Now R4 clears its schedules ...

[french frank]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30228501

Radio 4 broadcasts 10 hours of War and Peace on New Year's Day with breaks only for the news ... The Archers.

'Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams described War and Peace as "arguably the best book ever written".'

Discuss.

[DracoM]

Will all 10 hrs be available on iPlayer in one single block?
The notion that many will be ale to sit down to lisen for all ten hours at a stretch.................+ The Archers...erm?

[mercia]

The Archers, aka War & Peace II, might fit in quite well. "R4's regular schedule will continue on long wave". A live running commentary on Twitter - hurrah.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/radio-4-to-broadcast-10hour-war-and-peace-on-new-years-day-as-controller-warns-of-cuts-squeeze-9887902.html

[Ms Williams] .......... expects listeners to “drop in” to the drama

[french frank]

[Ms Williams] .......... expects listeners to “drop in” to the drama

Good grief! I'm sure not everyone who starts it manages to get through to the end, but surely they don't 'dip in' randomly?

Still, it does show the advantage (one of them!) that R4 has over R3: when it 'clears the schedules' for some project it still has long wave for its usual fare.

[frankwm]

I bought (a few years back and at a small fraction of the £40 CD list-price) the 1997 R4 production - very lavish - and have never progressed beyond CD1 - 9hr30" is quite daunting - and a surreal idea for a single days transmission - as those constitute 10 episodes.
Doubtless R3 could be 'split' between FM/DAB to cater for 'novelties'.....

[Honoured Guest]

Will all 10 hrs be available on iPlayer in one single block?
The notion that many will be ale to sit down to lisen for all ten hours at a stretch.................+ The Archers...erm?

It's not quite ten hours at a single stretch, but ten hours over twelve and a half hours (9.00 am to 9.30 pm).

Apart from the long breaks for news programmes at lunchtime and early evening and the two shorter interludes to visit Ambridge, there will be the usual three minute breaks around the hour throughout the day.

The ten, hour-long episodes are to be rebroadcast in weekly instalments on Saturdays.

New Year's Day is probably the best day of the year for such an epic broadcast.

However, although I understand that a 9.00 am start will inherit the Today audience, it is ridiculously early for many people after the New Year's Eve celebrations, and I would have preferred this to go out later, say from 11.00 am to 12.00 midnight (with an extra break for The World Tonight).

[doversoul1]

Wall-to-wall classic literature accompanied by a live running commentary on Twitter and a website with family trees, maps and historical trivia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30228501

(as post by ff)

It’s obviously meant to be heard and joined in but not listened to. What’s new?

[Petrushka]

'Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams described War and Peace as "arguably the best book ever written".'

I've read the book twice (!) though admit that I skipped Tolstoy's ramblings about history which conclude the book when I came to it for the second time. I can only agree that it is indeed the greatest book ever written.

I'll be waltzing in Vienna on New Year's Day, courtesy of BBC2, so won't be listening to the R4 broadcast but it's giving me the urge to read it a third time.

[french frank]

I've read the book twice (!) though admit that I skipped Tolstoy's ramblings about history which conclude the book when I came to it for the second time. I can only agree that it is indeed the greatest book ever written.

A 'radio adaptation' is W&P made easy. This version 'stars John Hurt, Simon Russell Beale and Lesley Manville'. I wonder why, Pet, you think it's 'the greatest book [sic] ever written' if it has such boring ramblings that you skipped over them?

I still remember (bits of) the television production way back when, and the work certainly lends itself to dramatisation. But, to me, this isn't 'the book'. Or even 'the novel'.

[amateur51]

A 'radio adaptation' is W&P made easy. This version 'stars John Hurt, Simon Russell Beale and Lesley Manville'. I wonder why, Pet, you think it's 'the greatest book [sic] ever written' if it has such boring ramblings that you skipped over them?

I still remember (bits of) the television production way back when, and the work certainly lends itself to dramatisation. But, to me, this isn't 'the book'. Or even 'the novel'.

I seem to recall Woody Allen's saying "War & Peace? I loved the War, I loved the Peace but oh the And!'

[amateur51]

I've read the book twice (!) though admit that I skipped Tolstoy's ramblings about history which conclude the book when I came to it for the second time. I can only agree that it is indeed the greatest book ever written.

I'll be waltzing in Vienna on New Year's Day, courtesy of BBC2, so won't be listening to the R4 broadcast but it's giving me the urge to read it a third time.

I'll be dodging the annual schmaltz-fest but I doubt I'll be able to take in W&P.

Have they included 'comfort breaks'?

[Petrushka]

A 'radio adaptation' is W&P made easy. This version 'stars John Hurt, Simon Russell Beale and Lesley Manville'. I wonder why, Pet, you think it's 'the greatest book [sic] ever written' if it has such boring ramblings that you skipped over them?

I still remember (bits of) the television production way back when, and the work certainly lends itself to dramatisation. But, to me, this isn't 'the book'. Or even 'the novel'.

Presumably, you refer to the 1972 BBC TV adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins and Morag Hood? This was my first exposure to War and Peace in any format and I was so won over that I begged for the Penguin two volume set for Christmas that year.

Tolstoy's ramblings on history form the very end of the book when the story has finished and are like an addendum, nothing more, and so easily skipped on a second reading without any harm done. It's all a matter of opinion, of course, but the sheer epic scale of the novel, the intimate dinner parties, grand balls, the love story of Pierre and Natasha alongside the terrifying scenes of battle and Napoleon's retreat from Moscow make it an engrossing read. As someone (forget who) said: 'Tolstoy holds up a mirror to human nature as surely as does Shakespeare'. This is what, for me, makes it the greatest book ever written.

On the subject of adaptations, by far the best, in my view, is the 1956 Russian film directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It captures the essence of the novel as no other can.

Bondarchuk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Peace-DV...ace+bondarchuk

BBC 1972: http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Peace-BB...+and+peace+bbc

[french frank]

Presumably, you refer to the 1972 BBC TV adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins and Morag Hood? This was my first exposure to War and Peace in any format and I was so won over that I begged for the Penguin two volume set for Christmas that year.

The very one. And Alan Dobie (whom I had seen as Iago at the Bristol Old Vic) as Bolkhonsky.

It will be for the regular R4 listeners to decide what they make of the marathon - whether they would prefer it as a 10-part weekly serial (the same argument as some make about R3's completathons).

I seem to be arguing both ways in not finding Hamlet in 5 daily episodes appealing, but a single play in one sitting is quite usual, whereas War & Peace in one sitting appears not even to be intended (hence the 'dropping in' comment).

[gurnemanz]

When our choir did Carmina Burana a few years ago we decided we needed to beef up our numbers and sent round to other local choirs to see if anyone would care to participate. I found myself sitting next to a very affable gentleman on the bass bench. After a couple of weeks, I asked him about his line of work to discover with some interest that he was, like me, a linguist. It transpired that he was Tony Briggs and had translated War and Peace for the latest Penguin edition. He kindly presented me with a signed copy which turned out to be the stimulus I needed to read it for the first time. I read it very carefully, regularly having to recap on characters and locations, and it was a great experience. I will also admit to giving up on the historical theory postlude. His translation differs from some previous translations in rendering the soldiers' dialogue more realistically, though I only spotted one use of the f word.

[mercia]

an Archers versus Rostovs quiz - which doesn't work on my browser

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4QRbdbn7shHwYDtcml9N2Vl/the-archers-vs-the-rostovs?ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=inxmail_newsletter&ns_campaign=bbcradio4_radio__&ns_linkname=na&ns_fee=0