The BBC is developing a new CGI version of the much-loved (yet harrowing) children’s story Watership Down, RadioTimes.com can reveal.


The new script is in the early stages but the BBC hope that a retelling of Richard Adams’ much-loved book about rabbits Thumper, Fiver, Hazel and co’s search for a new home will be a hit with new audiences.

The story has already been told in a 1978 animated film directed by Martin Rosen and featuring the voices of John Hurt, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott and Richard Briers. It was a box-office success, popular with children and adults alike.

“People love the 1978 film in but with new CGI technology we can do amazing things – you can see the wind blowing the fur which you didn’t get with the cartoon film,” a mole (or should that rabbit?) tells RadioTimes.com.


The hero of the story is Fiver, a young buck rabbit who has a frightening vision of destruction. A group of rabbits led by the resourceful Hazel then steal away to find a safer home in an epic journey filled with adventure and fraught with danger.