archive.org have audio recordings of five adaptations of Saki stories by BBC Radio, originally broadcast in 2005.
Here’s the link: https://archive.org/details/bbc-saki
Tag Archives: BBC
Saki Stories on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra
A new reading/adaption of ‘Tobermory’ has been posted on the BBC website. It can be found here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p074m5yg
There are five other Saki short stories currently available on their website too. The link for these is:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qdqd2/episodes/guide
and the stories are the following:
- ‘The Open Window’
- ‘The Toys of Peace’
- ‘Fur’
- ‘The Schartz-Metterklume Method’
- ‘The Lumber Room’
These five were broadcast on BBC Radio Extra, which is often used to repeat material; in this case it’s not clear whether these are new recordings or whether they have been previously broadcast.
Finally, Saki is discussed in BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open book’ programme about 20 minutes in:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0088mxm
The programmes are also available via the BBC iplayer app and its successor/replacement, the fairly stupidly named “BBC Sounds”. Some BBC content is, unfortunately, only available within the UK. (Being in Germany, I couldn’t access the ‘Tobermory’ reading.)
Many thanks to Rob MacGregor for the links.
In the Lumber Room with Saki
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast a three-hour programme on Saki to mark the 100th anniversary of his death. Here’s the description from the BBC website:
Back in 1916 on the battlefield of the Somme, a German sniper brought to an end the life of perhaps Britain’s greatest short-story writer.
Hector Hugh Munro was a political sketch-writer, foreign correspondent, historian and novelist. But he is best known under the pen name Saki for his short story writing.
Saki’s dark and twisted tales make delicious radio drama. Many of them centre on childish mishief, small acts of rebellion against pretentious or overbearing authority figures, and supernatural beasts.
The stories draw on the author’s upbringing in North Devon, where Saki was raised by his aunts and grandmother.
Shaun Ley, who also grew up in Devon, returns to Saki’s childhood home to explore the environment that made the author.
In this three-hour programme, Shaun brings together a series of adaptations, including The Lumber Room, The Toys of Peace, The She-Wolf, The Schartz-Metterklume Method, Mrs Packeltide’s Tiger, The Open Window and Sredni Vashtar.
Contributors include: Sir Richard Eyre, Will Self and Dr Sandie Byrne.
Producer: Adam Bowen for BBC News – Westminster.
The programme can be accessed online for a month at the BBC website. Click here.