Genre | Radio drama |
---|---|
Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Language(s) | English |
Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
Starring | Ian Holm Michael Hordern Robert Stephens Bill Nighy James Grout Simon Cadell John Le Mesurier Jack May Peter Vaughan |
Created by | J. R. R. Tolkien |
Written by | Brian Sibley [1] Michael Bakewell |
Directed by | Jane Morgan Penny Leicester |
Narrated by | Gerard Murphy |
Original release | 8 March – 30 August 1981 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
The Lord of the Rings 1981 radio series is an epic fantasy adventure for BBC Radio 4, adapted from J. R. R. Tolkien's 1955 novel of the same name. It is the third radio dramatisation of the novel, following a 1955 BBC Radio adaptation, and a 1979 adaptation for NPR in the United States.
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.
The BBC entered negotiations with The Saul Zaentz Company to obtain the radio rights to adapt The Lord of the Rings in 1979, following the release of the Ralph Bakshi animated film. [2] [3] J. R. R. Tolkien had sold the film, stage and merchandising rights to United Artists in 1969, who had subsequently sold them to The Saul Zaentz Company in 1976. [4] The negotiations were protracted but ironically entirely unnecessary as the radio rights had never passed to the film company and were still controlled by the Tolkien estate. [2]
Brian Sibley was a young scriptwriter who had written a number of radio features for the BBC, but lacked experience adapting works of literature, having previously only adapted a short fantasy by James Thurber. [2] In 1979, Sibley submitted an idea for an original radio drama to Head of Drama Script Unit, Richard Imison, but was rejected. In his rejection letter, Imison asked Sibley to suggest a list of novels he would like to see adapted. Sibley submitted “about a baker’s dozen” suggestions, and added The Lord of the Rings in a postscript, declaring it “the one book I would really like to adapt for radio.” [2] Some weeks later in a chance meeting on a corridor in Broadcasting House, Imison asked Sibley how he had learned that the BBC were in negotiations to obtain the rights. Sibley stated that he had not been aware, and had suggested the book because he was "simply in love with [it]", having read it for the first time during an extended hospital stay a few years earlier. [2] The BBC commissioned the adaptation and offered it to Sibley as the lead writer. The commissioners had determined that it should comprise 26 half-hour episodes (6 months' worth of weekly broadcasts), and that scriptwriting should be divided between two writers. [2] Michael Bakewell was brought in as the second writer – a former producer and writer whose previous credits included a radio adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. [5]
Sibley and Bakewell began the process of adapting the books by arranging the core storyline into 26 episode synopses, each with its own conventional narrative structure and ending on a natural ‘cliffhanger’. From these synopses, the full episode scripts would be developed. The source material presented a variety of challenges to the adaptation process. Sibley recalls pacing difficulties due to the book's fluctuations between "sections rich in description, others containing lengthy historical resumés, some having an abundance of dialogue, while others are almost entirely narrative." [2] These challenges led to decisions to omit sections and characters that were deemed not to meaningfully advance the core plot. As such, the serial omits several sequences, most notably those in Book 1 in which the hobbits come to Crickhollow, enter the Old Forest, and encounter the Barrow-wights, Old Man Willow, and ultimately Tom Bombadil. [6] On the latter, Sibley has stated he considers Bombadil to be a character Tolkien created independently of The Lord of the Rings, [3] and that it was preferable to "excise one large episode than to dramatically reduce several others." On the decision to excise some minor characters who appeared for only a few lines of the book, Sibley stated he felt it preferable to remove the character altogether than the alternative, "which would have been to fabricate dialogue for them." [2] The adaptation radically restructured the chronology of the chapters in Books 3-6, flattening out Tolkien's interlacing by splicing the journey of Frodo and Sam with events in the West. This aligned them with the timeline of events provided by Tolkien in the Appendices, and kept more of the actors employed for more of the episodes. [2]
The script attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novel [6] with many sections of dialogue lifted directly from the source material, such as the conversations between Frodo, Sam and Faramir in The Window on the West. [7] The script also includes an arc where Wormtongue is waylaid by the Ringwraiths, as narrated in Unfinished Tales, [8] a newly published volume at that time. 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. [9] [10] The author's son and editor Christopher Tolkien reviewed and approved the final scripts for each episode. He recorded an audio cassette of correct pronunciations for Middle-earth words and names to assist the cast during recordings. [2]
Recording took place at BBC Broadcasting House over two months in 1980. [2] One-and-a-half days was allotted for each of the 26 episodes to be rehearsed and recorded. [11] Sibley recalls the recording sessions having "quite a lot of laughter, quite a few tears, and a number of frazzled tempers". [2] Gandalf-actor Michael Hordern recalled the sessions as "a bit of a slog". [12]
Elizabeth Parker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop produced the sound effects. [13] The composer Stephen Oliver, who had previously scored the RSC's successful production of Nicholas Nickleby , scored the music, with over 100 cues through the original 26-episode serial. [14] The series was directed by Jane Morgan and Penny Leicester. Morgan stated she was anxious to avoid sound effects that were "too literal", and wished to incorporate music in complex battle scenes. [11]
Episode | Title | First broadcast | Covering (Book.Chapter) The Lord of the Rings |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Long Awaited Party | 8 March 1981 | 1.1 The hobbit protagonists are introduced. |
