The Lion's Den

BBC production of Lord of the Rings

My friend Michael lent me his copy of the BBC Radio Dramatization of The Lord of the Rings on CD. The set consisted of 13 CDs each with an hour's worth of radio drama which proved perfect company for my daily work commute as well as the long drives through Northwest winter weather to and from Seattle. I was mostly happy to be reminded of bits of the books that I had forgotten (the last time I read the trilogy was about five years ago) and were either not present or changed in the Peter Jackson trillogy. There were a couple of irritants in the radio production though, the BBC version of Aragorn had a haughty British accent that was probably meant to sound regal but to me came across as pompous, there were inescapable moments of 'Look Mr Frodo there are Orcs coming towards us' (how else do you describe action without constantly relying on a Narrator?) and then there was the singing. To describe the singing as irritating is a deep understatement. The hobbits seemed to know only one tune to which any and all lyrics could be sung, the Minstrel of Gondor made me want to strangle him (Monty Python style) and the regular intervals of unexplained and chorus suddenly breaking into song were disjointing. That aside the production was a pleasure.