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John Wyndham: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art

John Wyndham: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

By: John Wyndham
Narrated by: Bill Nighy,Peter Sallis,Barbara Shelley
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Summary

Bill Nighy, Barbara Shelley and Peter Sallis are among the cast in six classic BBC Radio dramatisations of stories by one of Britain's most popular science fiction authors.

'The Day of the Triffids', first broadcast in 1968, is set in a world in which most people have been left blind after a meteor shower, and lethal carnivorous triffids are roaming the land. 'The Kraken Wakes', dramatised for radio in 1998, is a gripping story of monsters from the deep, alien invasion and ecological disaster.

'The Chrysalids', first broadcast in 1981, explores the dangers of being different, while the 1989 adaptation of short story 'Survival' focuses on the lengths people will go to in order to survive.

'The Midwich Cuckoos', broadcast in 2003, is a disturbing tale of a village sealed off from the world for a day and subsequently taken over by terrifying inhuman children.

Dramatised for radio in 1998, 'Chocky' is a chilling tale of a boy who appears to be communicating with an invisible friend. Also included is 'Beware the Stare!', a half-hour radio documentary looking at 'The Midwich Cuckoos' in print and on screen.

Note: These are the BBC Transcription versions of The Day of the Triffids, prepared for sale to overseas territories. At the time, 12 minutes of material was deleted from these episodes to bring down the running time. However, these deleted scenes have been recovered and are included as bonus extra content at the end of the final episode.

©2017 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2017 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

What listeners say about John Wyndham: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A poorly assembled collection by Audible

I love these stories, stories of my childhood and the dramatic delivery is enjoyable.

Except, in some of the stories the chapters have been put in the wrong order, huge jumps between events, some mid sentence, then at the end all the missing parts are thrown on the end of the story.

Has been reported to Audible but they are unwilling to do anything about it.

They should, at the very least mark this up as having a chaotic edit that will leave readers bemused.

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81 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Oh my god sooooo good

I absolutely loved this. The dramatization was excellent. I was completely sucked into every story. Wyndham is a legend and these adaptations are classics I will listen to over and over again.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A mixed bag

One of the drawbacks which is presumably something that Audible control, is the lack of named books and chapters on the sidebar so you can choose easily to pick up or miss a particular story.
The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos are well known to most people some of the other stories may not be as well known . Overall despite the fact that they are unsettling, scary stories what struck me most was how dated they sounded . I found the portrayal of women just wearing in the end. It's been a long time since I read the Day of the Triffids, for example, perhaps it's the radio production focuses attention of the listener to this aspect more than reading the books. Perhaps it's simply because the books are a product of their time but it got in the way of my enjoyment. The highlight however was listening to Bill Nighys performance in the Midwich Cuckoos, such a great delivery, I could listen to him reading the phone book.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic adaptations of classic stories

A little treasure trove of apocalyptic gems. Wyndham was a pioneer and, although the adaptations are somewhat abridged, they capture the spirit of the novels nicely. The vast majority of the voice acting is great and the effects suitably atmospheric, personally I had no problem hearing the voices over them.

As for the review that states the Triffids has parts out if sequence - the reviewer didn’t read that these were 10 minutes trimmed from the overseas version and included here as bonus material!

The collection wraps up with a short piece on Wyndham’s life which gives us a tiny glimpse into a very private man.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Listen to the originals instead

These are not good adaptations of some really rather good stories. Day Of The Triffids isn't bad but they get progressively worse and I genuinely cannot fathom why they did what they did to The Midwich Cuckoos. I advise you to get the original stories which are brilliant and interesting.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun, nostalgic, but too abridged?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Fun, nostalgic, but too abridged. Only a couple of JW's books seem audiobooked - Kraken and Triffids. Otherwise this trip into childhood nostalgia and the Great Brish Disaster Story only available in these BBC productions. Reading now difficult, and I really could not remember the plots of some at all - this was the only way to get at them. Come on audidible, get on with recording more of the SF classics.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

BBC and actors great, as usual from auntie.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

SPOILED BY BACKGROUND "EFFECTS" OF THE DAY

What did you like best about John Wyndham: A BBC Radio Drama Collection? What did you like least?

The books are classic although changed a little in these presentations

What was one of the most memorable moments of John Wyndham: A BBC Radio Drama Collection?

Day of The Triffids is the best, the BOOK is even better

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

No narrator but the background Si Fi noises were really on edge and off-putting but I guess were effects of the day

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No, ones imagination is by far the best.For example the WAR OF THE WORLDS film/films were, in my opinion,a disaster.

Any additional comments?

A journey back to the BBC of that time!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting and superb performance

I was hooked on this from the moment it started playing. The BBC have done a great job in adapting Wyndham's stories and the voice actors give a delightful performance that really brings the stories to life. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Overall not bad..

Classic stories delivered in radio performances from different eras. Some better than others, spoilt only by some poor indexing of the segments making bits confusing in places.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant adaptations with excellent cast.

I enjoyed each of these radio dramatisations enormously. I have only read The Crysalids, Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes, so can't comment on how faithful the other adaptations are. I wasn't familiar with the story 'Survival', which was a nice, enjoyably creepy addition. Highly recommend this audio book.

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5 people found this helpful