Peter's LotSW audio books commentary, only 3 series?

RickAns

Dedicated Member
Quite some time ago links were posted on here for audio books of the show. Some were just the audio from the first eight series. Others had an extra commentary / narration by Peter Sallis. I did not see them recently after a quick search, will try again later. Glad I dl'ed back then.

With doing some long distance driving over the previous holidays I had decided to put the LotSW audio books on a thumb-drive to have a listen to and pass the time. Had not done this before because I did not want to get distracted or lost in the show. Something I tend to do while watching the TV show when I should be paying attention to the road! Thankfully the show did not prove the distraction I feared and they made for a very pleasant 3 hour drive. :)

After re-labeling the episodes with Clegg narrating to separate them out from the episodes that were just an audio copy of the normal show. I noticed something interesting about the audio books of LotSW with Clegg's commentary.

- Six of them were from series 4, episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 plus the special Small Tune on a Penny Wassail.
- Two from series 5, episode 1 plus the special A Dewhurst up a Fir Tree.
- Four of them were from series 20, episodes 2, 4, 7, 8.

What has me curious is why the narrow focus on just three seasons for Peter's commentary? Out of 31 seasons in the entire series only 3 were chosen for his narration. I figured the selected for commentary ones would be more randomly chosen throughout the whole range of episodes. Just wondered why those 3 with the emphasis on series 4. Not saying there is anything wrong with them.

Are there more available episodes out there with Peter giving narration? If so I would like to get copies. Enjoy hearing Peter talk and relish his commentary of the show.

Rick
 
I too love these and listen regularly. I cannot fully answer your question but I do know this was recorded around 2000 so that would explain why the last 10 series’ weren’t used.
 
Thanks, I did not know the date on those.

It just seems like a great thing for the TV company to do to fuel even more interest in the show. Feels like it would have been fairly easy for Peter to do - at a studio or in his home to record some commentary. Possibly even getting Tom, Truly, Pearl for example to do some for the episodes they have been in and used as and extra / director audio track for the DVD's.

Wishful thinking. :)
 
It's was probably quite challenging to find episodes which didn't have a lot of visual comedy, for example The Loxley Lozenge wouldn't have worked half as well as an audio book.
 
Peter also narrated three Summer Wine audio books based on Roy's novels. I'd love to properly re-release them, but sadly had no luck in tracing the rights holders. The original audiobook company are long gone.
 
I love these recordings also, and I have wondered about the choices of episodes too. They aren't necessarily easy ones in that there is a significant number of visual things that have to be described. I would have to double check, but wasn't Peter first diagnosed with macular degeneration at about that time? In an interview, or possibly in his book, he talks about really appreciating audiobooks as his ability to read became harder, perhaps they allowed him to pick episodes he sort of wanted to preserve.
 
Peter also narrated three Summer Wine audio books based on Roy's novels. I'd love to properly re-release them, but sadly had no luck in tracing the rights holders. The original audiobook company are long gone.
I know he did The Moonbather and Gala week which I have and treasure, what other one did he do?
 
I know he did The Moonbather and Gala week which I have and treasure, what other one did he do?
I believe that there was an audio book of the first Roy Clarke novel that was seemingly only distributed to libraries. I have only ever seen one copy for sale. It could, of course, have been mislabelled.
 
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