Where things are adapted to audio-only media such as Radio, Audiobooks, or Audio Plays.
The simplest is the Audiobook, which is usually a simple audio recording of a person reading a particular book. Originally, the audio version was abridged due to the limitations of audio recording media. For instance, a typical book of 100+ pages would have required an impractically large number of vinyl records to play in its entirety, and even the development of the cassette tape with its much longer playtime could require a half-dozen for an abridged edition. However, with the rise of the computer audio file and advances in data storage and playback devices, audio recordings of complete books is now a standard item.
Originally, audiobooks were largely restricted for the visually impaired with the aforementioned recording tech limitations. However, when practical recording media that could be carried on ones' person came on the market, such as the Walkman, the audiobook starting gaining a larger market. Today, audiobooks can be purchased, downloaded and played on smartphones, as well as on other audioplayers or personal computers with considerable convenience. As such, people can listen to literature while multi-tasking other activities with considerable flexibility, which has made the audiobook format a growth market in the otherwise struggling book trade.
Some are full adaptations, usually from Literature, Comic Books, or Manga, giving the then silent characters voices. Others are side-stories for the franchise released in an immerse world of sound, a favorite path for animated fare since, after all, they already have the voice actors and sound effects.
Some particular pitfalls of this kind of adaptation include Narrating the Obvious (where descriptive text is just put directly into the mouth of one of the characters present, making them sound like an interpreter for the blind).
This is especially common in Japan. Since they're pretty cheap to produce (you just need the actors, some sound effects, and mixing equipment to make them), a popular work, be it manga, anime, a Video Game or what have you will often get several "Drama CDs" as spinoffs, pseudo-sequels, prequels and interquels to fill in the world and characters. Since the production values aren't too high and for better franchises the actors can like doing them, you can produce a fair number of them and still make a good profit. However, their all-audio nature makes exporting them a nightmare. Drama CDs are the #1 source of All There in the Manual problems for exported Japanese products; because the form is very uncommon in America, there's no real place to sell them, unionized actors drive costs up, etc. As a result, these basically never leave Japan, which can end up being hugely problematic for fans overseas who are missing parts of the story (and for any producers who care about exporting, since they know it's all but impossible for overseas fans to get that part of the story). On rare occasions, there may be an officially released translation of only the CD's transcript, which is the most fans can expect to get, as was the case for the drama CDs for Final Fantasy XV and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and II.
The BBC also produce a fair few of these for broadcast on Radio 4, including some regular features such as "Book at Bedtime" and "Saturday Play".
Contrast with Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, where audio-based works are adapted to visual media.
Examples:
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: A few audio dramas based on Stardust Crusaders adapt several events seen in the manga, alongside having an original story where the group face an enemy Stand User that uses Mind-Control Music to attack them.
- Lots of manga and anime have audio dramas, from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water to Count Cain to Gankutsuou. Then there's the "Nyoron Churuya" audio drama. Usually, these only exist in Japanese.
- A great number of manga and Light Novels have Drama CDs released before, during and after their animated adaptations. Sometimes the voice actors between the Drama CD version and the anime version can change. Many a Visual Novel also has a Drama CD included, usually as a bonus. This isn't much of a stretch either, since the line between visual novel and audio adaptation is thin.
- GaoGaiGar: Some audio dramas explore background material that wasn't covered in the show, such as the aftermath of Guy's space accident with him being Legally Dead so that his father can covert him into a cyborg to save his life. Other audios include extra content that leads up the beginning of GaoGaiGar FINAL.
- The Sound Stages of Lyrical Nanoha have been an integral part of the franchise from the start, giving additional side-adventures, back-stories, and setting information that would get referenced in the main part of the series, with certain tidbits in the anime only becoming clear if you've listened to these. The biggest one of these is StrikerS Sound Stage X, an entire Story Arc set three years after the third season.
- Slayers has several set between anime seasons:
- Slayers EX (Extra) and Slayers N>EX: Set after the first season and second seasons, there are four stories based off of the prequel Slayers Special novels, but they implement Lina's allies instead of Naga. Naga does appear in N>EX, though.
- The Return of Slayers EX: Five original stories set after seasons 2 and 3, including a run-in with bugs in Saillune's sewer system, meeting baby Val (the reincarnation of the Big Bad of season 3), a hysterical failed attempt to help Zelgadis with his body, and Lina and Naga reminiscing during their old age.
- Slayers Nextra: Set after the second season, a full-scale adventure, unlike the others.
- A prologue and epilogue for the Slayers Premium Non-Serial Movie; the prologue creates an issue in continuity by setting two seasons five years apart, which supposedly isn't true in-universe.
- Two dramas based off of the fourth and fifth seasons of the anime; there is an epilogue story for the one based on Evolution-R.
- A Crossover story starring the Slayers cast and the Sorcerer Stabber Orphen cast.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi and Negima!? had some drama CDs, which if nothing else, are notable for actually referencing the fandom's popular "KonoSetsu" Portmanteau Couple Name in one of the tracks.
- A more recent one is the Ala Rubra Drama CD
. Specifically the following:
- Breaking Arika out of the prison.
- A Hot Springs Episode where the men of Ala Rubra try to take Eishun's glasses.
- Reenacting the part where Eishun is the Nabe Shogun and Rakan defeats him yet again with the same trick.
- Nagi VS Rakan. From fighting, an endurance race in the hot springs AND bungee jumping.
- THE ENTIRE Ala Rubra ships Nagi and Arika together. Even Rakan gives an example on how to sweet talk Arika to Nagi. Everyone's impressed except for Nagi who just laughs at it.
- A more recent one is the Ala Rubra Drama CD
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had a radio play called Blind Target, complete with its own theme songs, which was later adapted into a manga (causing a form of Adaptation Displacement in America).
- Both the manga and anime versions of Chrono Crusade spawned drama CDs. The anime version is particularly notable for being a High School AU and allowing the voice actors from the anime to purposefully make fun of their characters by being as hammy as possible.
- A really notorious example is Getter Robo Armageddon, which was the animation sequel... to a popular, long-running radio drama based on the Getter franchise that 99% of anime fans had never even heard of when Armageddon first made its way to America. Fans end up missing a fair bit of backstory as a result.
- Sound of the Sky has two audio dramas. One which explains the deal with the ghost which kicked off the events of the second episode, only to be forgotten by the end. The other tells of how Filicia and Rio first met, along with an explanation of the history of Helvetia after The Great Off Screen War, at least as far as the characters know.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica has four Drama CDs - three of which were packaged in the home video releases and one that was released at a convention. The even numbered CDs are probably non-canon since they are light-hearted Slice of Life Self Parodies of the series. However, the odd numbered CDs contain rather important background information including the identity of the cat seen in the anime's Title Sequence and the prior relationship between Mami and Kyoko that was only implied in the anime. (The latter would actually get a Comic-Book Adaptation in a Spin-Off entitled Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story.) Incidentally, an interview with the writer for some of the Drama CDs revealed that originally they would have been a direct continuation of the anime's events.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion has the comedic Self-Parody Evangelion: After the End, featuring the cast as Animated Actors who discusses how to Retool the TV show to appeal to a wider audience. Much Conversational Troping occurs, and it is actually surprisingly in-character.
