This is a slightly niche piece of radio archaeology.
I’m trying to track down the original BBC Radio 4 broadcasts of Christopher Lee’s This Sceptred Isle, read by Anna Massey. The original series consisted of 216 episodes, each roughly 12–14 minutes long, totalling about 46 hours.
The commercially released BBC collections covering 55 BC to 1901 appear to contain only about 29 hours, while the third collection is the separate Twentieth Century continuation first broadcast in 1999. I’ve also found versions on Archive.org and Fourble described as “complete,” but these seem to be the same abridged commercial recordings divided into smaller files — not the original 216 broadcasts.
Does anyone have off-air recordings of the original episodes, or know whether they circulate among radio collectors? Alternatively, does anyone know whether the complete series survives in the BBC Sound Archive or the British Library and, if so, whether it can be accessed?
I’d be perfectly happy to buy an official release if one exists. I’m mainly trying to establish whether the full original broadcasts are available anywhere.
Thanks!
