Magna Carta brought to life

Last week saw an unusual sound recording, when the actor Robert Hardy came to Lincoln to record the full text of Magna Carta. His beautiful reading brings the document to life and is a great addition to the Castle interpretation.

The Department of Media, Humanities and Technology at the University of Lincoln have some of the best facilities to be found anywhere and they volunteered their sound theatre and expertise. Magna Carta consists of 54 lines of closely written abbreviated Latin. Translated into English by the British Library, the text covers 18 sheets of A4 paper!

He reads the opening and closing paragraphs in both English and Latin and it sounds splendid, described by Lord Cormack as “wonderfully atmospheric”. Robert Hardy is noted for his playing of Siegfried Farnon in ‘All Creatures Great and Small’; Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films and for his portrayal of Winston Churchill on five occasions. Before his visit to Lincoln, he had been filming the Churchill speeches at Dover Castle for ITV.