- Pokémon the Series:
- Pokémon has many Japanese-exclusive radio dramas. For example, The Rocket-dan's Secret Empire is a series of dramas where Musashi (Jessie) and Kojiro (James) act out plays together. In at least one case, their characters were named "Jessie" and "James" in reference to their Dub Name Changes.
- It's a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket!! is an Original Series drama where a Team Rocket delivery trainee named Mondo meets the Team Rocket trio.
- Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo was a Japanese-only radio drama backstory to Pokémon: The First Movie. It was later adapted into Mewtwo's Kidroduction for rereleases of the film.
- A Drama CD version of the 2005 film One Stormy Night was released in Japan in 2006.
- Several comics by 2000 AD have received audio adaptations of their own in recent years. The Ballad of Halo Jones, Nemesis the Warlock, and Sláine are among the examples.
- 30 Days of Night received a full-cast audio adaptation in 2017, fifteen years following the comic's original publication and featured voice actors such as Mark Boyett and Laura Fortgang.
- The Adventures of Luther Arkwright received a short audio adaptation; it is three hours long, and is fully dramatised, starring David Tennant (before his role as the Tenth Doctor) as Luther himself.
- Archie Comics: The Mark Waid run was adapted by GraphicAudio from 8 July 2021 to 23 February 2022, and starred Robb Moriera as Archie.
- Asterix received a series of audio adaptations, produced by EMI Records in the late eighties and early nineties, which were adapted by British translator Anthea Bell and narrated by British comedian Willie Rushton. More conventional audio dramatisations of the comics do exist, but only in their original French.
- Batman likewise has had a few stints, albeit brief, Knightfall being adapted by The BBC, which also produced an original Batman story entitled The Lazarus Syndrome, both of which starred Bob Sessions as Batman and Michael Gough reprising his role from the Burton films as Alfred Pennyworth. Warner Bros. Records produced an audio drama entitled Batman: Legends of Robin in 1996, which is perhaps notable in that it featured Mark Hamill reprising his role as the Joker. This particular audio drama adapted all the story arcs from the comics which involved Robin in some form. More recently, Batman's individual story arcs have been adapted as part of an ongoing podcast known as DC High Volume: Batman
, which not only adapts Year One, but also The Long Halloween and its direct sequel Dark Victory.
- Blacksad only received a dramatised audiobook within its native French, courtesy of French audio company Blynd Production. It starred Eric Herson-Macarel as Blacksad himself, Bernard Gabay as Smirnov and Ivan Gouillon as Ivo Statoc.
- During the 1990s, Shan-Lon Enterprises produced audio adaptations of the Captain America storylines The Haunting of Skull House and The Living Legend as part of their Read-Along cassette line.
- Cerebus the Aardvark ended up receiving a short radio series during the 1980s, which adapted the early issues. It can be found here
. Other audio skits were produced and performed at conventions, starring Sim as Cerebus himself.
- Daredevil:
- The comics were adapted into two dramatised audiobooks by GraphicAudio, the first being Guardian Devil in 2010 and the next one being The Man Without Fear in 2016.
- In 2011, staff members at Marvel recorded an audio rendition of the script for the relaunch of the series. A version of it with sound effects can be found here
.
- The Doctor Strange comics ended up receiving one during the late 1960s, produced by WBAI in New York, which ran for a total of seventeen episodes.
- Recently, ElfQuest ended up receiving one, courtesy of Realm. It solely adapted the first handful of issues in the comic series, albeit with a full cast and sound effects and featured a cast of more than 40 actors. It is available to listen to here
.
- In the late '70s, there was a short-lived radio show version of Fantastic Four. It reasonably faithfully followed the original comic issues, but is probably best known as a very early role of a pre-Saturday Night Live Bill Murray, playing Johnny Storm.
- During the 1960s, a company by the name of Golden Records produced four audio adaptations of various Marvel issues — to be precise, Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1, Journey into Mystery #83, and The Avengers #4. More information on them can be found here
.
- Graphic Audio has since joined with DC to bring a number of the company's properties into "Long Car Ride" radio versions, including both original stories, and adaptations of many a Crisis Crossover. The Infinite Crisis one is particularly good.
- Marvel has also joined their ranks. Currently they have the adaptation of Civil War as well as an original novel based on Spider-Man and an upcoming original story based on The Ultimates. Unfortunately, both the DC and Marvel examples were discontinued in their country of origin due to GA losing the licence to the Marvel and DC characters.
- More recently, they have adapted comics from other publishers, including The Boys, Vagrant Queen, White Sand, Deep Roots, These Savage Shores and so on. In 2023, they created a trilogy of Hellboy audiobooks, which told original stories set in the same universe with the same characters: A Plague of Wasps (continuing the story of Hellboy in Love), Hellboy & the BPRD: The Goddess of Manhattan, and Lobster Johnson: The Proteus Club. The first two starred Scott McCormick as Hellboy.
- The Grishaverse graphic novel Demon in the Wood (a graphic novel adaptation of the short story of the same name) was adapted as a full-cast production, which featured Ben Barnes (who portrayed the Darkling in the television series) as the narrator.
- Kill Shakespeare received a five-part audio adaptation, produced by the Pulp Variety Streamcast and supposedly officially authorised by the publisher; it can be found here
.
- Kingdom Come received a full-cast audio adaptation in 1998, which was produced by Time Warner Audiobooks and was partially adapted from a novelisation of the story.
- Marvels received an audio drama podcast adaptation in 2019, produced by Stitcher Studios and featuring AnnaSophia Robb as one of the protagonists. It was originally released as a Stitcher Premium exclusive before being distributed to other podcast platforms. It concentrates primarily on adapting the 1960s chapters of the story.
- The Mask: While no official audio adaptation of the original comic has been produced, GraphicAudio also produced an audio adaptation of its sequel series I Pledge Allegiance To the Mask.
- The Maxx received an audio drama adapting the first three issues of the comic in 1993, which was produced by Animated Alligator Ltd and starred Allister Slokill as the Maxx, Erin Latour as Julie and Rock Romano as Mr Gone.
- NO/ONE received a supplementary podcast, entitled Who Is No One.
- British independent comic company Cutaway Comics produced an audio adaptation
of their series entitled Omega.
- The Perhapanauts received one, although it often included original material rather than directly adapting the stories from the comic.
- Pocket Universe Productions has officially adapted some comics, such as Archer & Armstrong, Locke & Key and even The Vault of Horror.
- During the 1970s, Power Records, a brand label of children's audiobook company Peter Pan Records, produced a series of audio LPs based on comic book characters. While they mostly told original stories, some of them were direct audio adaptations of comic issues - for example, Fantastic Four #126 ("The Way It Began") and Captain America #168 ("And A Phoenix Shall Arise"). Lines of dialogue from the latter would be later used in the Eminem song "Rap God". The ones devoted to Superman, Wonder Woman and Spider Man were translated into Spanish and Japanese during the 1980s.
- British independent comic Psyence Fiction was adapted into an audio series by the original creator, Rik Hoskins, which can be found here
.
- Radiant Black was slated to receive one, but it failed to manifest, likely as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
- A Singaporean graphic novel known as Sacred Guardians received an audio adaptation, performed by a cast of Singaporean actors and produced by Asiapac Books. It is available to listen to here
.
