LOTR on tape. BBC or NPR?

[KMW5511]

I have seen two versions of LOTR on tape at a local bookstore. One has BBC
on the box and the other NPR. Which is the better of the two? Or are they
the same?

I am thinking of getting this as a gift for my wife and any help would be
appreciated.

[MP]

Post by KMW5511
I have seen two versions of LOTR on tape at a local bookstore. One has BBC
on the box and the other NPR. Which is the better of the two? Or are they
the same?
I am thinking of getting this as a gift for my wife and any help would be
appreciated.

If the BBC version is the radio dramatization done in the 1950s, keep in
mind that Tolkien loathed it and thought it silly.

I caught only a short slice of the NPR version when it ran on the air,
but what I heard seemed quite good. The one negative, if I remember
right, is that the orcs spoke Cockney English (no h's). The English
snooty classes (and NPR) may equate Cockney with foulness, but Tolkien
did not and specifically called for the BBC version not to do that.

That said, also keep in mind that Tolkien did not think that LOTR could
be dramatized very easily. By that, he seemed to mean that when all the
background comments from the book were taken out and the tale became
almost pure dialogue, too much was removed. Those remarks seem to apply
only to radio/audio dramatizations. From his letters to his publisher,
he seems to have believed that his tale could be adapted for a movie.

Christopher Tolkien's hostility to the film trilogy probably goes back
to a confusion between his father's skepticism about a radio
dramatization versus his greater openness to a film adaptation. You can
do much, much more in film.

Keep in mind that there are also unabridged versions of the book itself
on tape and CD. Your wife might like that better since it isn't subject
to any editing. Right now, I'm listening to The Fellowship of the Ring
on tape when I go for walks. Listening, I hear things in the text I
never see when I read it.

--Mike Perry
Author: Untangling Tolkien

[Calvin Rice]

Post by MP
...
Christopher Tolkien's hostility to the film trilogy probably goes back
to a confusion between his father's skepticism about a radio
dramatization versus his greater openness to a film adaptation. ...

What might much more readily explain any hostility of Christopher to
the film trilogy could be that he has seen it.

-cr

[Stan Brown]

It seems "KMW5511" wrote in rec.arts.books.tolkien in article

Post by KMW5511
I have seen two versions of LOTR on tape at a local bookstore. One has BBC
on the box and the other NPR. Which is the better of the two? Or are they
the same?
I am thinking of getting this as a gift for my wife and any help would be
appreciated.

Both are dramatizations, and I'm not intimately familiar with
either.

Let me at least suggest that instead you consider a _reading_,
specifically the one by Rob Inglis. It's every word of the novel and
prologue (but not the appendices, I think). He does an outstanding
job IMHO of making the different voices live.

My hunch is that people who liked the movie tend to prefer a
dramatization when choosing an audio format, whereas people who
prefer the book tend to prefer a reading. But it's just my hunch.
Anyway, the choice of mode is a personal preference.

[Lord Nerd on High]

I prefer the BBC version over the NPR one. The acting in the BBC version I
think is much more subtle and I think opens up elements of the text that (at
least for myself) never came out even after numerous readings.

One drawback to the NPR version is that many of the voices are kind of silly
sounding. It might be more realistic that hobbit voices would be higher
pitched since they are smaller, but it can sound cartoonish at times. With the
BBC version everyone sounds properly english and no one sounds like a cartoon
character.

The one drawback I have with the BBC version is that it is completely
dramatized and so for the most part you hear the action in real time. With the
NPR edition for some of the key action scenes a narator switches over and
usually just reads what Tolkien wrote to describe the action. The climax in
Mt. Doom with the BBC version sounds rather silly, with Frodo and Gollum
whispering to one another and then grunting and gurgling as they fight each
other. In the NPR version the narrator belts out some of those fantastic
sections of text strait from the book. I should note though that how the BBC
treats the battle of Helm's Deep is very minimalist, yet very potent. It has a
kind of Shakespearean quality where between a chorus of male vocals the
characters meet up in the thick of battle to exchange some words. It works
very well.

