The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series)

In 1981, BBC Radio 4 produced a dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' in 26 half-hour stereo instalments. The novel had previously been adapted as a 12-part BBC Radio adaptation in 1955 and 1956 (of which no recordings are known to have survived), and a 1979 production by The Mind's Eye for National Public Radio in the USA.

Like the novel on which it is based, the radio series tells the story of an epic struggle between the Dark Lord Sauron of Mordor, the primary villain of the work, and an alliance of heroes who join forces to save the world from falling under his shadow.

Contents

The script by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novel. The radio serial however omits the sequence in the book in which the hobbits visit Tom Bombadil. The narrative includes an arc where Wormtongue is waylaid by the Ringwraiths, as narrated in ''Unfinished Tales''. In the final episode, '' Bilbo's Last Song'', a Tolkien poem which does not appear in the novel, is used to flesh out the sequence at the Grey Havens. Scull, Christina and Hammond, Wayne G.: '' The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide'', 2nd edition; HarperCollins, 2017; Vol. 2, pp. 17–18Smith, Ian D. (ed.):
Microphones in Middle Earth
'; 1982

::: *1.4–1.8 on Tom Bombadil omitted

Broadcasts and recordings

The serial was first broadcast from 8 March to 30 August 1981 on BBC Radio 4 on Sundays from 12 noon to 12:30pm; each episode was repeated on the following Wednesday from 10:30pm to 11:00pm. A soundtrack album featuring a re-recorded and in some cases expanded suite of Stephen Oliver's music was released in 1981.

The 26-part series was edited into 13 hour-long episodes broadcast from 17 July to 9 October 1982, restoring some dialogue originally cut for timing. In 2002, following the success of Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, the BBC reissued its radio series in three sets (audiobooks) corresponding to the three original volumes (''The Fellowship of the Ring'', ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King''). This version omitted the original episode divisions, and included new opening and closing monologues for the first two sets, and an opening monologue only for the last, written by Sibley and performed by Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins. The soundtrack with Stephen Oliver's music, digitally remastered, was included with ''The Return of the King'' set, with a demo of John Le Mesurier singing '' Bilbo's Last Song'' as a bonus track.

Analysis

Sibley thought the casting of Ian Holm as Frodo "simply inspired", his performance "of unswerving determination, tempered always with humour and vulnerability." He felt that Michael Hordern managed to "become" Gandalf, "by intuition or some other theatrical magic ... by turn wise, stern and compassionate, a force for good, a constant light in an ever-darkening storm." As for John Le Mesurier's Bilbo, the comic actor who had played Sergeant Wilson in ''Dad's Army'' gave the part "a weary melancholy".

The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury sets out criteria for adapting a complex work like ''The Lord of the Rings''. The adaptation, he writes, must not simply use characters and names to relabel some existing formula, or rewrite the story into a generic style; it must retain as much as possible of the original when translating the narrative into a drama; it must keep the presentation fresh, avoid repetition, and retain plausibility; and it must especially retain the coherent feeling of a Middle-earth under threat, along with the book's momentum, coherence, moral conviction, and subtlety. Rosebury states that a radio production is "fundamentally hampered" by not being able to "suggest the physical and cultural presence of Middle-earth", other than through the limited medium of sound effects. In his view, the few passages of narration in the production "give tantalising glimpses of olkien'sbreadth of vision which fades painfully as the studio-bound dialogues resume." He finds the dialogue well delivered by the actors, admiring especially Peter Woodthorpe's "fine Gollum", and the abridgement skilful though subtly flattening Tolkien's text "in the direction of an adventure story." The version's strength, Rosebury writes, is in its rather faithful and almost complete rendering of the book's events, though as in Ralph Bakshi's animation and Peter Jackson's film version, without Tom Bombadil.

The Tolkien scholar Christina Scull thought it a "masterly adaptation", that stayed faithful to Tolkien's story, presented most of the characters "as he depicted them", and especially "caught the spirit of the books". She found the handling of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields with alliterative verse "a brilliant idea", and praised Gerard Murphy's narration. Comparing the production with Peter Jackson's interpretation, she felt that her "happiness with the BBC production made ereven less happy with Jackson than I might have been without it", disliking the films' additional material, violence, and "the weakening of almost all the characters". In her view, the BBC dramatisation presented "the characters I meet in the book", whereas the film version did not.

Peter Woodthorpe (Gollum/Sméagol) and Michael Graham Cox (Boromir) had previously voiced the same roles in Bakshi's film.
Ian Holm, who voiced Frodo Baggins in the radio serial, went on to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.

Cast and credits

''The Lord of the Rings'' was dramatised for radio by Sibley and Michael Bakewell.
The music was composed by Stephen Oliver. Oliver, Stephen. ''Music from the BBC Radio Dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings''; BBC Records; LP REH 415
Radiophonic sound was provided by Elizabeth Parker.
The series was produced and directed by Jane Morgan and Penny Leicester.

The cast for the production was:

* Narrator (UK version): Gerard Murphy
* Narrator (American version): Tammy Grimes
* Frodo Baggins: Ian Holm
* Gandalf the Grey/Gandalf the White: Michael Hordern
* Aragorn (Strider): Robert Stephens
* Sam Gamgee: Bill Nighy (credited as William Nighy)
* Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry): Richard O'Callaghan
* Peregrin Took (Pippin): John McAndrew
* Legolas: David Collings
* Gimli: Douglas Livingstone
* Boromir: Michael Graham Cox
* Galadriel: Marian Diamond
* Celeborn: Simon Cadell
* Arwen Evenstar: Sonia Fraser
* Saruman the White: Peter Howell
* Elrond: Hugh Dickson
* Bilbo Baggins: John Le Mesurier
* Gollum/Sméagol: Peter Woodthorpe
* Théoden: Jack May
* Gríma Wormtongue: Paul Brooke
* Éowyn: Elin Jenkins
* Éomer: Anthony Hyde
* Faramir: Andrew Seear
* Treebeard: Stephen Thorne
* Denethor: Peter Vaughan
* Lord of the Nazgûl: Philip Voss
* The Mouth of Sauron: John Rye
* Glorfindel/An Elf lord of the house of Elrond half-elven : John Webb
* Haldir/Nazgûl/ Nob/Minstrel: Haydn Wood
* Gamling: Patrick Barr
* Ceorl: Michael McStay
* Háma/A Nazgûl: Michael Spice
* Éothain/Otho Sackville-Baggins/Ruffian: John Livesy
* Halbarad: Martyn Read
* Beregond/ The Black Rider/Guard: Christopher Scott
* Ioreth: Pauline Letts
* Gwaihir: Alexander John
* Radagast the Brown: Donald Gee
* Gaffer Gamgee: John Church
* Ted Sandyman/Snaga: Gordon Reid
* Rosie Cotton: Kathryn Hurlbutt
* Daddy Twofoot: Leonard Fenton

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