- The Sandman (2020), a faithful audio drama adaptation of The Sandman (1989), using narration and sound effects in lieu of visuals.
- Spider-Man has received multiple audio adaptations over the years, including a 1996 BBC audio drama produced by Dirk Maggs, who would later go on to adapt The Sandman. The adaptation featured Brian May of Queen fame composing the soundtrack.
- Various Star Wars comic book arcs have received audio adaptations, including Tales of the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, TOTJ Freedon Nadd Rebellion, TOTJ Dark Lords of the Sith, Dark Empire I, II and Empire's End, Crimson Empire, and the three Dark Forces graphic novels. Oddly enough, they never finished them by releasing the two more Tales of the Jedi arcs featuring Ulic Qel-Droma.
- Superman has been adapted to radio form many times. The first one gave birth to the popular "It's a bird! It's a plane!" opening, and was responsible for creating kryptonite as well. It was also possibly responsible for killing the KKK.
- Herge's Tintin has received numerous audio adaptations over the years: firstly, there were a series of audio adaptations in French released on LP, and then a BBC radio series during the '80s and '90s. The latter often features an introduction, depicting Tintin typing up his latest report, thereby functioning as the narrator of the stories. In these adaptations, Snowy takes on the role of extraneous narration and comic relief that can't be accomplished through dialogue and would have been accomplished through artwork in the original.
- BBC Radio produced an adaptation of When the Wind Blows. This adaptation was a two-hander (appropriately considering the comic's Minimalist Cast) and featured Peter Sallis seven years before he played Wallace.
- In 2010, the Telegraph strip Alex was adapted for Classic FM.
- The Avengers comics received an audio adaptation, courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
- A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Guardian strip Clare In The Community became one of the station's longest-running sitcoms.
- The Comic Weekly Man
was a radio show which ran from 1947 to 1954, which featured radio character actor Lon Clark reading selected strips from the eponymous Comic Weekly.
- Dan Dare has received at least four adaptations for audio: the first two being produced by European companies Radio Luxembourg and Radio Madrid, the third being produced by the BBC and the fourth produced by company B7 Media (but still broadcast on BBC Radio), the trailer for which can be found here
.
- Flash Gordon received a radio serial adaptation in 1935, at first adapting the first handful of issues in the comic serial but gradually diverging more and more until it concluded with a crossover with another of Raymond's heroes, Jungle Jim.
- Mandrake the Magician received a radio serial which ran from 1940 to 1942.
- Modesty Blaise has received numerous adaptations over the years, often produced by the BBC.
- The Changeling of the Guard: Beginning in November 2017, the YouTube channel Fanfiction Reader
began featuring this story as read by a computer voice. Begin listening here.
- The author has expressed amusement at some of the effects caused by having a computer read the story.
- One Helluva Broken Day: Begun on April 2023, a bunch of Hellaverse and SCP fans from said fics Discord community got together to make an audiobook for this crossover fanfiction from Archive of our Own. The channel can be found here
.
- The author of the Undertale Fanfic Visiontale
made an audio drama for Chapter 41, the in-game equivalent of the moments leading up to the protagonist meeting Asgore. The first half can be found here
, and the second half can be found here
.
- A Youtube user by the name of Ivanicoh
lays out a scenario in which the abandoned "Red Flag" operation in the canon Halo timeline is actually pushed forward in this adaptation. What is told
is a massive shift in the fates of a multitude of characters, including Jacob Keyes, Noble Team, John-117 and other often less-known individuals such as Danforth Whitcomb and many others. Painstaking detail is added for each part of the scenario, including well-done ai-voices for each important character including Master Chief, Cortana, Emile, Jacob, Whitcomb and others, mounting a subtle infiltration into High Charity, the massive planet-sized city-ship of the Covenant Empire.
- The Youtube channel HellFox83
produced a number of audio dramatizations of scenes taken from The Wormhole Chronicles, a crossover fanfiction series based on Halo and Mass Effect.
- A fanfiction based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Penny Saves Paldea, was made into an audio adaptation by Katrina S. Forest on her YouTube channel starting on April 2023, where she not only reads the chapters, but also goes over the glitches logic fails in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that are covered in each video (including some fails inspired by her experiences with the game) in full detail before she begins each chapter, complete with clips from the game and custom animation with models based on the models of the characters and Pokémon. It can be found here
.
- Gulliver's Travels was given a 30-minute adaptation for radio's Good News of 1940, and was presented with a Framing Device of Gulliver returning to Lilliput to visit his tiny friends. Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross, the singing voices of Princess Glory and Prince David respectively, did their singing and speaking voices for the broadcast.
- All three original Star Wars movies had radio play adaptations broadcast by NPR: Star Wars
in 1981, The Empire Strikes Back
in 1983, and Return of the Jedi
in 1996. The first one is very famous for including a whole lot of stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor of the original movie, including early scenes on Alderaan with King Organa, a long chat between Biggs Darklighter and Luke that established both their characters, and a greatly expanded interrogation scene between Vader and Leia.
- The Radio show Lux Radio Theatre was a long-running program adapting hit (and some lesser) movies to radio drama form. It was produced and hosted by Cecil B. DeMille. The Lux adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life stars Bill Pullman as George Bailey.
- BBC Radio has produced lots of adaptations of books, many of them starring well-known actors like Christopher Lee and David Warner.
- Ian Fleming's James Bond canon since 2008. Bond is voiced by Toby Stephens, who played Big Bad Gustav Graves in Die Another Day.
- The Lord of the Rings, with full cast and sound effects. Interestingly, it starred Ian Holm as Frodo (Holm would go on to play Bilbo in Peter Jackson's live-action films) and featured Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum (Woodthorpe had previously voiced the character in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film); Woodthorpe's Gollum had a pretty clear influence on Andy Serkis'.
- Ben-Hur: A BBC audio adaptation was produced in 1995, adapted by Catherine Czerkawska and starring Jamie Glover as Judah Ben-Hur, Samuel West as Messala, and Michael Gambon as the narrator.
- The Divine Comedy was adapted by the BBC in its entirety, and featured John Hurt as the older Dante, providing supplementary narration to his "younger" counterpart (portrayed by Blake Ritson), with David Warner as Virgil. It's a lot Ruder and Cruder than the original as well, incorporating egregious use of profanity, especially in the section adapting Inferno.
- The Hobbit, with full cast, sound effects, and original material (such as Bilbo talking back to the narrator).
- All of the Sherlock Holmes stories, with full cast and sound effects
- The Discworld novels Guards! Guards!, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Night Watch, Small Gods and Eric adapted for radio, with full cast and sound effects.
- A number of Robert Rankin novels, including Brightonomicon and the Brentford Trilogy, with full cast and sound effects.
- Carmen was adapted for BBC Radio in 2014 starring Candis Nergaard as Carmen and William Ash as Don Jose, while also omitting Merimee's Author Avatar.
- The BBC adapted Don Quixote during the 1980s, adapted by John Arden, and which starred Bob Grant as Don Quixote and Bernard Cribbins as Sancho Panza.
- The Fall of the House of Usher: The story has been adapted for radio twice by The BBC:
- The first one was in 1978 and had a cast of only four, with Edward Petherbridge as Roderick Usher and Tim Piggot-Smith as the unnamed narrator.
