The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series)

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In 1981 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new, ambitious dramatization of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in 26 half-hour instalments. (There had been a previous 13-part BBC Radio version in 1956, but no recordings are known to have survived.)

Cast and Credits

Woodthorpe reprised his role from the animated Ralph Bakshi film, and Holm went on to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, a role played by John Le Mesurier in the BBC version.

Each of the original 26 episodes received two broadcasts per week - standard practice for many BBC radio serials even today. The first broadcast of Episode 2 was blacked out across a large part of south east England because of a transmitter failure - a very rare occurrence even then.

The series was also broadcast in the US on NPR with a new synopsis preceding each episode.

The 26-part series was subsequently edited into 13 hour-long episodes, restoring some dialogue originally cut for timing (since each hour-long episode is around 57 minutes as opposed to 54 minutes for two half-hour episodes), rearranging some scenes for dramatic impact and adding linking narration and music cues. This version was released on both tape and CD. In 2002, to cash in on the success of Jackson's movies, the BBC reissued the series in three sets corresponding to the three original volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King), omitting the original episode divisions, and with Ian Holm providing a new opening and closing narration for each set.

The 13-episode series was also rerun on Radio 4 in 2002. The series has not been heard on the digital BBC archive station BBC 7, despite frequent requests, reportedly because of copyright issues.

The script by Sibley and Bakewell attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novels, but there are some lapses.

  • Minas Anor and Minas Tirith are referred to as though they were separate cities; these are merely alternate names for the same fictional city.
  • Aragorn receives a black standard from Arwen as a sign that he should rouse the army of the dead. In the book the standard is that of the White Tree of Gondor.
  • Part of the Riders of Rohan sequence is sung in an opera style rather than acted, which tends to distance the listeners from the action.

Even so, the series has to be admired for its ambition; the BBC has seldom attempted anything of this scale for a radio series.

Note: There is also another dramatization by The Mind's Eye, with a different cast, which is still being sold. See http://www.audiotheater.com/lotr.html for more details. (If anyone wants to write an article on this, please do so.)

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