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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Peter Woodthorpe, Ian Holm, Robert Stephens, Michael Hordern, Bill Nighy, John McAndrew, David Collings, Douglas Livingstone, Full Cast
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About this listen

With its first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on March 8, 1981, this dramatised tale of Middle Earth became an instant global classic. It boasts a truly outstanding cast including Ian Holm (as Frodo), Michael Hordern (as Gandalf), Robert Stephens (as Aragorn), Bill Nighy (as Sam Gamgee) and John Le Mesurier (as Bilbo).

Brian Sibley's famous adaptation has been divided into three corresponding parts, with newly-recorded beginning and end narration by Ian Holm, who now stars as Bilbo in the feature films based on The Lord of the Rings.

Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring, introduces us to Frodo Baggins. With his uncle Bilbo having mysteriously disappeared, Frodo finds himself in possession of a simple gold ring that has great and evil power. It is the Ruling Ring, taken long ago from the Dark Lord, Sauron, who now seeks to possess it again. Frodo must do everything he can to prevent this, and with the help of Gandalf the wizard and a band of loyal companions he begins a perilous journey across Middle-earth. Sauron's Black Riders are on their trail as they travel to Rivendell, attempt to cross the snow-swept Misty Mountains and, in desperation, enter the terrifying Mines of Moria.


©2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

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Critic reviews

For those who find the books too long-winded and the films too noisy, this is the perfect way to assimilate the myth and magic of Middle-earth
All stars
Most relevant
Great BBC adaptation. Bit mean of audible not to offer the three parts as one purchase.

Excellent

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Naration and acting is perfect. The sound effects and full acting of characters and accents bring the story to life and makr this audio book more than a mere reading.

Excellent

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If you haven't heard it before, the BBC produced this in 1981 and it is an abridgement of the original. This actually works really well as things like Tom Bombadil, while interesting, don't contribute to the overall plot, and many of the lesser songs and poems are dropped as well. What is left is excellent and the songs that were kept, the music overall in fact, are beautifully orchestrated and have stayed with me for 40 years, along with the outstanding performances (including a very young Bill Nighy, as most people are aware). My only issue with this particular version is there are a few clumsy cuts in editing, but overall it is still great.

Still the best adaptation

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I was a huge fan of this dramatisation from childhood and nearly wore out the tapes, I know certain sections by heart.
This version contains all of the original copy but adds a few introductory minutes of extra dialogue from Frodo ( Ian Holm )
I didn’t feel that the extra minutes added anything worthwhile, it’s not Tolkien dialogue,
The original division in to hour long episodes worked very well and that’s lost here, certain sections ended on a very dramatic note and then faded in to the theme music,
In this version the high drama fades in seconds in to the next episodes intro which detracts a little I felt.

Otherwise excellent and well worth a listen, for me it’s THE best version outside the actual novel and there has clearly been an attempt made to faithfully capture the spirit of the original

I found that Michael Hordern (Gandalf)
Ian Holm ( Frodo )
and John Le Mesurier (Bilbo)
were particularly good, but lots of other great acting and tons of dialogue is direct from the novel.
Saruman ( Peter Howell )
and Aragorn ( Robert Stephens )
were very well done too.
The atmosphere of Bag end, the Prancing Pony, the Green Dragon and Lorien were wonderfully brought to life

Only gripe - why divide it in to 3 parts ?
Need to triple the profit on this
Is Jeff Bezos struggling to make ends meet

Excellent adaptation - unnecessarily divided in to 3 parts

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it's lord of the rings I mean what else do you need to know

lotr

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