2 | The Shadow of the Past | 15 March 1981 | 1.2 The wizard Gandalf tells Frodo the history of the Ring, and why it must be destroyed. |
3 | The Black Riders | 22 March 1981 | 1.3 * The hobbits are pursued by deadly Black Riders. |
4 | Trouble at The Prancing Pony | 29 March 1981 | 1.9–1.10 The hobbits try to rest in an inn, but Frodo 'accidentally' puts on the Ring, making him invisible. |
5 | The Knife in the Dark | 5 April 1981 | 1.11–1.12 Frodo is stabbed with a magic knife by a Black Rider. He starts to fade. |
6 | The Council of Elrond | 12 April 1981 | 2.1–2.2 The half-elven Elrond calls a Council to decide the fate of the Ring. |
7 | The Fellowship of the Ring | 19 April 1981 | 2.3 Gandalf, the hobbits, two men – Aragorn and Boromir, an elf, Legolas, and a dwarf, Gimli, set out to destroy the Ring. |
8 | The Mines of Moria | 26 April 1981 | 2.4–2.5 They try to cross the Misty Mountains through the tunnels of Moria. Gandalf dies fighting a monstrous Balrog. |
9 | The Mirror of Galadriel | 3 May 1981 | 2.6–2.7 The rest of the Fellowship are helped, tested, and counselled by the elf-lady Galadriel. |
10 | The Breaking of the Fellowship | 10 May 1981 | 2.8–2.10, 3.1 The Fellowship breaks up as Boromir tries to take the Ring and is killed. |
11 | The Riders of Rohan | 17 May 1981 | 3.2–3.3 Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli meet a resurrected Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan. |
12 | Treebeard of Fangorn | 24 May 1981 | 3.4 Two of the hobbits, Merry and Pippin, encounter a tree-giant, Treebeard. |
13 | The King of the Golden Hall | 31 May 1981 | 3.5–3.6 Gandalf frees Théoden, King of Rohan, free from a spell. |
14 | Helm's Deep | 7 June 1981 | 3.7 Théoden fights off the wizard Saruman's army at the fortress of Helm's Deep. |
15 | The Voice of Saruman | 14 June 1981 | 3.8–3.11 Gandalf and Théoden go to Saruman's tower, Orthanc, and speak with him. Gandalf breaks Saruman's staff. |
16 | The Black Gate Is Closed | 21 June 1981 | 4.1–4.3 The other two hobbits, Frodo and Sam, guided by the monstrous Gollum, travel to Mordor to destroy the Ring, but the Black Gate is shut. |
17 | The Window on the West | 28 June 1981 | 4.4–4.6 Frodo and Sam travel south to find another way into Mordor, but are captured by Boromir's brother, Faramir. |
18 | Minas Tirith | 5 July 1981 | 5.1 Gandalf and Pippin find the city of Minas Tirith preparing for war. |
19 | Shelob's Lair | 12 July 1981 | 4.7–4.10 Frodo and Sam try to cross the pass of Cirith Ungol into Mordor, but are attacked by the giant spider Shelob. Frodo is stung and trussed up like a fly. |
20 | The Siege of Gondor | 19 July 1981 | 5.4 Minas Tirith is besieged by the forces of Mordor. |
21 | The Battle of Pelennor Fields | 26 July 1981 | 5.6 Minas Tirith is attacked by an immense army. The Riders of Rohan arrive to break the siege; Aragorn and an army of Gondor arrive by ship. |
22 | The Houses of Healing | 2 August 1981 | 5.8 The wounded are healed in Minas Tirith. |
23 | Mount Doom | 9 August 1981 | 6.1–6.3 Frodo and Sam travel to Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. Gollum takes the ring from Frodo, and falls into the mountain's fire. |
24 | The Return of the King | 16 August 1981 | 6.4–6.5 Aragorn becomes King of Gondor, and marries Elrond's daughter, Arwen. |
25 | Homeward Bound | 23 August 1981 | 6.6–6.8 The hobbits travel home. |
26 | The Grey Havens | 30 August 1981 | 6.9 Frodo, scarred by his journey, sails from Middle-earth to elvenhome. |
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. [16] A soundtrack album featuring a re-recorded and in some cases expanded suite of Stephen Oliver's music was released in 1981. [17]
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. [16] Following the success of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy in the early 2000s, 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. [18]
Sibley thought the casting of Ian Holm as Frodo "simply inspired", his performance "of unswerving determination, tempered always with humour and vulnerability." [1] He felt that 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." [1] 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". [1]
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", [6] other than through the limited medium of sound effects. In his view, the few passages of narration in the production "give tantalising glimpses of [Tolkien's] breadth of vision which fades painfully as the studio-bound dialogues resume." [6] 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." [6] 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 animated version and Peter Jackson's live-action version, without Tom Bombadil. [6]
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". [16] She found the handling of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields with alliterative verse "a brilliant idea", and praised Gerard Murphy's narration. [16] Comparing the production with Jackson's interpretation, she felt that her "happiness with the BBC production made [her] even 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". [16] In her view, the BBC dramatisation presented "the characters I [met] in the book", whereas the film version did not. [16]
Peter Woodthorpe (Gollum/Sméagol) and Michael Graham Cox (Boromir) had previously voiced the same roles in Bakshi's film in 1978. [19] Ian Holm, who voiced Frodo Baggins in the radio serial, went on to play Bilbo Baggins in Jackson's film trilogy in the early 2000s. [20]
The Lord of the Rings was dramatised for radio by Sibley and Michael Bakewell. [21] The music was composed by Stephen Oliver. [22] 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: [21]
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, and the fictional narrator of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. The Hobbit is selected by the wizard Gandalf to help Thorin and his party of Dwarves reclaim their ancestral home and treasure, which has been seized by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo sets out in The Hobbit timid and comfort-loving and, through his adventures, grows to become a useful and resourceful member of the quest.
