Historical Documentary about the children’s literary masterpiece: Watership Down. In 1972, a British civil servant finished writing a story he’d been telling his daughters on long car journeys. It was about rabbits. Trouble was… it also discussed genocide, torture, vivisection and secret police. Every major publisher in London said no. Then, came Rex Collings — a one-man publishing operation with no advance to offer and only enough money for a run of 2,500 copies. Richard Adams’ Watership Down went on to sell more than 50 million books. It won two major awards. First editions now sell for £10,000. This is the story of how it almost never happened. And why one man’s stubborn belief in a book about bunnies changed children’s literature forever.

*In this episode:*

• The number of times Watership Down was rejected — and why nobody can agree on the figure
• The one-man publisher who put his own money on the line when everyone else said no
• Why 2,500 copies wasn’t enough — and why that became the best problem in publishing
• The real Watership Down — and how closely Adams stuck to the actual terrain
• The tree the rabbits came home to — and what happened to it in 2004

Secret Bonus Facts:

1. The WWII Origins of Hazel and Bigwig: While the script mentions Adams was a civil servant, the characters were actually inspired by his time in the British Army during WWII. Hazel was based on his commanding officer, Major John Gifford , whom Adams described as “brave in the most self-effacing way”. The fearless Bigwig was based on Captain Desmond Kavanagh , a debonair officer who was tragically killed in action during Operation Market Garden.
2. The Book Was Almost Called “Hazel and Fiver”: Adams’ original working title was much more literal: Hazel and Fiver . It was the publisher, Rex Collings, who suggested the title Watership Down, recognizing that the “sanctity of place” was more central to the epic than just the names of the protagonists.
3. A Naturalist’s Blueprint: To make his rabbits behave like actual animals rather than humans in suits, Adams relied heavily on Ronald Lockley’s 1964 book, _The Private Life of the Rabbit_ . The two later became close friends and even travelled to Antarctica together to co-author a book on the experience.

You’ve scrolled too far. There is nothing down here. But… since you’re here…

“Bright Eyes,” Art Garfunkel’s haunting theme for the 1978 film, was the biggest-selling UK single of 1979. Surprisingly, Richard Adams hated it. He once told Terry Wogan it was “factually wrong” for being a song about a dead rabbit. Songwriter Mike Batt famously hit back, pointing out that Adams had seemingly misremembered his own book: the song is sung from Fiver’s perspective at the exact moment he mistakenly believes Hazel has been killed.