Music
In the early 1970s Bo Hansson was introduced to the book by his then girlfriend. This gave him an idea to create a new album in the same style as his Lord of the Rings album. In 1977 he released the all instrumental El-Ahrairah. The title was taken directly from the pages of Watership Down, with El-Ahrairah being the name of a trickster, folk-hero/deity rabbit, known as The Prince with a Thousand Enemies. In other countries the album was released as Music Inspired by Watership Down.
Film
In 1978 Martin Rosen wrote and directed an animated film adaptation of Watership Down. The voice cast included John Hurt, Richard Briers, Harry Andrews, Simon Cadell, Nigel Hawthorne, and Roy Kinnear. The film featured the song "Bright Eyes", sung by Art Garfunkel. Released as a single, the song became a UK number one hit[51] although Richard Adams said that he hated it.[52]
Although the essentials of the plot remained relatively unchanged, the film omitted several side plots. Though the Watership Down warren eventually grew to seventeen rabbits with the additions of Strawberry, Holly, Bluebell, and three hutch rabbits liberated from the farm, the movie includes a band of only eight. Rosen's adaptation was praised for "cutting through Adams' book ... to get to the beating heart".[53]
The film has also seen some positive critical attention. In 1979 the film received a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[54] Additionally, British television station Channel 4's 2006 documentary 100 Greatest Cartoons named it the 86th greatest cartoon of all time.[55] But, "lovable bunnies notwithstanding, younger children might be troubled by the more graphic scenes. Numerous rabbits die in bloody fights, while one gets choked by a snare and another is snatched by a bird of prey."[56]
Television
From 1999 to 2001, the book was also adapted as an animated television series, broadcast on CITV in the UK and on YTV in Canada.[57] But only the first two series were aired in the UK, while all three series were aired in Canada. It was produced by Martin Rosen and starred several well-known British actors, including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Dawn French, John Hurt, and Richard Briers, running for a total of 39 episodes over three seasons. Although the story was broadly based on the novel and most characters and events retained, some of the story lines and characters (especially in later episodes) were entirely new. In 2003, the second season was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series.[58]
2018 animated series
In July 2014, it was announced that the BBC would be airing a new animated series based on the book[59] and in April 2016 that the series would be a co-production between the BBC and Netflix, consisting of four one-hour episodes,[60] with a budget of £20 million. The four episode serial premiered on the BBC and Netflix on 23 December 2018, with the voices of James McAvoy as Hazel, John Boyega as Bigwig, and Ben Kingsley as General Woundwort.[61] It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the performances of its voice cast, but received criticism for its tone and the quality of the computer animation.[62][63][64]
Theatre
In 2006, Watership Down was again adapted for the stage, this time by Rona Munro. It ran at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Directed by Melly Still, the cast included Matthew Burgess, Joseph Traynor, and Richard Simons. The tone of the production was inspired by the tension of war: in an interview with The Guardian, Still commented, "The closest humans come to feeling like rabbits is under war conditions ... We've tried to capture that anxiety."[65] A reviewer at The Times called the play "an exciting, often brutal tale of survival" and said that "even when it's a muddle, it's a glorious one."[66]
In 2011, Watership Down was adapted for the Lifeline Theatre in Chicago by John Hildreth. This production was directed by Katie McLean Hainsworth and the cast included Scott T. Barsotti, Chris Daley, Paul S. Holmquist, and Mandy Walsh.[67]
Role-playing game
Watership Down inspired the creation of Bunnies & Burrows, an early role-playing game in which the main characters are talking rabbits, published in 1976 by Fantasy Games Unlimited.[68] It introduced several innovations to role-playing game design, being the first game to allow players to have non-humanoid roles, as well as the first with detailed martial arts and skill systems. Fantasy Games Unlimited published a second edition of the game in 1982, and the game was modified and republished by Steve Jackson Games as an official GURPS supplement in 1992.
Radio
In 2002, a two-part, two-hour dramatisation of Watership Down by Neville Teller was broadcast by BBC Radio 4.[69][70][71]
In November 2016, a new two-part two-hour dramatisation, written by Brian Sibley, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[72]
Audiobooks
In the 1970s, the book was released by Argo Records read by Roy Dotrice, with musical background—music by George Butterworth performed by Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the direction of Neville Marriner.[73][74]
Alexander Scourby narrated an unabridged edition, originally published on LP in the 1970s by the Talking Books program of the American Foundation for the Blind (NLSB).[75] The LPs have been destroyed by NLSB and are very rare.
In 1984, Watership Down was adapted into a four-cassette audiobook by John Maher in association with the Australian Broadcasting Company's Renaissance Players. Produced by John Hannaford and narrated by Kerry Francis, the audiobook was distributed by The Mind's Eye.[76]
In 1990, a 16-hour, 11-cassette recording read by John MacDonald was published by Books on Tape, Inc. of Santa Ana, CA.[77]
Andrew Sachs recorded a five and a half-hour abridged version of the story for Puffin Audiobooks.[78]
In 2010, Audible.com released an unabridged digital download of the book, narrated by the multiple award-winning Ralph Cosham.[79]
In 2019, Blackstone Audio Inc. released an unabridged version of Watership Down with a foreword by the author, Richard Adams. Peter Capaldi narrated the 17-hour, 31-minute book.[80]
Graphic novel
A new graphic novel version of Watership Down was released in 2023, adapted by award-winning author James Sturm and illustrated by bestselling artist Joe Sutphin.[81]
