Radio adaptation

Ilana Mushin

Well-Known Member
Could there be some discussion about the radio adaptations of Tolkien sometime? My go-to adaptation is still the 1981 BBC LoTR, which at the time I loved because I thought this was a brilliant way to dramatise Tolkien and leave scope for my own visual imagination. Different choices are needed for a sound-only adaptation from film adaptation, as I saw when the PJ films came out. So I’d be interested to understand the different choices and limitations and scope of these different media.
 
My go-to adaptation is still the 1981 BBC LoTR
I thought it was way too short. It was almost a "good-parts version", jumping from one important scene to the next with no travel in between. I missed the landscapes, though I must admit in retrospect that they're awfully difficult to render in audio-only!
 
I thought it was way too short. It was almost a "good-parts version", jumping from one important scene to the next with no travel in between. I missed the landscapes, though I must admit in retrospect that they're awfully difficult to render in audio-only!
I know what you are saying but I think they did some good soundscapes - like Lothlorien other-worldliness. And they had a great narrator and gave some descriptions to character dialogue. I loved the way they did the Battle of Pelennor Field with the alliterative song.
 
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