The Man Born to Be King

by Harry on December 27, 2008

Fans of Dorothy L Sayers might be interested that BBC7 is repeating the 1975 version of The Man Born To Be King. It started on Christmas Day. I can’t exactly recommend it (except that Gabriel Woolf is in it, so it has to be good) because I’m taping every part before listening to them all in a row. (It occurs to me, writing this, that it is possible that I listened to the 1975 version in 1975, but I’ve no memory of it). Sayers regarded it as the pinnacle of her literary achievement; if she is even half right it is brilliant. The BBC appears to have lost the original recording (bloody typical) but the 1970s really were the heyday of radio drama, and it’s hard to believe that the 1940s version was as good.

And if Christianity is not to your taste, here are dramatisations of Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife (next week), which I can recommend from having heard them. They made me wish, as the best dramatisations do, that I’d not already read the books.

{ 7 comments }

1

bob mcmanus 12.27.08 at 10:25 pm

” so it has to be could”

Yglesias is infecting everybody.

2

Harry 12.28.08 at 12:27 am

fixed, along with others. Thanks.

3

Delicious Pundit 12.28.08 at 3:27 am

“So it has to be could” — that’s like part Yglesias, part St. Anselm.

4

roy belmont 12.28.08 at 4:45 am

“its hard to believe…”
And confirming the pattern, in the subsequent post:
“its the music that explains why…”.

5

Anderson 12.28.08 at 3:17 pm

“The Man Born Be King”

What’s with the ebonics? Is the entire radio play like that?

6

Harry 12.28.08 at 5:12 pm

All fixed. I was interrupted at the end of the drafting by the need to get several children out of their ice skates; decided to post without careful copyediting because I knew it would be a while before I’d get back to it and the BBC is time-sensitive. That’s an explanation, not an apology.

7

Anderson 12.29.08 at 2:15 pm

by the need to get several children out of their ice skates

Well, can’t question your priorities. I know how it goes — my 4YO is like several children all at once.

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