Radio 4 goes Potter at Christmas

Harry Potter comes to Radio 4 this Christmas. In an unprecedented move, Radio 4 is clearing its FM frequency on Boxing Day (26 December) to broadcast Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone in its entirety.

BBC Radio 4 is the first broadcaster in the world to transmit the complete, unabridged story by J K Rowling, read by Stephen Fry.

Helen Boaden, Controller, Radio 4 says: " When I became Controller I was determined to get Harry Potter on Radio 4 because Harry Potter is now part of the imaginative landscape of several generations of children. I felt Harry Potter might be a way of bringing a new generation of children - however briefly - to the magical experience of listening to speech radio and seeing the pictures in their heads".

Stephen Fry’s reading, the only one authorised by J K Rowling, will begin at 12 noon on Boxing Day on Radio 4 FM and continue until just after 8.00pm.

The author J K Rowling herself is pleased by the venture: "I don't think anyone could read Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone better than Stephen Fry, so I'm really delighted that Radio 4 listeners will get a chance to hear him on Radio 4 on Boxing Day".

Radio 4’s regular schedule will be broadcast on Radio 4LW. Highlights on Long Wave include a Desert Island Discs special with Norman Painting, aka Phil Archer. Norman has played the part of Phil since the drama began in January 1951. Would-be singer/songwriter John Shuttleworth drops in on the network in Shuttleworth’s Christmas Special and Stuart Jeffries’s series of light-hearted essays, Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy, subtitled Growing Up In Front Of The Telly, should appeal to anyone who has watched television at any time over the past 47 years.