two men were also fascinated by children’s imaginations.
“Lewis had great faith in the common sense and innate decency of children,” he said.
Mr Bleakley said the reason for the Chronicles of Narnia’s enduring success was its broad appeal.
“The thing about Lewis which is different to most writers is that he’s international and inter-generational,” he said.
“I think 30m copies of his books were sold in the US last year.”
In 1998, a statue was erected at Holywood Arches library in east Belfast to mark the centenary of Lewis’ birth.
The life-size bronze depicts Digory Kirke, the writer’s fictional alter ego, entering Narnia through the magic wardrobe.
Although filmmakers may look to New Zealand in conjuring up Narnia, what fired Lewis’ imagination can be found a lot closer to home.
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