Is anyone listening to the serialisation of 'The Forsyte Saga'?

[Trickydecision]

I am old enough to remember the TV version of 1968, and have read the books several times. I am currently re-reading more or less at the same pace as the radio version, which is broadcast daily at the end of Woman's Hour.

Some incidents have been embellished, others reduced; they are certainly galloping along.

What puzzles me is how they are going to make it last for two years at this rapid rate.

I know the saga is in three parts, the 1968 version only dramatised the first two, but even so.

[Tumfy]

Was that the one with Martin Jarvis as the a Jolyon & Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene? I didn't see as a total, but have some penguin editions with pictures of them -somewhere in the loft-
I remember reading them when I ran out if other books at home, along with W Somerset Maughan. Wholly inappropriate for a 10 year old, but parents didn't think to stop me. I should reread them now as you are.
WRT your question on timing, maybe they'll do a third each year?

[Tumfy]

Sorry about lack of proofing.
I was a tot..

[antimatter]

I am going to catch up on Sunday.
I watched that old adaptation and also read all books. I really enjoyed them.

[CountryCousin]

1968? No wonder I was shoo-ed out of the room.

I know I read the whole series (only once) as a student but I don't remember much and also wonder what there could possibly be to fill a year.

They made a splendid start last weekend. And I've tried to catch it during the week. I was rather impressed - the actors playing Soames and Irene have the perfect voices for their characters but it's horrifying to see how closely their relationship prefigures Rob/Helen in The Archers.

[Trickydecision]

Yes, that's the one, Tumfy, though M Jarvis was a Jolyon, he was the second son of the Kenneth Moore Jolyon, and had a brother who died in the Boer war who was also called Jolyon. They clearly liked the name and had no MN to ask whether they WBU to call a child by the same name as his deceased half brother.

CountryC, did you read the third volume? There are next to no Forsytes involved, the main character is Michael Mont's cousin Dinny. It is not very interesting, to my mind anyhow, and on the book a year theory, many a listener could fall by the wayside. The BBC did not bother with it in the Nyree DP version.

[WhiteHairReally]

And there was the more recent BBC Classic Serial version with Damien Lewis as Soames and Gina McKee as Irene. I thought it was on 'a couple of years back' but it seems it was 2002, which does say something about my age...
Although, when they announced that P and P was being remade with some actor called Colin Firth as Darcy, I was bemused because it only seemed like yesterday when Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul were Lizzy and Darcy. There was a thirteen year gap.

[Trickydecision]

WhiteHair the version of P and P that had Elizabeth Garvie was wonderful. Like you I am amazed that the Damian Lewis Forsyte was that long ago. That was not a good production. Too short, though I am still bemused by the 'two years' this time.

[Gruach]

Fleur! (Just born.) That was Susan Hampshire wasn't it?

Wonderful hour of radio - just ended.

Poor Balthazar.

[Trickydecision]

Yes, Susan Hampshire. I had not guessed the radio narrator was Fleur. The mystery of how they were stretching it out is partly solved. It is not returning until April, so not continuous.

[Gruach]

Must admit I'd been muttering about how the narrator was superfluous to requirements and only brought in as a cynical bid for popular appeal.

So I'm pleased she does have a purpose.

I can't now recall whether the beautiful structure of the story was apparent to me when I read it. I wonder if John Galsworthy found it a chore to keep track of the two strands - or the greatest fun.