British Comedy Guide

TV into audio-only sitcoms Page 2

I think AudioGo has recently released Rev as an audio series.

They have indeed, well remembered!

I borrowed some CDs of The Good Life from our local library some months back. They were quite nice because modern day Penelope Keith added some narration to the soudtrack of the TV show to substitute the essential visual info.

I've heard BBC audio of Porridge episodes where they added only a couple of phrases of narration per episode to ensure meaning wasn't lost.

I recently borrowed Only Fools And Horses audio CDs from the library. These were straight audio from the TV recordings with no added audio. If you had never seen the TV episodes there would be bits that might be a bit confusing, as important visual information was not substituted in any way with audio.

I've played around making my own audio versions (for my own amusement only). I've used the free Audacity software to add audio narration to it in some cases. I did the orginal episode of Grange Hill like this - which took me ages. I started doing an episode of Robin's Nest, but haven't finished it. Audacity does all sorts of things so it's quite fun to play around with.

Oh yeah. And I heard some Fawlty Towers CDs some months back with added narration by modern day Ramsay, oops, Andrew Sachs (Manuel) narrating as Manuel. They were good. Only thing was as he was recalling the story he was also recalling scenes where he wasn't present at the time, and wouldn't have known about - but that's only a problem if you're really fussy.

I remember recording episodes of Porridge (Final Stretch) and Going Straight (Going Off the Rails) off the telly. I always do a little leap for joy whenever I see them visually as I played them to death as a kid.

Any of our older readers remember the Dindy Black C90 cassettes? Still got it somewhere...

I always thought that the Dad's Army audios were specially written for the wireless.

Quote: Charlie Boy @ September 8 2011, 9:08 AM BST

I always thought that the Dads Army audios were specially writtet for the wireless.

The radio scripts were adapted from the TV originals. Same with the Steptoe radio eps.

Some episodes of As Time Goes By were recorded for the radio. I think these were genuinely re-recorded in front of an audience.

And a few eps of Last of the Summer Wine were released on CD with Peter Sallis doing some narration.

The Red Dwarf radio series was not the same as the TV show. It had Chris Barrie reading the novels.

Quote: john lucas 101 @ September 8 2011, 9:23 AM BST

The radio scripts were adapted from the TV originals. Same with the Steptoe radio eps.

Sorry, I meant that they were adapted from the TV scripts, for the radio. Not new scripts, or straight from TV to radio.

Dad's Army had all of the above, I think. There were certainly episodes (of the radio series) which were merely slight adaptations of TV scripts, and there are also audio releases which are just the audio track from the original TV series. I think - although am not 100% sure offhand, our guide will probably tell more - that there were a few new episodes in the radio series though as well.

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