National Theatre actors read King James Bible - free podcasts

December 10, 2011 8:48 AM

King James Bible readings by top UK actors - free podcasts London's National Theatre recently staged a series of live readings to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and the glorious language that book contains. The actors taking part included Lindsay Duncan (Genesis), Patricia Routledge (Psalms), Maureen Lipman (Isaiah), Mark Gatiss (Luke) and Simon Russell Beale (Revelation). There's 12 readings in all, each of about 80 minutes, and the National has three available as free podcasts already, with the rest to follow soon. As a bonus, it's also offering Melvyn Bragg's talk on how the King James version was constructed and the main sources it drew on. I saw Bragg delivering this talk at the Cheltenham Literary Festival earlier this year, and it's well worth hearing.
posted by Paul Slade (8 comments total)

I cannot imagine that their first choice wasn't Brian Blessed.
posted by delfin at 9:02 AM on December 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is there a non-itunes link for this?
posted by roll truck roll at 10:14 AM on December 10, 2011

Fantastic - looking forward to listening to all of these.

Is there a non-itunes link for this?

I can't see one; looks like another flower confined to the walled garden. If you are a social media type, you could try contacting the NT via Twitter or Facebook.

But keep watching the thread, some miscreant is bound to upload them sooner or later.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 12:05 PM on December 10, 2011

You can see a first edition in Toledo until the end of the month, if you happen to be around.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:46 PM on December 10, 2011

As predicted:
Melvyn Bragg's talk
In the Beginning
Let My People Go

The itunes defying miscreant probably has to go to bed now, but will no doubt continue to circumvent the Apple-only content policy in the morning.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:34 PM on December 10, 2011

The BBC's excellent series, The Story of the King James Bible is still available to listen to (not sure about regional variations).
posted by feelinglistless at 8:17 AM on December 11, 2011

The Line of David

That's all they've podcast for now.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 12:38 PM on December 11, 2011

You don't need iTunes to listen to the podcasts; just click the play button that pops up next to each title on mouseover. Alternatively, here are the direct links:

The Line of David
Let My People Go
In the Beginning
Melvyn Bragg on the Book of Books
posted by Rhaomi at 5:11 PM on December 11, 2011