Posted by Wayne Hammond on April 14, 1998 at 15:36:09:
25) Has anyone ever made a list either of radio adaptations of Ransome's works -- what they were, who read or performed them, when they were broadcast -- or of Ransome's own BBC broadcasts? Can anyone fill in some details? My notes include:
A letter of 12 Feb 1937 from a BBC representative to Ransome notes that the BBC hoped to begin broadcasting an adaptation of _Peter Duck_ on the BBC Children's Hour on Friday, 26 Feb. 1937, possibly to be 17 readings of about 20 minutes each.
_Winter Holiday_ was also adapted and broadcast.
An abridged version of _Pigeon Post_ was read by Gabriel Woolf on Radio 4's 'Story Time'.
Shelley's essay on Ransome notes dramatized versions of 'Swallows and Amazons' books on BBC radio, several of these read by Derek McCulloch.
Some 'Swallows and Amazons' book was dramatized on BBC radio on 23 Sept. 1943, on the Schools programme, 11.40 a.m.
A _Coot Club_ radio serial was in 6 parts.
Ransome evidently read some of his fishing essays on the BBC Third Programme.
There was of course also the film of _Swallows & Amazons_ on BBC TV in 1963, evidently in 6 parts, Sept.-Nov.; and a television film (possibly not BBC) of _Rod and Line_, with Michael Hordern playing Ransome.
I believe that there was someone on TARboard a couple of months ago who was interested in this subject, and said that she had a friend at the BBC who might help.
Wayne Hammond
Wayne.G.Hammond@williams.edu