Tom Bombadil is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He first appeared in print in a 1934 poem called "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", which also included The Lord of the Rings characters Goldberry, Old Man Willow and the barrow-wight, from whom he rescues the hobbits. They were not then explicitly part of the older legends that became The Silmarillion, and are not mentioned in The Hobbit.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Jackson, based on 1954's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The film is the first instalment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It features an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, and Andy Serkis.
Bilbo's Last Song is a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien, written as a pendant to his fantasy The Lord of the Rings. It was first published in a Dutch translation in 1973, subsequently appearing in English on posters in 1974 and as a picture-book in 1990. It was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and set to music by Donald Swann and Stephen Oliver. The poem's copyright was owned by Tolkien's secretary, to whom he gave it in gratitude for her work for him.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the real-world history and notable fictional elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe. It covers materials created by Tolkien; the works on his unpublished manuscripts, by his son Christopher Tolkien; and films, games and other media created by other people.
During 1955 and 1956, a condensed radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, adapted and produced by Terence Tiller, was broadcast in two series of six episodes each on BBC Radio's the Third Programme. These radio broadcasts were the first dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, the final volume of which, The Return of the King, had been published in October 1955. The script had been thought lost, but it was rediscovered in the BBC archives in 2022.
"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote for his Middle-earth legendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed by Bilbo Baggins and recorded in The Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear in The Lord of the Rings, along with some similar walking songs.
National Public Radio broadcast a dramatization of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in 1979. It was produced by The Mind's Eye. It was produced by Bob Lewis and adapted for radio by Bernard Mayes.
Many adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, an epic by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien, have been made in the media of film, radio, theatre, video games and recorded readings.
Gollum is a monster with a distinctive style of speech in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He was introduced in the 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became important in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit of the River-folk who lived near the Gladden Fields. In The Lord of the Rings it is stated that he was originally known as Sméagol, corrupted by the One Ring, and later named Gollum after his habit of making "a horrible swallowing noise in his throat".
Aragorn is a fictional character and a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is a Ranger of the North, first introduced with the name Strider and later revealed to be the heir of Isildur, an ancient King of Arnor and Gondor. Aragorn is a confidant of the wizard Gandalf and plays a part in the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. As a young man, Aragorn falls in love with the immortal elf Arwen, as told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Arwen's father, Elrond Half-elven, forbids them to marry unless Aragorn becomes King of both Arnor and Gondor.
Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story The Hobbit (1937) as a magic ring that grants the wearer invisibility. Tolkien changed it into a malevolent Ring of Power and re-wrote parts of The Hobbit to fit in with the expanded narrative. The Lord of the Rings describes the hobbit Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the Ring and save Middle-earth.
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The action takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. The book was first published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom. The volume consists of a foreword, in which the author discusses his writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits, and other matters", and the main narrative in Book I and Book II.
Hobitit is a nine-part Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries directed by Timo Torikka, originally broadcast in 1993 on Yle TV1.
Khraniteli is a Soviet television play miniseries based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. It was broadcast once in 1991 by Leningrad Television and then thought lost before being rediscovered in 2021. It includes scenes of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry that were omitted from the 1978 film and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Scholars, including psychoanalysts, have commented that J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories about both Bilbo Baggins, protagonist of The Hobbit, and Frodo Baggins, protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, constitute psychological journeys. Bilbo returns from his journey to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain changed, but wiser and more experienced. Frodo returns from his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of his home, the Shire.
She created special sound for The Day of the Triffids, and Lord of the Rings,
he took the part of Frodo Baggins in BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which featured Holm alongside a host of other stars including Michael Hordern and Robert Stephens.