Tolkien Audio Dramas

[The Good Hunter]

Taking a break from the upcoming Amazon series and the film trilogy, I wanted to talk about the audio dramas that have been produced over the years. There's the (somewhat) famous 1981 BBC production which stared Ian Holm as Frodo, the 1979 Mind's Eye production (notable for being one of the few reproductions of Tolkien's work that included Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-Downs), and a 1955 BBC production (which Tolkien knew about and absolutely hated).

I will admit, I have not listened to the famous 1981 BBC production (shocking given that I'm an audio drama fanatic) so I can't comment on its strengths or its downsides, but I am very familiar with the Mind's Eye production. I was given a CD copy of the Fellowship for my 16th birthday and proceeded to wear the CDs out. I will admit, it's a rough listen going back now, the script is more than a bit muddled at points and actions skips around a lot without letting the audience know what the hell is going on (it feels like sometimes they forget audio drama is a, well, audio format, not visual). Still, it has Tom Bombadil and he's actually represented decently. I view these audio dramas the same way I view the Rankin/Bass and Ralph Bakshi animated features, very (if not fatally) flawed, but formative and full of nostalgia. The 1955 versions I've not heard and given just how poorly Tolkien regarded it, I don't feel the urge to go out and find it so I can examine it.

So, what are anyone else thoughts on them? Love em, hate em, never heard of em?

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Frost: My dad has an old copy of that BBC 1981 production and I listened to it when being a teenager after I had tried to read the books, but failed at some point. Those voices and other sounds did help me with better visualising what I read. And yes, therefore I loved it listening to them. It was very exciting when I was about seventeen years old in the early 1990's. I was too young to make a real adult exam about it, what could be good or bad about it. And I haven't listened to them in years, because we got the extended movies of all six movies. But for that time, it was good material to a teenager.

Edit: Amended, sorry.

[The Good Hunter]

It's actual Frost under the hobbit guise, good to know I can still trick people now and then

[Romeran]

I've not listened to any audio *dramas* but I have listened to Rob Inglis's unabridged Lord of the Rings though I hardly think that counts. I just stated on Andy Serkis's version which feels more like an audio drama as he does lots of different voices but it is still fundamentally an unabridged reading of the book. I'm enjoying it thus far though, I think he does a good job even though a lot of the voices seem clearly inspired by PJ's films (for example he does Pippin's voice with a Scottish accent).

[The Good Hunter]

It may sound weird (and a bit sad) but Rob Ingles, in a way, was my best friend through my high school years. I was constantly listening to his renditions of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and to a lesser extent, Martin Shaw with the Silmarillion. Rob wasn't great at singing the many songs Tolkien put it, but he's grasp of the mood of the narrative was top notch.

Now, that being said, there is a weird bendy line between Audio Drama and Audiobook that I myself am still trying to get a hang of despite having 10,000+ hours of experience with both. I think, for the purposes of the thread, we can add Ingles' and Serkis' interpretations to the list of topics worth discussing here.

[Moriel]

The BBC audio adaptations are great, and my favorite is actually their 1968 radio dramatization of The Hobbit! It's one of my very favorite audio dramas of all time. It's definitely an adaptation/abridgment, but it captures the essences, has a fantastic full cast, and the music and foley are extremely well done. It's not perfect of course, but what adaptation is. When the first Hobbit movie came out the Misty Mountains song was jarring to me at first because it's a different melody from the radio version, which has been living rent free in my head for like 20 years

[The Good Hunter]

This is the first I'm hearing about the 1968 Hobbit! I will have to find it and give it a listen. Given that it's from 1968 I am expecting some very bombastic orchestral music to go along with it. The Rankin/Bass version of "Misty Mountains" for better or worse, is how I judge all renditions, I don't make the rules, PJs version only passes muster because of the vocals, I', not a fan of the arrangement itself.