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 installments. 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 Lord of the Rings" is 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.
Broadcast history.
The serial was originally 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. The first broadcast of Episode 2 was blacked out across a large part of southeast England because of a transmitter failure (a very rare occurrence even then).
The series was broadcast in Canada on CBC AM in the summer of 1982. In the US it was on NPR with a new synopsis preceding each episode, narrated by Tammy Grimes. It was also aired in Australia.
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 subsequently edited into 13 hour-long episodes broadcast from 17 July to 9 October 1982, restoring some dialogue originally cut for timing (since each hour-long episode is actually around 57 minutes, as opposed to 54 minutes for two half-hour episodes with overlaps and extra credits removed), rearranging some scenes for dramatic impact and adding linking narration and music cues. Even so, a small amount of material was also lost, notably a minute long scene featuring Gandalf and Pippin on Shadowfax discussing the beacon fires of Gondor. This material was not restored to the 2002 re-edited CD version.
The re-edited version was released on both cassette tape and CD sets which also included the soundtrack album (noticeably taken from a vinyl copy). Incidentally, episode 8 of the series, "The Voice of Saruman" was labelled as "The Voice of Sauron" on the cassette & CD box sets.
Discrepancies with the novel.
The script by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novel, but there are some errors and alterations. They include:
Links to other "The Lord of the Rings" productions.
Peter Woodthorpe (Gollum/Sméagol) and Michael Graham Cox (Boromir) previously voiced the same roles in Ralph Bakshi's animated version.
Ian Holm, who voiced Frodo Baggins in the radio serial, went on to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.
Re-release in 2002.
In 2002, following 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"). This version omitted the original episode divisions, and included a 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. Frodo's monologues deal with his efforts to write his historical account of the War of the Ring in the Red Book, as well as his own personal reflections and musings on the story's events. The re-edited version included some additional music cues, which had to be taken from the soundtrack album because the original master tapes for the series music had been lost. The soundtrack, 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. The 13-episode series was rerun on Radio 4 in 2002 to promote the station's newly created digital platform.
Cast and credits.
The cast for the production was: