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.

For other uses, see The Lord of the Rings (disambiguation).
The Lord of the Rings
BBC Radio Collection cover
GenreRadio drama
Running time30 minutes per episode
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home stationBBC Radio 4
StarringIan Holm
Michael Hordern
Robert Stephens
William Nighy
James Grout
Simon Cadell
John Le Mesurier
Jack May
Peter Vaughan
Created byJ. R. R. Tolkien
Written byBrian Sibley[1]
Michael Bakewell
Directed byJane Morgan
Penny Leicester
Narrated byGerard Murphy
Original release8 March 1981 – 30 August 1981
No. of episodes26

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[1] and Michael Bakewell attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novel, but there are some errors and alterations. They include:

  • At one point, Minas Anor and Minas Tirith are referred to as though they were separate cities, but Minas Anor is actually the original name for Minas Tirith. This was when Gandalf and Pippin were discussing the palantír whilst en route to Minas Tirith.
  • The radio serial omits the sequence in the book in which the hobbits visit Tom Bombadil.
  • Gandalf refers to the Balrog of Moria as a servant of Sauron. In the novel, the Balrog was originally a servant of Sauron's former master Morgoth, but was freed from any kind of service and fled into the earth upon Morgoth's defeat during the War of Wrath in The Silmarillion. In fact Balrogs and Sauron are of the same order, the Maiar.
  • Isengard is referred to as a "fair city", "circular" and "filled with fair trees" which Saruman brought to ruin with the exception of the singular great tower/citadel of Orthanc in the center. In Tolkien's writings there has never been an actual city called Isengard, only the lush greenery and the Tower of Orthanc which together are called Isengard.
  • The story includes an arc where Wormtongue is waylaid by the Ringwraiths. This only appears in Unfinished Tales, not The Lord of the Rings.
  • In the final episode, Bilbo's Last Song, a Tolkien poem which does not appear in the novel is used to flesh out the sequence at the Grey Havens.

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:[2]

Episode list
EpisodeTitleFirst broadcast
1The Long Awaited Party8 March 1981
2The Shadow of the Past15 March 1981
3The Black Riders22 March 1981
4Trouble at The Prancing Pony29 March 1981
5The Knife in the Dark5 April 1981
6The Council of Elrond12 April 1981
7The Fellowship of the Ring19 April 1981
8The Mines of Moria26 April 1981
9The Mirror of Galadriel3 May 1981
10The Breaking of the Fellowship10 May 1981
11The Riders of Rohan17 May 1981
12Treebeard of Fangorn24 May 1981
13The King of the Golden Hall31 May 1981
14Helm's Deep7 June 1981
15The Voice of Saruman14 June 1981
16The Black Gate Is Closed21 June 1981
17The Window on the West28 June 1981
18Minas Tirith5 July 1981
19Shelob's Lair12 July 1981
20The Siege of Gondor19 July 1981
21The Battle of Pelennor Fields26 July 1981
22The Houses of Healing2 August 1981
23Mount Doom9 August 1981
24The Return of the King16 August 1981
25Homeward Bound23 August 1981
26The Grey Havens30 August 1981

References
  1. Sibley, Brian. "THE RING GOES EVER ON: The Making of BBC Radio's The Lord of the Rings". Brian Sibley. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  2. "Riel Radio Theatre — The Lord of the Rings, Episode 2". Radioriel. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  3. "Obituary: Ian Holm". BBC. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020. he took the part of Frodo Baggins in BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which featured Holm alongside a host of other stars including Michael Hordern and Robert Stephens.
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