Audio Books/Radio Adaptations

I spent today listening to the BBC version of LOTR's & I enjoyed every minute of it.



The atmosphere & honesty of the version is a million times better than peejers version. Peejers was more Arthurian I think ? I liked it to watch & still do today, even tho I could pick faults all along the way I noticed that, as Gwairhir carried Gandalf off to Edoras, I think because its the BBC, they borrowed a smidgen of Dr Who's "whoosh, whoosh" The radio version does hold your attention well

Ooh so glad you got round to this Az- my favourite adaptation of LotR's by a country mile.

Yep, Petty old bean ! loved it !! I got more chills & " other things" from ONLY listening to this version than I did throughout the whole of peejers LOTR's.

What I find most de[pressing comparing the BBC version to PJ's is that the BBC version is 13 hours long and PJ's EE's are 11.3 hours long- 1.7 hours is a lot of time, but its nothing like enough to account for all that's missing in comparison between PJ's and the BBC's adaptations.

Any ideas as to how I could get hold of the BBC Radio version and/or the audiobook of LOTR [u]on CD[/u ]relatively cheaply?  (i.e £30 or less) I don't really do downloads (at least not on this crappy data package) and Amazon isn't being much help (their marketplace dosen't seem to distungish between audiobooks and paperbacks), I'm not going to pay about £70 for it on a whim...

Its on Youtube- this version is the re-released version so the sound quality is good, it also has extra material, particularly new opening and ending bookends recorded by Ian Holm as Frodo. I don't think they are necessary or add anything myself, so if you want more of the original experience just start at 2.07 where the original began (I am not a fan of that opening either and personally I usually skip it too, but you probably shouldn't on a first listen)

And I just realised I started this thread with that very same question

Yeah I knew they were on youtube (I've listened to some of Phil Dalgresh's reading of LOTR as well, he does a really good job) I was merely enquiring as to how to get hold of a hard copy, Amazon is really screwy with the way they list products like this...

I've never seen them cheap, I bought them years ago, so many years ago they were on 13 cassettes in a long box and they cost me a fortune then too- your best bet for a hard copy at a reasonable price is second hand. E-Bay maybe. For some reason the BBC have always charged a lot for these.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: For some reason the BBC have always charged a lot for these.

Gits, is it ever repeated?

I know it's a niche product, but £70 is stupidly expensive.


Maybe I should email Big Finish and see if they are interested in doing a new version...

It has been repeated, but very rarely.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:It has been repeated, but very rarely.

Looks like its youtube then...

My favourite music piece probably (Ive got a few) from the BBC version- you never hear the full version of tis in the actual play and you only hear Treebeard singing it, not the full choral you get on the soundtrack album.
Its a combination of the ent-list Treebeard hums to himself trying to work out where hobbits fit in the scheme of things, and the song of the ent-wives that the elves wrote for the ents upon hearing their tale.
If you click on show more i has the full lyrics- with the ent-wives song its alternate verses, the 1st verse is the ents, the 2nd ent-wives, 3 ents ect combing at the end (its not marked on the lyrics for some reason)

Chris Lee sings Treebeards song-

That was really good. I'd heard of the Tolkien Ensemble before but I didn't know they had full albums out like that. Might give more of their stuff a listen.

Eldorion wrote:That was really good. I'd heard of the Tolkien Ensemble before but I didn't know they had full albums out like that.  Might give more of their stuff a listen.

There's loads on Youtube, the COH Audiobook read by Lee was also on there last time I checked, well worth a listen

I was listening to the lotr cd the other day, it was the part where Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas met up with Gandalf in Fangorn. They call him Gandalf and he say's "Gandalf" the old man repeated, as if recalling from old memory a long disused word. 'yes, that was my name. I was Gandalf. That line always bugged me because surely he met Pip and Merry the day before and they would have called him Gandalf ?

Been a while since I read those chapters but I thought that the Hobbits meeting Gandalf in Fangorn was a movie addition.

Yep, I got the impression Gandalf knew about them either from Treebeard (who never mentions it to the hobbits but is not the least surprised to see Gandalf at Isengard) or from some sixth sense he seems to have developed (he knows what's going on with Theoden, or more explicitly with Erkenbrand at Helm's Deep for example).

In the book the hobbits dont see Gandalf until the night of Helms deep (which in the book is after the Ents have trashed Isengard- its when Gandalf turns up looking for Huorns they see him again for the first time- and he is wonderfully crabbit at them

Well, it took nearly 3 years but I finally got round to buying the BBC Radio LOTR adaptation, just ordered the boxset off Amazon (I think it is the 2002 re-edit).

{{{ I have only heard the redone version once I think, all I can remember is that there are additional bits of introduction done by an older (sadly he sounds older than he doe sin the rest of it for the very good reason he is older!) Holm and more at the end. I remember thinking they dint really add anything- there may also be some changes in the sound mixing, though I cant remember if they redone any fx or anything like that.

Be interested to hear your thoughts on them when you get a listen- do keep us up to date. }}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{{ I have only heard the redone version once I think, all I can remember is that there are additional bits of introduction done by an older (sadly he sounds older than he doe sin the rest of it for the very good reason he is older!) Holm and more at the end. I remember thinking they dint really add anything- there may also be some changes in the sound mixing, though I cant remember if they redone any fx or anything like that.

Be interested to hear your thoughts on them when you get a listen- do keep us up to date. }}

The 2002 re-edit was cheaper, as I understand it the original '81 version was 26 30 minutes episodes, the new edit changes it to 13 hour long episodes with new music and bookends with Frodo, I've heard great things about the script and cast, and I'm very curious to hear how such a complex novel translates to such a dialogue heavy medium...