Even this those problems I think the BBC version still comes out on top. The
attention to emotional detail that the BBC performers strive for is very well
done, and since most of the story really is about the relationships between the
main players this provides for the most reward.

Another poster said that the BBC version came out in the 50's. Perhaps there
was another one but I doubt it. On my copy of the audio BBC production it has
1987 as when it was copyrighted. It's also hard to imagine that Ian Holm
(Frodo in the BBC production, Bilbo in the BBC Hobbit AND Bilbo in Jackson's
LotR) would have been anything but a tike in the 50's. He's an older guy but
not that old. Thus, it's hard to imagine that Tolkien disliked this production
as he was already dead.


==
remove the crap to email

[Matthew Woodcraft]

Post by Lord Nerd on High
Another poster said that the BBC version came out in the 50's.
Perhaps there was another one but I doubt it. On my copy of the audio
BBC production it has 1987 as when it was copyrighted.

There was indeed another one in 1955, which is the one Tolkien
criticised. I don't think any recordings have survived. The later
version was first broadcast in 1981. I'm not sure where 1987 comes
from.

-M-

[Ilweran]

Post by Matthew Woodcraft
The later
version was first broadcast in 1981. I'm not sure where 1987 comes
from.

I think maybe it was originally broadcast as half hour episodes, & was later
broadcast as 1 hr episodes, so maybe thats where the 1987 date comes from.

ilweran
*******************

[Matthew Woodcraft]

Post by Ilweran
I think maybe it was originally broadcast as half hour episodes, & was later
broadcast as 1 hr episodes, so maybe thats where the 1987 date comes from.

No, the hour(ish) episodes must have been only a year or two after the
first broadcast. I remember the weeks took just as long to go by the
second time as the first.

-M-

[Igenlode]

Post by Matthew Woodcraft

Post by Lord Nerd on High
Another poster said that the BBC version came out in the 50's.
Perhaps there was another one but I doubt it. On my copy of the audio
BBC production it has 1987 as when it was copyrighted.

There was indeed another one in 1955, which is the one Tolkien
criticised. I don't think any recordings have survived. The later
version was first broadcast in 1981. I'm not sure where 1987 comes
from.

It was rebroadcast, I understand, in 1987 in 13 hour-long parts instead
of 26 half-hour episodes. At any rate, the copyright will be for the
boxed-set format recordings issued for sale in that year (and still 'in
print' - remarkable!)

Audio review from Saturday's 'Guardian' (from an otherwise non-book-fan
who opens by writing, of another recording, "It was a mistake to see the
film of /The Return of the King/ before I had finished listening to the
audiobook" and complains of Tolkien's "rambling description" and "prolix
digression"):

"Whether Peter Jackson would agree that radio has the best pictures
isn't on record, but.... (visual effects featuring giant spiders and
prehistoric mammoths ridden into battle by Nazguls[?!] are lost on
me), this is the perfect way to assimilate the myth and magic of
Middle-earth. Brian Sibley's adaptation... concentrates on plot, pace,
characters, actions and atmosphere. In this last respect he's helped by
composer Stephen Oliver, whose dark, relentless theme tune perfectly
evokes danger and quest."

(and adds, in self-justification, "[Michael] Horden [playing Gandalf]
never finished the book. When Gandalf is killed in Moria in book one,
he complained that his agent had promised he'd be in 22 episodes.")

[Alison]

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 23:35:14 GMT, Igenlode

Post by Igenlode
Audio review from Saturday's 'Guardian' (from an otherwise non-book-fan
who opens by writing, of another recording, "It was a mistake to see the
film of /The Return of the King/ before I had finished listening to the
audiobook" and complains of Tolkien's "rambling description" and "prolix
"Whether Peter Jackson would agree that radio has the best pictures
isn't on record, but.... (visual effects featuring giant spiders and
prehistoric mammoths ridden into battle by Nazguls[?!] are lost on
me),

It ought to be made quite clear here that the reason the spectacular
visual effects of Jackson's film are wasted on the reviewer is that
she is registered blind.

