Microphones in Middle-earth...the BBC Lord of the Rings

[davem]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

For me, hearing Tolkien's own words so faithfully reproduced is an important aspect.

As I've said, I think this is why the series captures the spirit of the book so well. And I think its easy to underestimate what was involved in adapting the work for this reason. You can get the idea that because so much was taken from the book that the adaptors didn't have to do very much. From what I've read/heard about producing this adaptation it was far from easy & there were a number of difficult choices to make. I've mentioned that Brian originally included the encounter with Gildor & omitted the Farmer Maggot scenes, but then changed his mind because he felt that that would work better & was more important.

One thing I wonder about is why the BBC originally went for 26 half-hour episodes, rather than 13 one hour episodes. After all they were pretty quick to edit it into 13 episodes for rebroadcast. I also wonder if Brian & Michael Bakewell would have taken a different approach if they'd been commissioned to do it as 13 hour long episodes in the first place - certainly they'd have needed fewer cliff-hangers ...