Radio adaptation

[Ilana Mushin]

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.

 

[Jim Deutch]

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!

 

[Ilana Mushin]

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.

 

[Jim Deutch]

I think they did some good soundscapes

And Sam sang the Gil-Galad song!

 

[Ilana Mushin]

And Sam sang the Gil-Galad song!

I still sing it around the house. I was singing it when ‘Other Hands and Minds’ were doing the Gil-Galad discussion. Also Sam singing ‘In Western Lands’