Watership Down is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural wild environment, with burrows, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home (the hill of Watership Down), encountering perils and temptations along the way.
Watership Down was Richard Adams' debut novel. It was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted the manuscript; the published book then won the annual Carnegie Medal (UK), annual Guardian Prize (UK), and other book awards. The novel was adapted into an animated feature film in 1978 and, from 1999 to 2001, an animated children's television series. In 2018, a drama of the story was made, which both aired in the UK and was made available on Netflix.
Adams completed a sequel almost 25 years later, in 1996, Tales from Watership Down, constructed as a collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren.
Watership Down is a 1978 British animated adventure-drama film, written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams. It was financed by a consortium of British financial institutions and was distributed by Cinema International Corporation in the United Kingdom. Released on 19 October 1978, the film was an immediate success and it became the sixth-most popular film of 1979 at the UK box office.
It features the voices of John Hurt, Richard Briers, Harry Andrews, Simon Cadell, Nigel Hawthorne and Roy Kinnear, among others, and was the last film work of Zero Mostel, as the voice of Kehaar the gull. The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson. Art Garfunkel's hit song "Bright Eyes" was written by songwriter Mike Batt. It has garnered a cult following.
Opening Credits; Introduction (1.21); Background History (20.15); Watership Down Plot Synopsis (21.57); Book Thoughts (29.16); Let's Rate (50.29); Introducing a Film (52.51); Watership Down Film Trailer (1978) (56.13); Lights, Camera, Action (59.36); How Many Stars (1:40.44); End Credits (1:44.27); Closing Credits (1:45.25)
Opening Credits– Epidemic Sound – Copyright . All rights reserved
Closing Credits: Bright Eyes from Watership Down by Art Garfunkel. Taken from the album Fate for Breakfast. Copyright 1978 Columbia Records.
Incidental Music: Music from Watership Down by Angela Morley. Available on the Watership Down 1978 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Copyright 1978 Vocation Records.
Original Music copyrighted 2020 Dan Hughes Music and the Literary License Podcast.
All rights reserved. Used by Kind Permission.
All songs available through Amazon Music.
Season 7: Episode 363 - DARK FAMILIES: Dark Crystal/Labyrinth
Season 7: Episode 362 - BATMAN: The Lion and The Unicorn/Showdown/Riddler's Reform/Second Chance
Season 7: Episode 361 - ONCE UPON A TIME: Where The Wild Things Are (M Sendak/Film 2006)
Season 7: Episode 360 - MAKE/REMAKE: Pete's Dragon (1977/2016)
Season 7: Episode 359 - ANTHOLOGY: Dr Terror's House of Horror/Torture Garden
Doctor Who - A Retrospective Review of 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth, 2150 AD'
Season 7: Episode 357 - DARK FAMILIES: Bedknobs and Broomsticks/Enchanted
Season 7: Episode 356 - BATMAN: Two Out Of Joint/Catwalk/Bane/BabyDoll
Season 7: Episode 355 - ONCE UPON A TIME: Who Censored Roger Rabbit/Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Season 7: Episode 353 - ANTHOLOGY: Night Gallery/Twilight Zone The Movie
Season 7: Episode 353 - DOCTOR WHO: Interview with Ian Britten Hull
Season 7: Episode 352 - DARK FAMILIES: Return to Oz/Oz The Great and Powerful
Season 7: Episode 351 -BATMAN: Avatar/House and Garden/The Terrible Trio/Harlequinade
Season 7: Episode 350 - ONCE UPON A TIME: Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)/(Film: 1939)
Season 7: Episode 349 - DOCTOR WHO: The Dalek's Master Plan/The Massacre/The Ark
Season 7: Episode 348 - ANTHOLOGY: Sin City (2005)/Southbound (2015)
Iron Giant, Monster House & A Tribute to David J. Skal
Season 7: Episode 346 - BATMAN: The Worry Men/Sideshow/A Bullet for Bullock/The Trial
Season 7: Episode 344 - Make/REMAKE: The Lion King (1994)/The Lion King (2019)
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