- The second one was in 2008 and was a recording by Sean Barrett.
- Fight Club was adapted for BBC Radio in 2015, starring Sam Hazeldine as Tyler Durden and Patrick Kennedy as the Narrator.
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (full cast, sound effects), the most recent of which was released in 2012 and starred Jim Parker as Victor Frankenstein and Shaun Doolley as the Creature.
- The company have also adapted Jaws several times, albeit as abridged audiobook recordings with sound effects and music derived from the film adaptation.
- Little Women has been adapted several times by the BBC.
- Ghost stories by a variety of authors (full casts, sound effects)
- Peter Pan, produced for radio in 1994 and starring English singer-songwriter Toyah Willcox as Peter Pan.
- The Great Gatsby was adapted as a Classic Serial in 2012, featuring Andrew Scott as Gatsby and Karl Johnson as Meyer Wolfsheim.
- The His Dark Materials trilogy - although there are actually two adaptations of this one: a radio adaptation and a full-cast unabridged recording, narrated by author Philip Pullman. Both were produced by the BBC.
- The Last of the Mohicans was adapted for radio in two one-hour episodes directed by Michael Fox and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995 (subsequently on BBC Radio 7), with Michael Fiest, Philip Franks, Helen Mc Crory, and Naomi Radcliffe.
- The BBC produced a reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 2009, read by Martin Jarvis and accompanied by sound effects.
- Moby-Dick was adapted for radio by The BBC in 2010, featuring Trevor White as Ishmael and Garrick Hagon as Captain Ahab.
- H. P. Lovecraft's stories At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow over Innsmouth were adapted as one-man recordings with sound effects, narrated by Welsh actor Richard Coyle.
- The Phantom of the Opera was adapted for BBC radio in 2007, starring Peter Guinness in the role of Erik.
- Robinson Crusoe was adapted as a two-part play broadcast on BBC Radio 4, dramatised by Steve Chambers, directed by Marion Nancarrow and starring Roy Marsden and Tom Bevan.
- The Adventures of Pinocchio was adapted by Linda Marshall Griffiths for BBC radio in 2012, starring Ellis Hollins as Pinocchio, and Lee Ingleby and William Ash as the Fox and the Cat (also doubling in several other roles).
- The Brothers Karamazov: A BBC Radio adaptation of the novel was produced in 2006, with Roy Marsden, Carl Prekopp, Sam Dale and Rachel Atkins.
- Walter Scott's Tales of My Landlord series was adapted by the BBC in the 2010s into a radio series, featuring David Tennant voicing Scott, who functions as the series' narrator.
- The Pilgrim's Progress was adapted into a radio adaptation produced by the BBC in 2004. Perhaps noteworthy in that it cuts between the action of the novel and a dramatised rendition of Bunyan's experiences in prison. However, it only adapts the first part of the novel, with the second part being left as a Sequel Hook, with Bunyan deciding that one day he may want to write about Christian's wife after being released from prison.
- War and Peace, full cast, sound effects, and featuring John Hurt in a minor role. It was broadcast in 2015 over an entire day — namely, New Year's Day.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been adapted twice by the company: the first and most faithful one being in 1994 and starring Maureen Lipman as the Wicked Witch of the West. It is extremely faithful to Baum's novel, aside from taking a few cues from the 1939 film (such as the Cowardly Lion speaking with a Brooklyn accent or the Witch sounding similar to her film counterpart), a couple of anachronistic jokes here and there (the Lion requesting an aspirin after witnessing the Wizard apparently turn into a flaming ball, or the Scarecrow boasting that if he had a brain, he would solve The Times crossword), but pulls dialogue far more directly from Baum's book than the '39 film ever did.
- Adrian Mole. In fact, original Adrian Mole monologues were written for Pirate Radio 4, a teenage Magazine Show that also included Doctor Who: Slipback (below). These were recursively adapted into "Adrian Mole at the BBC" in True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole.
- Charles Webb's original novel The Graduate was adapted for BBC Radio as part of their Classic Serial, starring Danny Mahoney as Benjamin Braddock and Sian Thomas as Mrs Robinson.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory got this treatment (full cast, sound effects) in The '80s.
- The Mary Poppins books received such an adaptation in 2004. It stitches together scenes from both the first and second novels in the series while fitting them together around a new storyline (an upcoming event at Mr Banks' place of work requires him to give a speech, and should his speech not go according to plan, he will be denied a promotion). It is notable in that it included characters from the novel that the film omitted, such as Mrs Corry and the four animals from Bad Tuesday.
- Neverwhere, Good Omens and Anansi Boys, with full cast and sound effects.
- Len Deighton's Bomber, split into sections and broadcast over the course of an entire day, with each section taking place in Real Time.
- Many, many, many adaptations of Charles Dickens.
- The BBC adapted Les Misérables for radio in several installments in 2001-2, which were narrated by Joss Ackland and featured Roger Allam as Jean Valjean, David Schofield as Inspector Javert, Jonathan Forbes as Marius, Lucy Whybrow as Cosette, and Leslie Phillips as M. Gillenormand.
- More recently, the BBC also adapted Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle (the company had previously adapted her book Witch Week, with their adaptation almost becoming lost media). While more faithful to the novel than the film, it's also subject to Adaptation Distillation, cutting down many of the novel's minor characters and subplots to focus on the main storyline.
- In 2011, the novel Show Boat was adapted by the BBC as a radio drama in two episodes, starring Ryan McCluskey as Gaylord and Samantha Spiro as Magnolia.
- The BBC have adapted Tristram Shandy several times:
- In 2005, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation by Graham White in ten 15-minute episodes directed by Mary Peate.
- In 2022, the BBC produced a Setting Update entitled Tristram Shandy: In Development. This adaptation compliments the novel's premise of a man writing his autobiography but being interrupted by having its central focus revolve around an amateur dramatics troupe adapting the novel for a podcast.
- Taking advantage of its Doctor Who licence, Big Finish has produced adaptations of several of the Virgin New Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures, with the TV cast performing when possible.
- Dr. Seuss' work received audio adaptations on both sides of the Atlantic: notably, in the 1990s, there were a series of British audiobook adaptations of The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! which were narrated by famous British comedian Rik Mayall. In the United States, there was a full-cast cassette tape adapting The Cat in the Hat released in 1981.
- Foundation:
- Random House made an audiobook adaptation of the Foundation series in 2010, with Scott Brick as narrator.
- The Foundation Trilogy: This is an adaptation of The Foundation Trilogy by The BBC Radiophonic Workshop for Radio with a full cast for the characters, sound effects, and with stereophonic radio (one of the BBC's first ever).
- "The Mayors": Caedmon created an LP of this story in 1977, with Isaac Asimov as the narrator.
- William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy Read Four Science Fiction Classics: William Shatner reads abridged versions of "The Psychohistorians" and "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", and Leonard Nimoy reads abridged versions of The Martian Chronicles and "The Green Hills of Earth".
- Harry Potter is currently slated to receive a full-cast audiobook series in late 2025.
- American publishers don't do this as often, but there have been full-cast recordings of:
- Dune has an audio adaptation which is polarising among the fanbase due to the fact that some chapters are produced with a full cast and some background ambience, while others are a far more conventional audiobook recording. The later books are rendered as far more conventional audiobook recordings.
- Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit – Will Travel and "The Green Hills of Earth"
- Many of H. P. Lovecraft's novels and stories
- Star Trek novels, narrated by George Takei and guest starring Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.
- Long before the Star Trek audiobooks, audio plays featuring the original cast were produced in LP format.
- Many Star Wars novels as well, including Matt Stover's greatly respected novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Many of these audio adaptations even include sound effects and music from John Williams's scores.
- Many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories
- World War Z was adapted with a full cast
- GraphicAudio produces several full-cast dramatised recordings of various novels, both from the United States and overseas, including, but by no means limited to:
- The A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.
- The Arkham Horror novels.
- The Gideon Smith series by British author David Barnett.
- All of Simon R. Green's bibliography, including Forest Kingdom, Deathstalker (Simon R. Green), Ghost Finders, and so on.
- Brandon Sanderson's bibliography, including Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, and Elantris.
- The The Vampire Earth series.
- The Clockwork Century novels by Cherie Priest.
- The Deathlands series, their longest-running series to date.
- More recently, they have announced that they will adapt The Dresden Files.
- The Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster.
- Brent Weeks' The Night Angel Trilogy and The Lightbringer Series.
- The Gospel of Mark, produced in association with the Cutting Corporation of Bethesda, Maryland.
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
- The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
- R.A. Salvatore's Demon Wars Saga and The Saga of the First King
- Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing series.
- Michael J. Sullivan's bibliography, including The Riyria Revelations, Legends of the First Empire, the Ririya Chronicles and so on.
- Tell Me a Story: Science Fiction One: Paul Williams adapted several stories to an audiobook format:
- "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley
- "Cyber-Claus" by William Gibson
- "Expendable" by Philip K. Dick
- "The Golem" by Avram Davidson
- "Insert Knob A in Hole B" by Isaac Asimov
- "The Nine Billion Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
- "The Perfect Woman" by Robert Sheckley
- "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson
- Mario Puzo's The Godfather has been adapted for audio at least three times: once, with a full-cast of actors, and produced in American English; the second a more conventional audiobook reading with Stanley Tucci and finally a Polish full-cast audiobook produced by Polish audiobook company Audioteka.
- Stephen King is a big audiobook fan. The audiobook release of his massive Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection starred different narrators for every story, including such luminaries as Grace Slick, Yeardley Smith (yes, that Yeardley Smith. If you think King is creepy on the page, wait until you hear Lisa Simpson narrating it!), Joe Mantegna, and Tim Curry.
- Even though the first two books of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy were originally radio plays (and then adapted to other media), the last four were books first and later adapted for radio.
- The Shadow counts, even though the magazine was inspired by the "narrator" of a mystery radio show. The magazine started in 1931, the radio adaptation in 1937.
- An unusual case is Kenneth Williams' reading of Nikolai Gogol's Diary of a Madman. This was originally recorded as the narration for an animated adaptation, but the animation was never completed and the recording was eventually broadcast as a radio monologue by The BBC.
- Ulver adapted William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell into a two-disc album, using the poem as the lyrics in it's entirety.
- Focus on the Family (responsible for Adventures in Odyssey) has a radio drama arm titled Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Among other things, they have produced:
- Les Misérables, starring BRIAN BLESSED
- Silas Marner
- The complete The Chronicles of Narnia series, the general hallmark of which is its distinctive orchestral soundtrack by John Campbell.
- A Christmas Carol
- The Screwtape Letters, featuring none other than Andy Serkis himself playing the title character.
- Anne of Green Gables
- Gap Digital produced Dramatic Audio presentations of the twelve main books in the Left Behind series.
- Over 2012-13, Penguin Audio released new unabridged audiobook versions of many of Roald Dahl's works, covering most of his adult short story collections and the bulk of his novels and poetry collections for children. Though none qualified as full-cast recordings, an All-Star Cast of narrators was assembled and some of the children's novels warranted sound effects as well (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.).
- Arctic Monkeys' fifth album, AM, features the song "I Wanna Be Yours," which is an adaptation of a poem of the same name by John Cooper Clarke.
- In 1965 a full cast audio drama of Alice in Wonderland was released by EMI as a double album, with an all-star cast filled with voices a British audience of the time would recognise instantly (Tommy Cooper as the Mad Hatter, Frankie Howerd as the Mock Turtle etc.)
- Isaac Asimov:
- Science Fiction Favorites: In addition to selecting which stories/poems would be included, Isaac Asimov also provided the narration for the entire book. The following stories were adapted into the audio format:
- "The Fun They Had": Spoken Realms made an audiobook adaptation in 2014, with John W Michaels as narrator.
- "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda": This Short Story was adapted into a stand-alone audiobook narrated by Jim Gallant. Orchestral music is included.
- The Complete Robot
- Warner Audio Pub produced an abridged two-cassette copy of this anthology in 1985, with Lloyd Battista as narrator. This version was republished by Random House Audio in 1988.
- Books On Tape created an unabridged audiocassette adaptation in 1986, voiced by Larry McKeever. It is a whopping 17 cassettes.
- Isaac Asimov and Janet Asimov: Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot: There is a vinyl LP recording (only includes the first two chapters) with Mark Hamill as narrator.
- William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy Read Four Science Fiction Classics: William Shatner reads abridged versions of "The Psychohistorians" and "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," and Leonard Nimoy reads abridged versions of The Martian Chronicles and "The Green Hills of Earth".
- Julie Kagawa's The Iron Fey: The series has been adapted into audiobook form for Audible, and read by individual narrators. Khristine Hvam reads most of the stories (The Iron King, "Winters Passage," The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, and "Irons Prophecy"), but "Summers Crossing" is read by Josh Hurley and The Iron Knight is read by Mac Leod Andrews.
- Orson Scott Card's Maps in a Mirror: This collection has been turned into an audiobook, where Orson Scott Card reads the introduction and afterward, but the stories are read by professional narrators.
- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One: Blackstone Audio created an unabridged audiobook adaptation in 2017, using a cast of eighteen narrators.
- Recorded Books produced audiobook versions of the Franny K. Stein books narrated by Michele O'Medlin.
- Phonogram GmbH adapted The Little Witch into a radio play in 1970, 1971 and 1977.
- Noddy
- Between 1953 till 1959, Enid Blyton did a narration for some of her
Noddy books part of the "His Master's Voice" series. In later stories, actual voice actors were brought in to voice Noddy and Big Ears.
- Four audio adaptations of four Noddy books were sold in the UK in the early 70s narrated by Kathleen Davydd. The first was Noddy Wins a Prize
/Noddy and the Aeroplane
in 1971, and Noddy Goes to School
/Noddy Gets Into Trouble
in 1972.
- The 1953 book "Noddy at the Seaside" gained an audio adaptation/audiobook that was released in 1986 on Casssette players, complete with 80s era synthizers used for songs when Noddy decides to sing.
- Between 1953 till 1959, Enid Blyton did a narration for some of her
- Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: The November 1948 issue features an advertisement written by the editors for Talking Records, which has been creating audiobooks of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for the blind, paid for by the Library of Congress.
- Dimension X:
- Episode one is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit".
- "Episode two is an adaptation of Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands".
- Episode three is an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "The Report On The Barnhouse Effect".