--
Alison

[Igenlode]

Post by Alison
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 23:35:14 GMT, Igenlode

Post by Igenlode
Audio review from Saturday's 'Guardian' (from an otherwise non-book-fan
who opens by writing, of another recording, "It was a mistake to see the
film of /The Return of the King/ before I had finished listening to the
audiobook" and complains of Tolkien's "rambling description" and "prolix
"Whether Peter Jackson would agree that radio has the best pictures
isn't on record, but.... (visual effects featuring giant spiders and
prehistoric mammoths ridden into battle by Nazguls[?!] are lost on
me),

It ought to be made quite clear here that the reason the spectacular
visual effects of Jackson's film are wasted on the reviewer is that
she is registered blind.

*Is* she now? I did wonder how she managed to resist the temptation to
skim-read the novel with her cinema ticket approaching, instead of
labouring through hours of audio-book - that would account for it :-)

[Igenlode]

Post by Matthew Woodcraft

Post by Lord Nerd on High
Another poster said that the BBC version came out in the 50's.
Perhaps there was another one but I doubt it. On my copy of the audio
BBC production it has 1987 as when it was copyrighted.

There was indeed another one in 1955, which is the one Tolkien
criticised. I don't think any recordings have survived. The later
version was first broadcast in 1981. I'm not sure where 1987 comes
from.

It was rebroadcast, I understand, in 1987 in 13 hour-long parts instead
of 26 half-hour episodes. At any rate, the copyright will be for the
boxed-set format recordings issued for sale in that year (and still 'in
print' - remarkable!)

Audio review from Saturday's 'Guardian' (from an otherwise non-book-fan
who opens by writing, of another recording, "It was a mistake to see the
film of /The Return of the King/ before I had finished listening to the
audiobook" and complains of Tolkien's "rambling description" and "prolix
digression"):

"Whether Peter Jackson would agree that radio has the best pictures
isn't on record, but.... (visual effects featuring giant spiders and
prehistoric mammoths ridden into battle by Nazguls[?!] are lost on
me), this is the perfect way to assimilate the myth and magic of
Middle-earth. Brian Sibley's adaptation... concentrates on plot, pace,
characters, actions and atmosphere. In this last respect he's helped by
composer Stephen Oliver, whose dark, relentless theme tune perfectly
evokes danger and quest."

(and adds, in self-justification, "[Michael] Horden [playing Gandalf]
never finished the book. When Gandalf is killed in Moria in book one,
he complained that his agent had promised he'd be in 22 episodes.")

[Stug]

Post by KMW5511
I have seen two versions of LOTR on tape at a local bookstore. One has BBC
on the box and the other NPR. Which is the better of the two? Or are they
the same?
I am thinking of getting this as a gift for my wife and any help would be
appreciated.

I think most people who have heard both much prefer the BBC version.
I'm familair with the BBC version which I find to be nearly perfect.
I've heard *some* of the NPR (Mind's Eye) version and I found the
acting to be horrible and the voices quite irritating to listen to,
though it's not without its redeeming moments. Put it this way, you
can't go wrong choosing the BBC version first.

BTW, the audio book read by Rob Inglis does include Appendix A (but he
mercifully skips the long list of kings).

This might help:
http://www.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/lotr_editions.html#audio

Stug
"Can a tale not conceived dramatically but epically, be dramatized -- unless the dramatizer is given or takes liberties, as an independent person? I feel you have had a very hard task." -- JRR Tolkien

(Remove 'stug' from e-mail address to contact me)

FAQ-like Guide to the Letters of JRRT: http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/lettersfaq.html
Guide to U.S. Editions: http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/editions.html