The Borrowers on the BBC

A question literally nobody has ever asked: How many different adaptations of The Borrowers has the BBC broadcast over the years?

Me:

1. As a reading on Children's Hour

Broadcast on Mondays from 29 September to 15 December 1952, this appears to be a straightforward reading of Mary Norton's original novel the same year it was first published, read by someone only referred to as "David".

2. An episode of People in Books

A children's television series where presenter Olive Shapley "introduces famous books and people who appear in them", the 10 November 1954 edition finds her introducing two unspecified characters from The Borrowers.

3. As a radio drama

Broadcast on Thursdays from 20 October to 3 November 1955, this appears to be a partially or fully dramatised affair, since the listing states "script by Philippa Pearce", although no cast list is provided. This is repeated in August 1956, and in November an adaptation of the second book, The Borrowers Afield (published the previous year), is broadcast in the same slot.

4. As another reading on Children's Hour

Only a few months after it was apparently produced as a full-cast radio drama, in July 1957 a reading of The Borrowers Afield begins, abridged by journalist and radio presenter Honor Wyatt and read by "Jo".

5. As another radio drama

In April 1965, a new dramatised reading of the first book is broadcast on the Home Service's Story Time strand; the original cast and crew list is available on BBC Genome, showing this was very definitely a different production to what they'd aired in 1955. This is repeated only a few months later, and in May 1966 a new version of Afield follows.

6. On Jackanory

Read by Geraldine McEwan, adapted and directed by Marilyn Fox, and broadcast over five weekdays in the week beginning 11 December 1967.

7. As yet another radio drama

This time as five 15-minute episodes, stripped over a week in August 1982; no cast details are provided. (By the by, around this time Mary Norton publishes a new title in the series some 20 years after the last one, which receives a bit of coverage.)

8. On Jackanory, again

Broadcast over the week beginning 28 February 1983, this time read by Julie Covington and adapted by Janie Grace with illustrations by Johnny Pau.

9. As a reading on Radio 5

This was part of the half-term holiday programme Take Five, broadcast in October 1990, and was read by Jean Alexander; this was repeated in another series of the show in August 1991, accompanied by a chance to win a copy of the book.

10. As a TV series

The first one anyone reading this has any realistic chance of remembering, I presume; on a Sunday teatime in November 1992, the BBC's six-part adaptation starring Ian Holm, Penelope Wilton and Rebecca Callard, adapted by Robin of Sherwood's Richard Carpenter, begins, preceded three days earlier by a behind-the-scenes featurette on Blue Peter. It cleans up at various awards ceremonies, winning the BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards for Best Children's Series, and is followed a year later by a second series (also known as The Return of the Borrowers), which combines elements from both The Borrowers Afield and the third book in the series, The Borrowers Aloft.

Beginning in January 1995, both series are repeated in a single twelve-episode block, and that Christmas the first series is repeated in the form of two 90-minute episodes. The first series is repeated again in November 2001, all in one day on the CBBC Channel on Christmas Eve 2002 (followed by all of the second series on Christmas Day), and both series are shown one final time in December 2003.

11. The 1997 movie

Receives its television debut on Christmas Day 2000, after the Queen's Speech. The premiere of the film three years previously met with several promotional outings on the Beeb, being profiled on Film 97 and seeing John Goodman interviewed by Clive Anderson. (For the sake of completeness, around that time the BBC were running The Nation's Favourite Children's Book, which featured celebrities in 5-minute films making the case for their personal favourite to win the telephone vote; The Borrowers was the subject of one such film, presented by Terrence Hardiman.)

Anyway, the film is naturally repeated several times, including Good Friday 2002, Easter Monday 2003, Easter Sunday 2004 and 2006.

12. As still another Radio 4 drama

Broadcast over the Christmas period in 2008, dramatised by Sarah Woods.

13. As a TV movie

A 90-minute TV movie first broadcast on Boxing Day 2011, loosely based on the series in general and written by Merlin writer Ben Vanstone, starring Christopher Eccleston, Sharon Horgan and Aisling Loftus.

* * *

So, if we discount the 1997 movie on the grounds that, you know, it wasn't actually made by the BBC, that gives us two different Jackanory readings, a TV series, a TV movie, four different radio dramatisations and two or three (depending on how you count them) straightforward readings on the radio: surely The Borrowers boasts a record for BBC adaptations difficult for any other work to best? (I checked out a few obvious candidates, and Little Women comes close but doesn't seem to -- some of the listings go back to the 1920s and it's hard to be sure to count some of them or not -- and you might be surprised how close The Chronicles of Narnia don't come...)