- Episode five is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Knock".
- Episode six is an adaptation of Robert Bloch's "Almost Human".
- Episode seven is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "The Lost".
- Episode eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Fox And The Forest".
- Episode nine is an adaptation of Donald A Wollheim's "The Embassy".
- Episode ten is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth".
- Episode eleven is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Zero Hour".
- Episode twelve is an adaptation of George Pal's "Destination Moon".
- Episode thirteen is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe".
- Episode fourteen is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven!".
- Episode seventeen is an adaptation of Jack Vance's "The Potters Of Firsk"
- Episode twenty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles".
- Episode twenty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll".
- Episode twenty-three is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit".
- Episode twenty-five is an adaptation of Fletcher Pratt's "Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium".
- Episode twenty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "And The Moon Be Still As Bright".
- Episode twenty-eight is an adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's "The Professor Was A Thief".
- Episode thirty is an adaptation of E Mayne Hull's "Competition".
- Episode thirty-one is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Universe".
- Episode thirty-five is an adaptation of Paul Carter's "The Last Objective".
- Episode thirty-six is an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Revolt Of The Machines".
- Episode thirty-seven is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Pebble in the Sky.
- Episode thirty-eight is an adaptation of William Tenn's "Childs Play".
- Episode thirty-nine is an adaptation of H. Beam Piper's "Time and Time Again".
- Episode forty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence," transcribed by George Lefferts.
- Episode forty-one is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Courtesy".
- Episode forty-three is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt".
- Episode forty-four is an adaptation of Nelson Bond's "The Vital Factor".
- Episode forty-five is an adaptation of Frank M Robinson's "Untitled Story".
- Episode forty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Marionettes Inc".
- Episode forty-seven is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "First Contact (1945)".
- Episode forty-eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope".
- Episode forty-nine is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Requiem".
- Episode fifty is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall (1941)," transcribed by Ernest Kinoy.
- X Minus One: Most of the episodes from this series are Radio Dramatizations, the later episodes all come from Galaxy magazine.
- Episode zero is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "And The Moon Be Still As Bright".
- Episode three is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven!".
- Episode four is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Universe".
- Episode five is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Knock".
- Episode eight is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth".
- Episode nine is an adaptation of Fletcher Pratt's "Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium".
- Episode ten is an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Revolt Ofhe Machines".
- Episode eleven is an adaptation of Donald A Wollheim's "The Embassy".
- Episode twelve is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt".
- Episode thirteen is an adaptation of Robert Bloch's "Almost Human".
- Episode fourteen is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Courtesy".
- Episode fifteen is an adaptation of Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations".
- Episode twenty is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "First Contact (1945)".
- Episode twenty-one is an adaptation of William Tenn's "Childs Play".
- Episdoe twenty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Requiem".
- Episode twenty-four is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence".
- Episode twenty-five is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit".
- Episode twenty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Zero Hour".
- Episode twenty-seven is an adaptation of Nelson Bond's "The Vital Factor".
- Episode twenty-eight is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall (1941)".
- Episode twenty-nine is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Fox And The Forest".
- Episode thirty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Marionettes Inc".
- Episode thirty-one is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe".
- Episode thirty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll".
- Episode thirty-three is an adaptation of H. Beam Piper's "Time and Time Again".
- Episode thirty-six is an adaptation of James E. Gunn's "The Cave Of Night".
- Episode thirty-seven is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "C-Chute".
- Episode thirty-eight is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit".
- Episode thirty-nine is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Junkyard".
- Episode forty-one is an adaptation of L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun For Dinosaur".
- Episode forty-two is an adaptation of Frederik Pohl's "Tunnel Under The World".
- Episode forty-three is an adaptation of Jack Mc Kenty's "A Thousand Dollars A Plate".
- Episode forty-four is an adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "A Pail Of Air".
- Episode forty-five is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "How 2".
- Episode forty-six is an adaptation of Mark Clifton's "Star Bright".
- Episode forty-seven is an adaptation of Ross Rocklynne's "Jaywalker".
- Episode forty-eight is an adaptation of Milton Lesser's "The Sense Of Wonder".
- Episode forty-nine is an adaptation of Frank Quattrocchi's "Sea Legs".
- Episode fifty is an adaptation of Jerry Sohl's "The Seventh Order".
- Episode fifty-one is an adaptation of JT Mc Intosh's "Hallucination Orbit".
- Episode fifty-two is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "The Defenders".
- Episode fifty-three is an adaptation of Gordon R. Dickson's "Lulungomeena".
- Episode fifty-four is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Project Mastodon".
- Episode fifty-five is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "If You Was A Moklin".
- Episode fifty-seven is an adaptation of James E. Gunn's "Wherever You May Be".
- Episode fifty-eight is an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's "Mr Costello Hero".
- Episode fifty-nine is an adaptation of Finn O Donnevan's "Bad Medicine".
- Episode sixty is an adaptation of HL Gold's "The Old Die Rich".
- Episode sixty-one is an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's "The Stars Are The Styx".
- Episode sixty-two is an adaptation of FL Wallace's "Student Body".
- Episode sixty-three is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "The Last Martian".
- Episode sixty-four is an adaptation of Katherine Mac Lean's "The Snowball Effect".
- Episode sixty-five is an adaptation of James Blish's "Surface Tension".
- Episode sixty-seven is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley's "The Lifeboat Mutiny".
- Episode sixty-eight is an adaptation of Frederik Pohl's "The Map Makers".
- Episode sixty-nine is an adaptation of Algis Budrys's "Protective Mimicry".
- Episode seventy is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Colony".
- Episode seventy-one is an adaptation of Michael Shaara's "Soldier Boy".
- Episode seventy-two is an adaptation of Katherine Mac Lean's "Pictures Dont Lie".
- Episode seventy-three is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "Sam This Is You".
- Episode seventy-four is an adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "Appointment In Tomorrow".
- Episode seventy-six is an adaptation of Steven Arr's "Chain Of Command".
- Episode seventy-eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains".
- Episode seventy-nine is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Hostess".
- Episode eighty is an adaptation of Frank M Robinson's "The Reluctant Heroes".
- Episode eighty-one is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Honeymoon In Hell".
- Episode one hundred twenty-four is an adaptation of Alan E Nourse's "Prime Difference".
- Episode one hundred twenty-five is an adaptation of Finn O'Donnevan's "Gray Flannel Armor".
- Episode one hundred twenty-six is an adaptation of Robert Silverberg's "The Iron Chancellor".
- All four Red Dwarf books were adapted and released on audiobook by Laughing Stock Productions. The first two (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life) were narrated by Chris Barrie (Rimmer in the series), Backwards was narrated by Rob Grant (the author of the book and one of the creators of the series) and Last Human was narrated by Craig Charles (Lister in the series).
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer gained an audio adaptation in 1947 narrated by Paul Wing with music by George Kleinsinger. Paul Wing would later do narration for the first animated adaptation by Max Fleischer in 1948.
- Two of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novels have been adapted into Chinese audio dramas — Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (aired in 2018-2019, with a Japanese dub that began in 2020) and Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (began in 2022). The first series also has an audiobook.
- Satoshi Maruo adapted Guardian of the Spirit and Guardian of the Darkness, the first two volumes of the Moribito series, into a radio drama series broadcast by NHK.