{{{ For myself I am not a fan of the opening (which is actually taken from bits in Unfinished Tales) and skip it when I listen to it (about 6 minutes worth). I think it ruins the Black Riders by introducing them before they should appear in the story proper and so reducing their impact and mystery when they do (same objection I have to PJ's version in fact).
I'm also not a fan of all the music, though I do love a lot too. Though my favourite one from the soundtrack barely appears in the adaptation and you only get a snatch of it sung by Treebeard.
How they handle the two major battles- Helms Deep and Pelennor is also interesting. I prefer Helms Deep myself though I think their solution to Pelennor for the medium of radio is inventive. But I wont say more on those till you get to them!

They did had a previous 1 hour an episode version- I used to have it, the first version I had in fact which was on tape, 1 episode per tape 30 minutes per episode (roughly) 13 tapes. But no additional material from Holm. It was just the original broadcast but with the end credit music taken off the first half hour and put on a tape with the next episode half hour to make 1 hour episodes.

The half hour format was how it was originally broadcast however. }}}

Listened to the first 2 hours (up to Frodo being wounded on Weathertop), a few initial thoughts:

- I can understand where you are coming from r.e the opening...it does come across as a little clunky and out of place (might have worked better as a flashback, they could have used more time to establish the Shire in more detail), on the other hand the decision to dramatise the scene where Gandalf receives Shadowfax was a good one i.m.o.

- Pleasantly surprised how faithful it has been to the source material so far, much of the dialogue is taken directly from the book the characters act and sound much similar to how I imagined them than the Jackson version. Cuts and compression have been made (very sad to lose the Elves at Woody End and the Tom Bombadil stuff-some of my favourite parts of the book) and the pacing is much quicker, but it certainly sounds and feels like the novel...at least the basic 'bones' as it were, though like the films it is missing the 'meat' of the novel (i.e the detailed description and histories...though that stuff is largely irrelevant to the main storyline or impossible to adapt properly anyway)

- The music is nicely underplayed but sparse and hasn't been particularly memorable so far (though I liked the opening theme, as great as the LOTR film music is I find some of Howard Shore's score to be bombastic and overly loud), the sound effects are quite dated (and being used to Big Finish's output...pretty sparse!) but work well enough, though some of the jump cuts between scenes or movement are a bit confusing or sudden, I've read some complaints that this adaptation essentially reduces the novel to mere dialogue...and whilst that is perhaps an exaggeration I can see the point it sounds more like an enhanced dramatised 'reading' rather than the modern full cast audio dramas I'm used to from B.F.

- The Ringwraiths are handled very differently to how I'd expected, but are very effective and quite creepy (though the sounds that cue them are oddly electronic sounding).

- The cast have been on the whole, excellent so far, Ian Holm's Frodo captures the character of the book very well he's a very good voice actor (though occasionally sounds too close to his Bilbo performance from the films) and has a good rapport with Bill Nighy's Sam (who was nearly recognizable to my ears, being used to him playing similar characters in most films).

Merry and Pippin are quite lively and distinct (though they sound somewhat younger that I'd imagined), John Le Mesurier makes a good impression in his small role as Bilbo capturing a weary melancholy (that Holm later picked up as well), Barliman Butterbur was great (and this version clearly influenced Peter Jackson's version).

Michael Hordern is a perfect radio Gandalf-warm but authoritative and mysterious, Peter Woodthorpe returning from the Bakshi version as Gollum does a pretty good job (though some of the vocal ticks are a tad annoying, some of the dialogue was muffled).

On the other hand, really not sure what to make of Robert Stephens as Aragorn...too early to say be just sounds miscast to my ears.

Really liked the inclusion of a narrator to break up some of the scenes-it allows for more dialogue and description from the book and helps avoid the radio sins of characters talking to themselves or describing the scenery.

Overall, so far it's been really enjoyable and I'd agree with those that say it captures the spirit (if not the scope) of the novel very well, a bit bare bones and dialogue heavy (would have appreciated more narration and sounds effects, but I suppose the budget didn't allow for it) but certainly a faithful adaptation of LOTR and a solid radio drama in its own right.

...Though I'm still of the mind that LOTR is best experienced as the author intended-as a long and epic novel.

{{{ I do like the Gandalf Shadowfax scene- but its the Black Riders at Isengard before it does it for me- when the Black Riders first turn up in the books they are so unknown, so mysterious- you don't even know if they are alive/dead or even capable of full speech or just short demands like "where is Baggins."- they are unknown threat and that makes them all the more scary- giving them an entire dialogue scene that establishes them fully before all that just ruins the set up for me which is why I just skip that bit.

'Barliman Butterbur was great '

You'll be pleased to know you get more of the excellent Butterman at the end as in the book when they go back home- some of my favourites lines in that bit for Butterman "And there were folks killed. Killed dead!"
Though bit confused by you saying it inspired PJ's version- I dont see that, PJ's version is unfriendly looking and acting, nothing like book or radio version I dont think.

Love Hordern's Gandalf- he retains much more strongly than PJ's version Gandalfs crabbit side and quick temper. And Im a bigger fan of Gollum in this than in PJ's- I found Serkis version to be too simplified (not his fault thats the script) and not to have enough pathos in it- when Gollum comes back fully into the story later you might see what I mean.

Agreed about Stephens Aragorn he is the one weak spot Id say- not bad just as you say somehow miscast.

Look forward to you keeping us updated as you listen Malick }}