Radio days

· life ·

I was reflecting today that I would rather give up watching TV than listening to the radio. There's The Archers of course, but Radio 4 and now Radio 7 have some excellent programs. This afternoon, we listened to "The Northern Irish Man in C S Lewis", a play about C S Lewis' early childhood in Northern Ireland, and the events that influenced his writing. It had great acting, evocative sounds, and set the scene beautifully. The Christmas before last, Mr. Butshesagirl and I spent all Boxing Day listening to Stephen Fry reading "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" on Radio 4. It was so gripping and vivid that we were severely disappointed by the film. This time last year, I was terrified that the film of The Fellowship of the Ring wouldn't live up to the fantastic radio adaptation that I listened to as a kid. Luckily, I needn't have worried - the film just enhanced the picture in my mind from the radio play and the book.

The play also fitted well into a current theme in our lives. We're going to see The Two Towers tomorrow (yay!), and spent a very pleasant Saturday lunchtime last weekend in the snug of the Eagle and Child pub, where C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien spent a lot of time with the other "Inklings", drinking, smoking pipes and discussing elves, amongst other things.