- Doctor Who has a lot of these.
- The BBC have produced a few radio adaptations of serials such as "Genesis of the Daleks".
- Official BBC-produced original radio plays have been produced as far back as 1986's "Slipback".
- Officially licensed audio plays by Big Finish, featuring the continuing adventures of Doctors Five, Six, Seven, and Eight (and later Four), now number in the hundreds. Quality is generally considered very high, and is praised for expanding character and concepts which didn't get too much attention or love during their appearance in the TV series, thus leading to quite a few cases of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, especially for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor.
- An outfit called BBV Productions produced audio plays and series of varying officialness during the Nineties: one starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger" and "Miss Brown"; one starring Lalla Ward and John Leeson as "The Mistress" and "K-9"; and one starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as "The Professor" and "Ace". None of these were licensed Doctor Who spin-offs, though BBV did obtain a license for K-9 directly from the writers who created the character (an approach they also used to have several recognizable monsters appear in their productions). The "Stranger" and "Mistress" series got away with it by having a low profile and just enough differences from the originals, but the "Professor and Ace" series attracted official notice because McCoy and Aldred were basically playing the same characters under the same names ("Professor" was what Ace always called the Doctor in canon, too), and the BBC stepped in to force some more filing-off of serial numbers.
- BBC Audio has produced several audiobooks featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. They also created three series of Fourth Doctor audio dramas, starring Tom Baker and Richard Franklin (reprising his role as Third Doctor "companion" Mike Yates).
- Torchwood:
- BBC Audio has produced several audiobooks starring the team. Whilst most are audio adaptations of the novel range, a few are completely new stories.
- BBC Radio produced a few audio dramas of the series that originally aired on BBC Radio 4. The first celebrated the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider. This was followed by one three-episode series of plays to bridge the gap between series 2 and 3, and another, Torchwood: The Lost Files to bridge the gap between 3 and 4.
- BBC Audio made some audiobooks of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
- There have been a few instances of BBC SitComs transferring from TV to radio:
- Dad's Army was successfully adapted for radio, running for four series.
- Steptoe and Son also made the transition from screen to sound.
- One Foot in the Grave was also adapted for radio, but there were only four radio episodes.
- Yes, Minister: sixteen episodes, according to The Other Wiki
.
- Have Gun – Will Travel was one of the few television shows that then had an adaptation for radio, as opposed to the other way around.
- Various adaptation of Kamen Rider, in tapes.
- Radio 4's six part Neverwhere technically belongs under TV, although Neil Gaiman would probably rather you considered it an adaptation of his novelization.
- The Channel 4 sketch show Absolutely has been revived on BBC Radio 4 as The Absolutely Radio Show.
- There was a brief attempt to adapt I Love Lucy as a radio show – a little ironic considering the concept started as a radio show years earlier – but after a single unaired trial episode was produced (using the same script as the TV episode "Breaking the Lease," fleshed out with descriptive narration from Arnaz as Ricky), the idea was abandoned. However, the radio pilot did have one positive effect: CBS executives had worried that Arnaz's accent was too thick for American audiences to understand. Hearing the radio pilot convinced them that his accent wasn't as thick and undecipherable as they had originally feared.
- Our Miss Brooks: Many television episodes were SoundToScreenAdapations of the radio program. But a few episodes of the television program would also be remade for the radio. For example, "June Bride", the first season finale, was remade into "Marriage by Proxy".
- The Twilight Zone (1959)". A radio adaption of the original 50's/60's Twilight Zone series was produced for the British digital radio station BBC Radio 4 Extra starting in 2002. It aired for 176 episodes between October 2002 and 2012 and was also also syndicated in the United States on nearly 200 radio stations (as well as XM Satellite Radio channel 163 and Sirius XM Book Radio). Narrated by actor Stacy Keach, each episode was an adaption of an episode from the original Rod Serling TV version, with every episode from the original series eventually receiving an radio adaption along with a few original stories created for the radio version.
- Orson Welles became famous with his The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which adapted works of literature, both stage plays like Sherlock Holmes and novels like The Pickwick Papers. His most famous broadcast, and probably the all-time most famous instance of this trope, is the October 30, 1938 broadcast The War of the Worlds, which adapted the novel by H. G. Wells.
- Especially in the 1960s and 70s, a huge number of record albums were recorded for children by studios like Power Records. They adapted everything from classic novels like Melville's Moby-Dick and Barrie's Peter and Wendy, to superhero stories (some adapted from comics, some original) and TV shows like Josie and the Pussycats, to nursery rhymes and fables from Aesop.
- This especially applies to Disney who has made both book and record, and "storyteller" LP versions of not only their own movies, but also the Star Wars trilogy, E.T., and even the first four Star Trek movies. They also adapted the first two Indiana Jones movies.
- Kid Stuff Recordsnote is another notable maker of these. Many of their various licenses include, but are by no means limited to: Barbie, Masters of the Universe, Strawberry Shortcake (1980s), the original Transformers series, and even video game licenses like Pac-Man.note
- Realm's catalog includes audiobook adaptations of classic sci fi short stories.
- Room 101 runs on television still, but this show went in the opposite direction to the usual Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, as it also runs on BBC Radio Four. In its radio format, it follows the original format where a single guest is interviewed at length about their pet peeves and hates, and is hosted by Paul Merton.
- The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, a 6-part series produced by the BBC World Service, is essentially an Adaptation Expansion of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
- The Magic Flute received an audio drama aimed at children. It was produced by the North American music company Classical Kids and features a premise similar to the 2022 film, with a young girl being isekai'd into the world of Mozart's opera, where she encounters the protagonists of the opera and comes with them on the quest. Thus, the eponymous enchanted instrument becomes hers, rather than being given to Tamino as in the original. However, there are some differences from the opera, among them the snake accompanying them on their quest rather than perishing as in the original.
- The Moth, a popular New York true storytelling series, did shows for ten years before releasing the audio as a podcast and then the NPR show The Moth Radio Hour.
- Clock Tower: Each game from the second onward has its own drama CD. The first two are just adaptations of their respective games, while the third is a prequel about the protagonist's mother, Nancy.
- Dragon Quest V: Three audio dramas were released in 1994 that covers several scenes depicted in the game.
- Metal Gear: A two volume Metal Gear Solid Drama CD that basically served as a continuation to the PS1 game, while the fictional radio drama IdeaSpy 2.5 in Ghost Babel became an actual radio drama starring Hideo Kojima as the title character.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has a whole bunch of these, focusing on various characters and expanding on them. Even with the games coming to America at last, we're quite unlikely to see these.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a Radio Drama adaptation called Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition.
- Ever17 has two Drama CDs, After You've Gone and 2035, both being Post Script Seasons.
- Riviera: The Promised Land has three drama CDs — one of a promotional nature (the Prelude disc), one containing mostly gag stories and voiced scenes from the game with a single serious original drama explaining antagonist Malice's backstory (the Epilogue disc), and a third containing a series of long episodic adventures (The Precious Chapter). Even when the first two were in print, it was a nightmare trying to buy them, as none of the Japanese vendors selling them shipped overseas. Luckily for (Japanese-speaking) fans, the third didn't have this problem.
