The Adventures of Tintin: BBC Radio Adaptations

By Roland Martin. Additions and corrections by Richard Wainman.
Last modified: 28 August 2005

Episode list and original broadcast dates

Image © Hergé/Moulinsart.

1.1. The Black Island 20 Feb 1992 0:27
1.2. The Secret of the Unicorn 27 Feb 1992 0:27
1.3. Red Rackham's Treasure 05 Mar 1992 0:27
1.4. Destination Moon 12 Mar 1992 0:27
1.5. Explorers on the Moon 19 Mar 1992 0:27
1.6. Tintin in Tibet 26 Mar 1992 0:27
2.1. The Seven Crystal Balls 23 May 1993 0:27
2.2. Prisoners of the Sun 30 May 1993 0:27
2.3. The Calculus Affair (Part 1) 06 Jun 1993 0:27
2.4. The Calculus Affair (Part 2) 13 Jun 1993 0:27
2.5. The Red Sea Sharks (Part 1) 20 Jun 1993 0:27
2.6. The Red Sea Sharks (Part 2) 27 Jun 1993 0:27
3.1. The Castafiore Emerald 26 Dec 1993 0:49

All were originally broadcast on BBC Radio 5 (mono; MW only) in 1992-3 and subsequently repeated on BBC Radio 4 (stereo?) in 1994.

The series

The BBC Radio adaptations were originally broadcast in 1991 and 1992. On the whole they are extremely enjoyable versions, generally very faithful to the original books.

Where they suffer somewhat is from some extreme editing on the one-episode stories, and perhaps a little padding on the longer ones. However, wonderful scripting and fantastic acting truly brings them to life.

The selection of episodes, perhaps superficially a little bizarre is clearly a mixture of widely known favourites and those stories which could easily be adapted for audio. A good illustration of this is the chase sequence in 'The Calculus Affair', which is pulled off beautifully, whilst in many ways 'Prisoners of the Sun' is too visual a story for an audio adaptation; this, however, is a brave attempt.

It is possibly also worth drawing comparison to the Nelvana TV adaptations of the same era. In many ways, these are much more mature adaptations, with considerably better voice work. Despite being aimed primarily at a youth audience, they retain Hergé's sense of humour, his intellect and his skillful use of cliffhangers to draw listeners in They do, however, suffer from the considerable cross-referencing in the series of books, which can only be explained with such remarks as "I met him during the Blue Lotus affair".

Probably the highlight of the adaptations is Andrew Sachs' breathtaking performance as Snowy. Better known as Manuel from Fawlty Towers, in this he skilfully manoeuvres from narrator to light-hearted quipster whilst barely stopping to draw breath.

Also worthy of mention is Leo McKern's performance as Captain Haddock in the first series. Although Lionel Jeffries really tried in the second series, nothing could match the energy projected by McKern. His rousing speech as Sir Francis Haddock in 'Red Rackham's Treasure' is almost breathtaking.

If that wasn't enough, further British acting talents such as Stephen Moore (Calculus) and Miriam Margolyes (Castafiore in 'The Castafiore Emerald') truly flesh the cast out.

It is also worth noting that practically the entire cast, Richard Pearce included, appears in the two BBC Radio 'Doctor Who' stories produced in the early 1990s (both of which are poor in the extreme).

The first two series are widely available on cassette ('Six Adventures of Tintin' and 'Four Further Adventures of Tintin' respectively) but there is no release of the final episode at present.

Cast and crew

Comments:

Tintin's voice was too... well... childish. His voice should have been deeper. I loved the tapes. The second series was better than the first, and when I got it, I thought series one was brilliant. Series two, in my opinion, is wonderful. The voices (apart from Tintin's) are really good, and fit the characters. Wonderful stuff—brilliant listening material in the car, in bed... anywhere, really!

Also, a little note: Richard Pearce, who voices Tintin in the cassettes, also voiced Dennis the Mennace, an English comic character, in the TV series. [Richard Wainman 31/07/2001 04:10]

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