Born Brian David Sibley in Wandsworth, London, the son of Eric George Sibley an architectural draughtsman and Doris Alice Sibley (née Summers). His family moved to Chislehurst, Kent when he was five years old. He was educated at St Nicholas Church of England Primary School and Chislehusrt Secondary School for Boys (later re-named Edgebury School for Boys).Where he amused many small boys with his impersonations of teaching staff members in particular “Killer Edwards”.
Following frustrated ambitions to be an actor, cartoonist and animator, Sibley worked first in various clerical capacities for the London Borough of Bromley and then for a shipping and finance company in London as a clerk, office manager and head of department. In his spare time, he began submitting scripts to the BBC and, when his company was taken over, he accepted redundancy and became a full-time freelance writer.
Radio Writing and Broadcasting
Sibley's first programme was Three Cheers for Pooh, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 14 October 1974 to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. The programme was presented by actor Peter Bull, featured the voices of Norman Shelley and pianist and singer Antony Miall and was directed by John Tydeman, later Head of BBC Drama.
Other features quickly followed and, in 1981, he co-wrote (with Michael Bakewell) BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and has also adapted C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia and Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast for Radio 4, for which he received a Sony Radio Award in 1985.
Other major radio dramatisations by Sibley include: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress; Tolkien's Tales of the Perilous Realm; Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World; Lucy M. Boston's The Children of Green Knowe, Laurens van der Post's The Night of the New Moon, J. B. Priestley's The Thirty-First of June, Jeffrey Archer's A Matter of Honour, Frank Baker's Miss Hargreaves, James Thurber's The Wonderful O and two seasons of Ray Bradbury's Tales of the Bizarre.
Original radio plays include: ...And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree, starring Penelope Keith, C. S. Lewis: Northern Irishman and It's Too Late Now.
As a broadcaster, he was a contributor to and then regular presenter of the former BBC Radio 4 arts programme Kaleidoscope and the BBC World Service arts magazine, Meridian. He also presented the Radio 4 film programme, Talking Pictures and chaired the radio panel games Break A Leg and Screen Test.
He also presented several series of the BBC television programme, First Light.
Radio features and documentaries for Radio 4, Radio 2 and the World Service have included programmes devoted to Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, Robin Hood, Dracula, Peter Pan, Winnie-the-Pooh, Alice in Wonderland and the life and work of Ambrose Bierce, Robert Raikes, Harry Houdini, Terry Pratchett, George Orwell, Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, Richmal Crompton, Fred Zinnemann, Jim Henson and Julie Andrews.
Key series for BBC Radio 2, made in collaboration with producer Malcolm Prince include Ain't No Mickey Mouse Business, Disney's Women, David Puttnam's Century of Cinema, Ain't No Mickey Mouse Music, No Place Life Home: A Judy Garland Story, Showman and Starmaker: A Tribute to Bill Cotton and, in Autumn 2010, he compiled and wrote a series of eight documentaries on aspects of the The Musical.
His book, Shadowlands, was serialized on Radio 2, read by Ian Richardson in what was one of the actor's last pieces of broadcast work recorded before his death.
The Daily Telegraph radio critic, Gillian Reynolds gave him the accolade "magician of the airwaves".
In 1992, Sibley wrote much of the script for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus.
Publications
Books include The Disney Studio Story and Mickey Mouse: His Life and Times (with Richard Holliss); The Land of Narnia, illustrated by Pauline Baynes; The Treasury of Narnia (with Alison Sage); Shadowlands: The True Story of C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman; The Book of Guinness Advertising; a biography of Wilbert Vere Awdry, entitled The Thomas the Tank Engine Man; A Christmas Carol: The Unsung Story; Cracking Animation: The Aardman book of 3-D Film-making, with (Peter Lord); Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie; Three Cheers for Pooh; and The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth with artist John Howe.
He is also the author of the children's book, The Frightful Food Feud, and has edited, among other books, The Pooh Sketchbook and The Pooh Book of Quotations and The Wisdom of C. S. Lewis.
The author of The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and other books accompanying The Lord of the Rings, he subsequently published the official biography of the films' director, Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey.
His most recent books include The Golden Compass: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen if You Let It (with Michael Lassell) and a retelling of 50 Favourite Bible Stories selected and read on CD by Cliff Richard and illustrated by Stephen Waterhouse.
He recorded DVD audio commentaries for Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film), Animal Farm (1954 film) and Fantasia (1940 film).
He has also appeared on the bonus extras to Disney DVDs of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh as well as being included in the documentaries associated with various DVD releases of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
