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

[Macalaure]

Originally Posted by Brian Sibley

I hope people won't be too outraged when I say I was very surprised to discover that the radio series was on YouTube and, whilst I love the fact that people are still discovering this series, I am sorry that it is out there is a form that disregards the copyright interests of a lot of people including the Tolkien estate, the dramatists, composer, musicians and actors or their estates.

It seems I am the only one posting to this thread that is using Youtube to listen to the BBC radio adaptation. I am not downloading it anywhere, however, and now that I listened to, and greatly enjoyed, the first three episodes, I definitely intend to purchase it in the near future.

Originally Posted by Brian Sibley

Maybe it was a mistake to include The Hunt for the Ring; I wonder whether people feel the same about the Gandalf/Saruman/Gwaihir scenes that (in the book) are not revealed until the Council of Elrond at Rivendell?

It has its benefits and drawbacks, I would say, but whereas the Black Riders are a real mystery in the Book, I think the disappearance of Gandalf is a lesser one. One always has the feeling that Gandalf is going to appear again eventually (certainly after Weathertop), and it is only the circumstances under which this happens that one wonders about.


I have to say that, during the third episode, I am more and more getting used to the voice of Aragorn. Maybe it is really nothing more than “getting used”, maybe it has something to do with the more kingly voice that Essex mentioned.

I take back all my criticism of the Nazgûl not being scary. In this episode they were, especially on Weathertop. What I really liked was the way Frodo described the Ringwraiths the way he saw them when he wore the ring. That was very tense.

Handling the Council of Elrond was probably not easy, but the immense amount of information was conveyed without significant loss and, more important maybe, without a loss of dramatic fluidity. The criticisms I have about it are minor in comparison to this. One is Legolas’s role, which is very brief and, although it is hard for me to say it, almost redundant, because we already learnt of his news from Gwaihir. The other one is, that it is not clear how much courage Frodo shows in saying “I will take the ring”. In the book, there is a long meaningful silence before he speaks. This has to be very tricky to convey in an adaptation for the radio.

The sound effects have been talked about a lot. Even though I am listening to them now for the first time, and not when they were first released (only shortly after my birth!), I actually don’t think they’re that bad. The effects are in the background and do not distract from the story, which is just like effects ought to be ideally. Their quality might not be breathtaking, but because of this, it is never a problem.

[Mithalwen]

May I ask whether you knew who was playing the major roles before you finished the script? And whethet that influenced you at all. I have to say I think most of the casting was at least equal if not superior to the films. Highly superior in regard to Frodo, Sam, Gollum and Gandalf.

The film seemed to base the character of Sam purely on Gollum's stupid, fat hobbit jibe. Bill Nighy got him just right to my mind but he surely was quite young then and certainly a lot less well known than now - I know he had done some good TV work before he achieved Hollywood fame in Love Actually et alia but I knew him because of the Radio production of LOTR - or at least wondered if William Nighy and Bill were one and the same.

I also think that David Collings was a great choice as Legolas. His voice is very distinctive and happily still heard regularly on R4, but it conveys that elvish otherness without being at all camp.

[Brian Sibley]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

May I ask whether you knew who was playing the major roles before you finished the script?

No, I think most of the scripts had been written before casting began, although we were talking about possible actors from the moment we started work and I suspect that everyone was in agreement that Woodthorpe would have to be Gollum!

[Brian Sibley]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

Handling the Council of Elrond was probably not easy, but the immense amount of information was conveyed without significant loss and, more important maybe, without a loss of dramatic fluidity.

A good example of superb writing by my co-adaptor, Michael Bakewell. I laid out a precise of which topics had to be covered, but he was the one who crafted the whole and made sense of it.

Yes, it did need a longer pause before Frodo's declaration... And I hate the tinny dinner-bell that sounds so feeble, but there are some great performances and I particularly like the way in which Hugh Dickson as Elrond steers the event...

[Brian Sibley]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

It seems I am the only one posting to this thread that is using Youtube to listen to the BBC radio adaptation. I am not downloading it anywhere, however, and now that I listened to, and greatly enjoyed, the first three episodes, I definitely intend to purchase it in the near future.

Thank you! I'm sorry to have made everyone so jumpy about this issue - I think the age we live in makes us all (myself included) take the availability of things (books, music, films and facts) via the internet for granted... I'm told that, in surveys, the current generation think that all music is FREE and I suspect they think the same about movies...

Anyway, if and when you do buy the radio LOTR, you'll find most of the still available versions (past and present) listed at the end of the article, The Ring Goes Ever On, on my web-site.