who played bilbo baggins?
Norman Bird Martin Freeman Ian Holm
entailment
 Bakshi 's film sparked enough interest in Tolkien 's work to provoke not only an animated TV special produced by the Rankin @-@ Bass animation studio based on The Return of the King , but a complete adaptation of The Lord of the Rings on BBC Radio . For this broadcast , Michael Graham Cox and Peter Woodthorpe reprised their roles of Boromir and Gollum , respectively . 

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 The script was refined further by director Val Guest , who cut 30 pages from Landau 's script . One of Guest 's key contributions to the script was to tailor the dialogue to suit the brusque style of star Brian Donlevy . With an American actor cast as Quatermass , Guest reverted Briscoe to a British character and reinstated Quatermass 's title of professor . Guest also adapted some sections of the script in response to the concerns of the BBFC . Further stylistic changes were sought by the BBC who retained a script approval option after the sale of the rights and asked Nigel Kneale to work on their suggested changes , much to his indignation . Kneale was tasked with rewriting any scenes featuring BBC announcers to match the BBC 's news reporting style . 

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 In 2008 , the BBC announced that Russ Abbot would join the cast as a relatively more youthful actor in series 30 . Abbot was cast to allow Sallis and Thornton to reduce their role on the show to only indoor scenes . Abbot portrayed Luther " Hobbo " Hobdyke , who formed a new trio with Entwistle and Alvin . Entwistle , played by Burt Kwouk , was formerly a supporting character brought in to replace Wesley Pegden after the death of actor Gordon Wharmby , but whose role on the show steadily increased in the previous two series . 

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 They were replaced by Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston , who presented it for three series . According to the BBC , the show 's popularity was at its peak during the 1996 / 1997 series when the show regularly had 2 @.@ 5 million viewers . Around this time Mr. Blobby , played by Barry Killerby , also appered on series . 

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 Atkinson reprised his role as Bean , and all animated Bean actions are taken from Atkinson himself . Other characters ' voices are provided by Jon Glover , Rupert Degas , Gary Martin and Lorelei King . In October 2000 , it was reported that Mr. Bean would become animated , which was initially to be targeted at adults . In February 2001 , the series was officially announced , with it premièring shortly afterwards . 
