Doctor Who's Peter Capaldi Gives One Of The Best Fantasy Books Ever The Perfect Audiobook
by Jacob Hall · /FilmWhen I finished watching "The Sheep Detectives," low-key one of the best movies of 2026 (comedy or otherwise), I thought about another story about animals. More specifically, I thought about another story where animals are treated as animals and not as anthropomorphic jokes, i.e. humans wearing different skin for the sake of a plot. Richard Adams' "Watership Down" is the gold standard "talking animals" story because the rabbits at the center of the novel have animal needs, animal wants, and animal instincts. Any major crossover with humanity exists to prove a larger point about, well, life.
Naturally, this led me to revisit "Watership Down" for the first time in over 20 years. And because I'm a Busy Adult Man With Responsibilities, I decided to opt for the audiobook.
That turned out to be the right choice. Because the "Watership Down" audiobook is narrated by Peter Capaldi, the brilliant Scottish actor with the kind of range that allows him to play loathsome sociopaths and kindly father figures without telling a single lie. Of course, Capaldi is best known these days as a science fiction legend. Indeed, his three-year run as the lead in "Doctor Who" is now rightfully being rightfully reassessed as the strongest in the show's 60-plus year history. (Fight me.) At the very least, it features one of the greatest "Doctor Who" episodes ever in "Heaven Sent."
Capaldi's narration, his voice, brings the book to life to such a degree that I find myself lost in the words. The narration also doubles down on an understated element of "Watership Down" that feels more obvious than ever when the story is being told to you: It's one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written.
Yes, "Watership Down" is set in our world, a place where rabbit live in burrows near human farms and roads. But the beauty of the novel is that a mundane patch of land and forest might as well be Middle-earth to a group of bunnies.
Peter Capaldi's Watership Down narration is an all-timer
When the rabbits in "Watership Down" leave their warren, spurred on by the clairvoyant images of impending doom, the journey to find a new burrow to call their own has the scope of a proper epic. Small streams become raging rivers. Cars become unstoppable gods. Dogs and cats become mythic beasts that must be fled or fought. And when the rabbits pause to eat or rest, they regale each other with tales drawn from their own culture and homegrown mythology, like a squad of hobbits swapping poems.
"Watership Down," on the page, is as indebted to J.R.R. Tolkien as "The Sheep Detectives" is to the mystery novels of Agatha Christie. Call the rabbits something else, and set it in a fictional world, and there would be no question of genre.
And much like how Peter Capaldi brought startling nuance, wry wit, and deep-set pain to his portrayal of the Doctor, his narration in the audiobook imbues even the smallest moments with big drama and bigger emotion. Just as he counter-balanced the inherent silliness of "Doctor Who" by confronting every gonzo alien or time travel threat with an honesty that made you believe in a Dalek, his treatment of the world and characters in "Watership Down" showcase a performer with a keen sense of empathy. His bombastic Scottish brogue lends a sense of scope to every lengthy mile of the rabbits' quest, but he's also unafraid to take on radically different timbres and bring himself to the level of these little creatures by performing their smallest fears and dreams. It's a beautiful performance.
Peter Capaldi is in the cast of the BBC's 2018 animated adaptation of the novel, playing the silliest character in the entire story. It's probably a wonderful performance. (I have not seen it, although I can confirm that the animated 1970s "Watership Down" movie adaptation is a true classic.) But for now, I'm just feeling spoiled by knowing he's just more than one character. He can hold this entire world in the palm of his hand. Or mouth, rather.