- Yggdra Unison was given a drama CD, featuring three episodic stories starring some of the more popular characters. The cast has expressed hopes of being able to produce more, although we've heard nothing from them on the subject since.
- The Putt-Putt series had a book titled Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
- The Freddi Fish series had a book titled Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
- The Mega Man Zero series had audio tracks included on each of its soundtrack releases. The story importance of these tracks ranged from trivial (such as how Alouette came up with the names for the Baby Elves) to vital, such as explaining Elpizo's backstory (including how he got his name), how Phantom knew about Omega's true nature, or why the Guardians chose to help Zero at the end of the third game.
- The Japanese version of Elemental Gearbolt includes an unlockable audio drama version of an event mentioned in-game, in which the main characters meet as children and promise to reunite. It was Dummied Out of the English release, but the localizer summarized the story in the manual.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening has four CD dramas, each with different stories. The first one (with a male Avatar) depicts the days around Chrom's marriage and focuses on character interactions and some ambushes by Risen. The second (with a Female Avatar) revolves around someone's serious Sick Episode and the aftermath of Emmeryn's Heroic Suicide, alongside Henry and Lucina/"Marth"'s sort-of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. The third (no defined Avatar) is all about the already Bad Future that Lucina and her fellow Second Generation characters are about to leave. The fourth and last one (also w/o a defined Avatar) is noticeably Lighter and Softer and about Lucina and the children's struggle to find Lucina's precious tiara and both Morgans incidentally meeting up with each other in the Outrealms.
- There are many CD Dramas for for The King of Fighters, usually one or two per game, with individual characters sometimes getting their own CDs. They go from very cracky skits
bordering on Gag Dubs, to pretty
interesting
characterization-wise
(i.e. Dengeki Bunko explains how both the Japan Team and the Women's Team came to be among other things, The Sun and The Moon chronicles Iori Yagami's life outside KOF and the Yagami/Kusanagi feud at an unspecified time in the past, and KOF 2000 gives more background on K' and his group while also featuring Athena's misadventures through the world until she finds Kyo and they have a more serious talk about how everyone misses him at home).
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a CD Drama available only in Japan which takes place a year after the events of the game, and also confirms which of the good endings is canon (Maria chases Alucard).
- New Dynamic English has a radio show produced for Voice of America.
- A series of Persona 3 CD Dramas were produced. All of them take place during the events of the game and focus on relationships between the cast members as well as side plots that were not covered by the main game. Unfortunately, they are only available in Japanese but fan-made translations exist.
- Several audio CDs of Puyo Puyo are known to exist, each having multiple stories on them presenting all sorts of humorous scenarios featuring the series' characters.
- The Boston Metaphysical Society
received an audio adaptation entitled The Ghost Ship, which was released in 2022 and starred a cast with theatrical backgrounds.
- Cheshire Crossing received a full-cast audio adaptation produced in 2019 by Penguin Random House Audio, which featured a bunch of voice actors playing the various characters.
- Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has an "unofficial" Radio Play here
that has currently produced three episodes covering the story arcs "Warrior for Hire," "Recipe for Disasters," and Part I of "The Return of Dark Pegasus," with Part II in the works as of October 2010.
- Erika and the Princes in Distress has an audio adaptation, produced by French audio company Javras, but which ONLY exists in French (although it is easy to follow along using the original comic as a guide).
- Girl Genius has been adapted twice: once as a series of short stories telling non-canonical narratives (which can be found here
), and a more official series of audiobooks adapting the official novelisations created by the creators of the webcomic.
- Lackadaisy has two of them: one which can be downloaded here
and another one here
.
- Les Normaux was adapted into a full-cast audio production by Harper Audio in 2025. This adaptation won the AudioFile Earphones Award of that year.
- NIMONA received an audio adaptation in 2016, which was produced by Audible and featured Rebecca Soler as Nimona and Jonathan Davis as Ballister Blackheart.
- Nixvir received this narrated by a single person, but with cinematic music and sound effects.
- Sabrina Online also received an audio adaptation during its heyday, here
. It only covers the first five or so years of the comic's run.
- A webcomic known as Sithrah
received a short audio adaptation which only adapted the first handful of episodes in the series.
- Slightly Damned has a Radio Drama adaptation here
that currently consists of two episodes covering the first 63 pages, with episode three (set to be pages 64-93) well under way as of October 2010.
- Welcome to Room #305 has received a Korean Radio Drama.
- An audiobook of When Heaven Spits You Out follows the novelization of the original webcomic, and is narrated by the comic and novel's author, Ruairidh MacVeigh.
- When Nickelodeon cancelled Invader Zim, seven of the unfinished episodes already had their voice tracks recorded, so they were later released on the (now out of print) Special Features DVD.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has a series of German albums in CD and MP3 formats, each album containing two Freundschaft ist Magie episodes. Volume 1, Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia, contains "Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia (Teil 1)" and "Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia (Teil 2)". Volume 2, Apfelschüttelernte, contains "Eine Freundin hat's nicht leicht" and "Apfelschüttelernte". Volume 3, Angeber-Trixie, contains "Gilda, die Partybremse" and "Angeber-Trixie". Volume 4, Die Pyjama-Party, contains "Drachenscheu" and "Die Pyjama-Party". Volume 5, Das fremde Zebra, contains "Das fremde Zebra" and "Fürchterlich niedliche Tierchen". Volume 6, Etwas ganz Besonderes, contains "Frühlingsanfang in Ponyville" and "Etwas ganz Besonderes". Volume 7, Die Modenschau, contains "Das Blätterrennen" and "Die Modenschau". Volume 8, Pinkie Weisheiten, contains "Pinkie Weisheiten" and "Rainbows großer Tag". Volume 9, Die Showstars, contains "Babysitter Fluttershy" and "Die Showstars". Volume 10, Fluttershy auf dem Laufsteg, contains "Diamanten-Hunde" and "Fluttershy auf dem Laufsteg".
- Germany loves doing this. Their audio adaptations of western animated productions goes back to at least the 1980s.
- Similar to Friendship Is Magic, SpongeBob SquarePants has received 12 German albums for CD and MP3 in Germany. Some albums such as "Quallendisco" and "Das Blaue Album" would contain brand new stories told by the charaters provided by their German voice actors.
- The Wallace & Gromit book Anoraknophobia was adapted for cassette featuring Peter Sallis as Wallace.
- The Merrie Melodies short A Wild Hare was adapted for a 1941 episode of radio's Al Pearce and His Gang, with Mel Blanc reprising his role as Bugs Bunny.
- The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald received a promotional radio play adaptation titled The Wacky Musical Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Intergalactical Magical Radio, which fell into obscurity due to only being distributed on United Airlines' in-flight radio and involved the McDonaldland gang setting up a radio station and subsequently converting it into a spaceship to try and make contact with aliens. Notable anomalies include the omission of Sundae and the McNuggets, Franklin and Tika being replaced with a different set of kids, the Fry Kids appearing even though they made no further appearances after the first video "Scared Silly" and Grimace, Hamburglar and Birdie being respectively voiced by Frank Welker, Carl W. Wolfe and Russi Taylor (their standard voice actors in the McDonaldland ads at the time) rather than Kevin Michael Richardson, Charlie Adler and Christine Cavanaugh.

