BBC Rerunning Radio Lord of the Rings

Motor writes "I'm not sure if I'm doing the BBC website a favour by mentioning this, but BBC Radio 4 is, from Saturday the 5th of January, running their excellent radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings in thirteen, one hour weekly episodes. I'm not sure how much load the streaming system can handle though :)" Make a note of it, and save 'em. The LotR radio show is very acclaimed.

Ian Holm.

I find it very interesting the way Ian Holm plays Frodo in the Radio adaptation, and later Bilbo in the movie.

Ill be lsitening

I ehard a part of this when I was very young and hadn't read the books and had no idea what was going on. But now i shall certainly lsiten and quote along from memory. This is sweet.

You can get them on CD from ZBS

ZBS and American/Canadian Radio drama company also resells the LotR CDs in the US. So you can watch it anytime you want and at $70 for 13 CDs is a pretty decent deal.

http://216.122.251.79/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Scre en =PROD&Store_Code=ZF&Product_Code=LORD&Category_Cod e=KFCD

They also have the Hobbit and their orignal productions of Jack Flanders and Ruby the Galatic Gumshoe.

Ogg Vorbis streams

For those Free Software enthusiasts of you out there who don't want to install RealPlayer, the BBC is trialling [bbc.co.uk] Ogg Vorbis [vorbis.com] live audio streams. The BBC Radio 4 stream can be found here [bbc.co.uk].
If you use this service, please take the time [mailto] to tell them that you appreciate their support of open standards as the service is still tentative.

It's good, buy it

My dad just picked it up through a mail order catalog, and it's really well done.
If you want to buy it, there are two versions on Amazon:
this is the more expensive (US$56) "library edition" [amazon.com] which i suspect is no different from this US$49 version [amazon.com].

Full LOTR mp3s here, ALL OF IT

http://www.saiyajinfury.com/lotr/

download now.

Nice story

I burned these to CD's for my long drives between home and school I used to take. Very entertaining. They can be found online pretty easily, and burn nicely to CD's.

Takes a long time to go through 13 CD's worth of story.

Superior Radio Dramatisation

I bought the box set of the LotR radio play many years ago and
have enjoyed it many times. One of the landmark radio
dramatisations featuring a superb cast: Ian Holm as Frodo (who
played Bilbo in the Jackson movie); Sir Michael Horden as
Gandalf; John LeMesseurier as Bilbo; and Robert Stephens as
Aragorn. It also features Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum, who
incidentally also played that character in the animated movie.

A matter of opinion of course, but I consider it a superior
adaptation than the recent film. While Jackson's effort is very,
very good, it (through necessity) betrays the book in many ways
resulting in a superficial version of the story. The BBC
dramatisation on the other hand, leaves the subtleties of the
story intact, resulting in a more rounded experience. The only
ommission of note is the absence, as usual, of Tom Bombadil.

If you have never heard a radio play, do yourself a favour and
have a listen to this.

If you get the CD's be sure to get the BBC version

There's also a set of CD's from an American dramatization that isn't nearly as good.

The BBC version is awesome.

Kevin

stream audio

Digital audio streaming is good, but why not record the analog broadcast and digitize it later?

Anyway, I have this in MP3 already - it's over 400 megs - I'm not sure what bitrate it is, but the quality is pretty good.

VBR would have been a better choice for speech though (this is fixed bitrate). So if BBC is testing OGG/Vorbis, it is a good thing.

at what time?

Saturday 14.30 - 15.30 from 5 January 2002 GMT

or... 6:30 AM PST... oh boy! now i won't even be able to sleep in an the weekends! :D

Beware!

I borrowed the 13-disc set from a friend. I ripped it to mp3 so I could listen to it without having to swap discs.

So I sat down to work one day and fired up the mp3 player. Two hours later I realized that I had done NO WORK! I had simply sat there basking in the glory of this production.

I usually listen to music when I work at home and don't find that distracting at all.

Unfortunately I also found this Lord of the Rings things completely addicting. I found myself looking for excuses to listen to it. Luckily it is only 13 hours long.

I think that I should have saved this for commuting and caused some accidents.

The return of ...an old friend.

I was an avid listener when I was 14 (back in 1981), and will be again. Great that it's now being streamed to the world - imagine that, audio being streamed to a global computer network with hundreds of millions of people connected to it. We live in miraculous times.

Closest to the books I've found..

Between the two LOTR Movies and this radio adaption, the radio plays by far stick to the story line, almost to the letter. Obviously they have to abridge it somewhat, but the most important parts of the story are maintained in excellent detail.

While not disappointed with the new movie, I was somewhat dismayed by their attempt to rush more important aspects of the story and drag out those parts that play little role. LOTR is, more than anything, about the growth of the characters. How these small, fat, lazy hobbits go on an adventure and when they return they run the evil out of their homeland. How a dirty rugged old ranger ends up becoming king, and how a dwarf and an elf, both with much inbred conflict with each other, manage to become lifelong friends.

The cave troll did not take 3 minutes to dispatch in the book. It was an orc chieftan who skewered frodo, not a troll. Frantically, the party ran from that room, carrying Frodo (whom they believed to be dead) with them. Gandalf attempts to seal the door with a spell, only the Balrog fights him back with magic and almost destroys him. All this was missed. Instead they have to spend precious time on the character development of Arwen, who doesn't get more than 5 minutes in the books anyways.

And at the end, we don't have the troublesome Aragorn. In the books, he was distraught because he didn't know what path to follow, and then everybody gets separated, Boromir dies, all the hobbits disappear, and the fate of frodo and sam is unknown. Aragorn is forced to make a decision on who they follow and choose to pursue Merry and Pippin.

Galadriel warned against betrayal in the party. Yet there was no such warning. Oh, the book hinted about Boromir's desire for the ring, but up until the very minute he tried to steal it, Frodo only thought that Boromir wanted them to keep it safe at Minas Tirith, and not to walk it into the enemy's hand. However, the rest of the party did not desire it so, and none of the rest of them were a risk. This is shown most prominantly in the "Samwise the Strong" segue in the third novel when Sam is tempted by the power of the ring while he holds it for a while, and yet manages to overcome it with barely any thought on the matter.

But anyways.. No need to overanalyze this. The radio plays are GOOD. Listen to them if you can.

-Restil

Play with my webcams and turn on my lights at http://206.54.177.105" [206.54.177.105]

a little shocked

I was a little shocked as to how the movie decided to spoil just about every element of uncertainty with a character simply outright SAYING something that was supposed to be discovered later on. The radio shows were far more adriot at keeping things suspenseful.

Spoilers!!!!!

-Gandalf simply TELLS Frodo that Biblo has gone to live with the elves: in the books this is a wonderful surprise to Frodo.
-Gandalf learns of the Palantir early, for no reason, instead of discovering it at the end of The Two Towers
-Galadriel simply tells (or pretty darn strongly implies) to everyone that Boromir will try to take the Ring
-As mentioned, Aragorn feels no confusion as to what to do about Frodo.

I felt that most of this simply drained excitement and mystery out of the plot for no puropse (in most cases WASTING time instead saving it, by requiring more exposition). Maybe they had some reason, but I can't see it yet. I also thought that for a movie short on time, spending whole minutes in slow-mo reaction shots was a bit silly (Frodo getting stabbed by the troll for like five minutes, Sam drowing in slow motion) as well as deadening the pace at crucial moments. Despite Peter Jackson being totally non-Hollywood, it was SOOOO Hollywood.

The radio plays, of course, had no such temptation to cliche, which is interesting: are there really as many major radio-show cliches as there are movie cliches?

Joesph Campbell

I would also reccomend to anyone that they take a listen to the Moyers/Campbell series or read Campbell's book "Hero with a Thousand Faces". The Trilogy is one of the finest of the "quest" gendre that has been produced. It is interesting to disect it in the light of Campbell's exposition of the mythology of the quest. Everything is there: The quest, the companions, the wise old man, the great evil, etc. Aside from being just plain good reading, the Trilogy says many things about who we are and where we want to go in this creation.

These are spectacular

I recommend buying them on CD. I have the 13 CD set, and I keep them ripped to rc2 ogg vorbis files on my laptop. Great stuff, and it only takes up 340MB. Vorbis is beyond leet.

Radio

If you want to listen over the net make sure you listen to the Ogg [bbc.co.uk] stream because it's higher quality than their Real streams, and Linux friendly.

As a nice Christmas gesture the BBC cut the bitrates down across the board on their terrestrial Digital Radio (DAB [bbc.co.uk]) service a couple of days ago, LoTR's will be on Radio 4 [bbc.co.uk] which is often found at 80kbps Mono MP2 now, instead of 192kbps stereo, the FM signal is now of superior quality.

A note to all those people who are interested in buying a DAB tuner (all 3 of you!), don't bother, unless they resurrect the bitrates you might as well just get a decent FM tuner, the quality will be better. Another decent technology ruined.

LOTR FOTR

in Czech, the word "lotr" means "rogue" and "fotr" means "dad".

so the first movie should be called "bad dad"

Save them?!

Are you seriously suggesting we just tape the radio broadcast? How will the artists be compensated? How will we prevent further unauthorized copying? At least the RIAA will get a cut of the blank tapes, but this is most irresponsible.

Don't tape the radio. You don't own anything you hear.

I bought the whole set

Last month I bought the whole BBC 13 CD set at Sam's for about $40.00 It is great. If you REALLY want a see if you can't come across the set.

ISBN 0-553-47228-3

A few years ago my parents bought this audio series for me on cassette. It is excellent. I've listened to it a few times and it kept me awake on the long drive home for the holidays. I must say that this radio-series is a lot truer to Tolkien's books than the new movie. Also all voices have authentic British accents. =)

Amazon has it for $41.96
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553472283/ qid%3D/103-3685064-5132664 [amazon.com]

-Mike_L

Christmas Gift

I got this Radio Show set (13 CD's) for Christmas and must say it is very well done. If you can listen to it, I highly recommend it. It is interesting to see how it differeces from the movie at moments which differs from the book at times. Over all it is a very well done presentation and great for long road trips :)

Or you can find it. . .

at www.jezner.com/lord_of_the_rings/ [jezner.com].

They are doing something like 3 mp3 files a week.

NOT a good Rendition! Anybody know where the good

I remember as a kid (aprox. 1977) listening to the Hobbit on cassete tapes. It was a complete read of the Hobbit and was not abreviated/abridged in the slightest. Also, I believe, that it was just the voice of one person? but who dramatized all of the parts by changing his voice. DOES ANYBODY KNOW THE NAME OF THIS SET OF TAPES? I'd happily pay serious money for them. Also, did the same company hopefully also do the LOTR?
thanks,

Hans

[e-mail]

Re:time to kill myself

... This post is a mystery even to me ... And I must admit I'm a madman ...

Re:The old Farts are ? - cash in baby baby-oh !

The photo seems to depict three 'thespian' types.

They have names I have never heard of b4 ? - Am I supposed to know who they are ?

you don't reconise Bilbo from the movie?! i spotted him right off the bat! (hint: he played frodo in the BBC production)