Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi Gives One Of The Best Fantasy Books Ever The Perfect Audiobook – SlashFilm

Once I completed watching “The Sheep Detectives,” low-key the most effective motion pictures of 2026 (comedy or in any other case), I thought of one other story about animals. Extra particularly, I thought of one other story the place animals are handled as animals and never as anthropomorphic jokes, i.e. people carrying totally different pores and skin for the sake of a plot. Richard Adams’ “Watership Down” is the gold commonplace “speaking animals” story as a result of the rabbits on the heart of the novel have animal wants, animal needs, and natural instincts. Any main crossover with humanity exists to show a bigger level about, effectively, life.

Naturally, this led me to revisit “Watership Down” for the primary time in over 20 years. And since I am a Busy Grownup Man With Tasks, I made a decision to go for the audiobook.

That turned out to be the correct selection. As a result of the “Watership Down” audiobook is narrated by Peter Capaldi, the sensible Scottish actor with the type of vary that permits him to play loathsome sociopaths and kindly father figures with out telling a single lie. Of course, Capaldi is greatest recognized nowadays as a science fiction legend. Certainly, his three-12 months run because the lead in “Doctor Who” is now rightfully being rightfully reassessed because the strongest within the present’s 60-plus 12 months historical past. (Combat me.) On the very least, it options one of many biggest “Doctor Who” episodes ever in “Heaven Despatched.”

Capaldi’s narration, his voice, brings the e book to life to such a level that I discover myself misplaced within the phrases. The narration additionally doubles down on an understated component of “Watership Down” that feels extra apparent than ever when the story is being instructed to you: It is one of many biggest fantasy novels ever written.

Sure, “Watership Down” is about in our world, a spot the place rabbit reside in burrows close to human farms and roads. However the great thing about the novel is {that a} mundane patch of land and forest may as effectively be Center-earth to a gaggle of bunnies.

When the rabbits in “Watership Down” go away their warren, spurred on by the clairvoyant pictures of impending doom, the journey to discover a new burrow to name their very own has the scope of a correct epic. Small streams grow to be raging rivers. Vehicles grow to be unstoppable gods. Canine and cats grow to be mythic beasts that should be fled or fought. And when the rabbits pause to eat or relaxation, they regale one another with tales drawn from their very own tradition and homegrown mythology, like a squad of hobbits swapping poems.

“Watership Down,” on the web page, is as indebted to J.R.R. Tolkien as “The Sheep Detectives” is to the thriller novels of Agatha Christie. Name the rabbits one thing else, and set it in a fictional world, and there could be no query of style.

And very like how Peter Capaldi introduced startling nuance, wry wit, and deep-set ache to his portrayal of the Doctor, his narration within the audiobook imbues even the smallest moments with massive drama and larger emotion. Simply as he counter-balanced the inherent silliness of “Doctor Who” by confronting each gonzo alien or time journey menace with an honesty that made you consider in a Dalek, his therapy of the world and characters in “Watership Down” showcase a performer with a eager sense of empathy. His bombastic Scottish brogue lends a way of scope to each prolonged mile of the rabbits’ quest, however he is additionally unafraid to tackle radically totally different timbres and convey himself to the extent of those little creatures by performing their smallest fears and goals. It is a good looking efficiency.

Peter Capaldi is within the forged of the BBC’s 2018 animated adaptation of the novel, taking part in the silliest character in your complete story. It is most likely an exquisite efficiency. (I’ve not seen it, though I can verify that the animated Seventies “Watership Down” film adaptation is a real traditional.) However for now, I am simply feeling spoiled by understanding he is simply multiple character. He can maintain this whole world within the palm of his hand. Or mouth, moderately.