Digitally Remastered BBC Narnia Series Coming to Blu-Ray This November
The BBC is set to re-release its entire 1988-1990 Chronicles of Narnia TV series in a brand-new digitally remastered format, as part of this year’s ongoing 75th Anniversary celebrations for C.S. Lewis’s original novel.
All three TV dramatizations, covering the first four entries in the book series, are being re-released on both Blu-Ray and DVD in their original 6-part episodic format:
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1988)
- Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989)
- The Silver Chair (1990)
The new box-set also includes a host of special features, including a brand new feature length documentary ‘The Return to Narnia’ from director Chris Chapman, which features contributions from nearly 30 of the original cast & crew, including all of its young stars.
The 4 disc set is due to be released in the UK on both Blu-Ray and DVD on 24th November 2025.
Oh my Lord! This is absolutely amazing! I am certainly buying these. They’re DEFINITELY not as well done as the other movies/serials/whatnot but they’re homey and British, so I can’t help liking them. It will be really neat to see them remastered.
I hope this edition will be in Poland.
This series raised me as a kid.. I wore out my original VHS tape. I am unbelievably excited about this release.
I hope this edition will be in Poland.
This series was my first introduction to The Chronicles of Narnia, and of CS Lewis too. I would watch it religiously on weekends.
I still remember dancing to the theme music, It transcended me. It was majestic, epic, rustic, medieval, otherworldly, and enchanting all at once. I felt truly transported into another world when I heard the music.
This could be awesome! I imagine the cast and crew probably look back on this with the same nostalgia a lot of the original viewers do.
Ooh, pretty!
We raised our 3 kids on these videos, who are now in their 30s and 40s! Such great memories! We will definitely be getting these!
Great news! The BBC LWW inspired me to start reading the series when I was 4 years old. I’m used to the edited together feature films, but it would be interesting to own them the way they were originally broadcast.
Since the series was filmed in 16 mm, it’ll be interesting to see how improved the picture will actually look in high def.
Bartek, you should be able to play the blurays from England in all of Europe, but not the DVDs.
I am also wondering how much better the series will really look if it was not very detailed to begin with. I’m glad to hear there’s a market for it and that they have a special feature with original cast.
And I just bought the DVD set not too long ago. I guess I could also splurge and get this set as well.
The BBC Narnia series as a whole (and the theme music specifically) truly captured the sense of lurking evil, threat and doom that the viewer simply does not get a sense of in the Disney/Walden Media productions.
In this regard, I believe that LLW was the most badly done of the Disney/Walden series (even though so many writers on this forum seem to believe that VDD was the most disappointing.) I can think of countless instances in LLW where the sense of ever present, menacing and lurking evil and danger was downplayed, glossed over or completely eliminated. So many elements in the story were tamed, sanitised and conditioned to
accommodate and protect a young, supposedly naive film audience.
LWW is such a sophisticated and rich storyline and all the complexities and subtleties which the BBC version conveyed (in the script, in characterization, in music, in crucial scenes and in so many other areas) are sadly lost in the 2005 version.
To take one example, the BBC scene where the Witch and Edmund encounter the Christmas party and the Witch turns the whole group into stone is blithely removed in the new film.
I hope it gets released in Australia too.
Will they be released in NTSC format? (North America/Region 1)?
I already have the DVDs. I’m wondering how much of an upgrade in picture quality the blu ray will bring?
This is so fun! I wore out our DVDS of this from the time I was 7. Personally, PC was my favorite of this series. I think it painted the gateway for the 2005 LWW when I watched it for the first time at the age of 12….these will always have a special place in my heart!
Do you think they’ll make it available on BBC iPlayer??
This amazing!! Will definitely be buying this. I was obsessed when was younger wore the VSH tapes out
Why..? There was absolutely nothing wrong with those movies. High definition is gonna ruin it.
How come everyone always makes the mistake of saying the first four books…its not the first 4 for a start the first book is and always has been The Magicians Nephew…which tells how narnia came about and how the white witch/queen found her way to Narnia…this has always been my biggest bug bear about all the chronicles of narnia tv and film adaptions they skip right to the lion the witch and the wardrobe and say that its the first book…its not its the second in a series of 7 books.
Why can no body report this correctly.
I wait excitedly for the TV adaption of the Magicians Nephew that is currently in production. And hope they will carry on and adapt all the books in the correct order without skipping or messing with the chronological order.
1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle
Thus listed for those who only know the TV and movie adaptions and haven’t picked up the books to read.
I was gifted the entire series of books when I was 7 or 8 years old and still have them now and im 48 they are along with my hatry potter collection some of my most prized possessions.
To Brian, who commented on the order. Much like Tolkien created the hobbit and LotR before he created the simarillion, CS Lewis wrote the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe before he wrote the magicians nephew, so to many older fans of the series of books it is not the first. However, in reading order it is. That is why the magicians nephew is often skipped. Also, because there are large spiritual connotations that a more secular world doesn’t seem to be interested in, in both the first and last book that are harder to gloss over than the other 5.
I love these movies and the books. These were so well done you can nearly read the book and use it to quote the movies. I’m in America and would love to have remastered copies. My kids live these and I’m hoping my grandkids do to when they’re a bit older.
I really hope that this gets released in the United States. I would love to own this!
I’ll just add that the set as I owned it in the Seventies had the books in publication order, with LWW plainly listed as Book One and TMN as Book Six. The ending of the latter, with the tree being turned into a wardrobe, nearly ties the prequel and the original together.
When is this coming to the USA?
Personally, I hope they will be released in the USA.
Can we please get a remaster of the animated film now I watched as a kid.
I Still have that series on vhs. My favourite movie
My childhood memories of watching this on tv. Oneday will watch them with my children too! BBC put it on Iplayer!
Hopefully they are released in Region 1 for Canada and the US soon as well! I love this series and it’s in many ways superior to the more recent movies.
I assume Brian was trolling.
If not, where did they sell a set numbered chronologically ~40 years ago, when it was about 30 years ago that HarperCollins made the switch to chronological?
Why can they not just publish a set without numbers and leave it for the reader to choose which order they prefer?
I’ve yet to force myself to buy a chronological set…maybe one day.
I probably should have at least said something regarding the actual news article.
I grew up watching the BBC versions on VHS, and while they certainly aren’t perfect, I prefer them to the newer versions. I enjoyed the Walden LWW, but I think I only watched SC in theater one time and never purchased it for home viewing. I’ve never watched the “new” VotDT, and I don’t seem to be missing anything from what I can tell.
I have the BBC set on DVD. I’m not sure if it’ll be worth getting blu-ray or not, considering there isn’t a lot of clarity to be gained.
Will this be available on Region 1 DVD/Bluray or US streaming so audiences in North America can see the new documentary and the remastered episodes too?
@ Brian, Even if you’re too old & stuck in your ways to learn something here, regardless I’ll let you know: Narniawebbers mostly adhere to the CORRECT READING ORDER for first-time readers, starting with ‘Wardrobe’. The BBC series and the Walden films followed because it made the most sense when filming with child actors over multiple projects. Also publication order is just better in general but I digress
What about the US
??!!