LotR on the radio

[altariel]

annamilton is reviewing the BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings here, and we seem to be largely in agreement.

I adore this adaptation. I listened to it first when it was transmitted in (?) 1980, got copies of the CDs for passing my A-levels in 1990(!!), and I think I've listened to it at least once a year since then. At least. I suspect it's supplanted the book in my mind in several places.

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Was it 1981? That'll teach me to put down dates from memory.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Then you're certainly right, because my memory gets fuzzier and fuzzier in my advanced age. 1981 was the year before I hit double figures.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*reaches for calculator*

Even better than that, in 1981, my father was more than seven times my age.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

True, completely true. I was 9, he was 66.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't read it like that at all - I'm just used to people double-taking when I tell them the age difference between myself and my father (56 years) and having to say, "Really!"

I think it's comparable to the age difference between Faramir and Denethor, but my father was an extremely nice man who never once attempted to cook me.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Look at your works, ye instigator of strangeness, and despair for the state of my sanity...

Hee! Just one throwaway line and you certainly run with it!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Genesis of the Numenorean epic - some throwaway line somewhere in deepest, darkest HoMe V...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Can't remember exactly off the top of my head (and it's too hot to go and get the book *g*), but it was something about them having ships that sailed on the breath of the air, or 'planes' as we would say.

[cirdan-havens.livejournal.com]

Oh, just a random "I like it too." :) And it's rather close to the books, so I can see why it might supplant small parts of the story.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hi, Cirdan :) Yes, it's very close to the books, although reading the books properly again recently (not just dipping into them), I've been finding long forgotten treasures (like Ceorl!). And, alas, no Bombadil in the radio play.

The performances in the radio play are just so good - I'm sure that it's Peter Vaughan's version of his voice I'm hearing into when I write Denethor. Ian Holm will be Frodo in my mind forever (although he did a fair job supplanting the radio version of Bilbo - John Le Mesurier's is a much kindlier performance).

[cirdan-havens.livejournal.com]

Yup, I agree. And especially now that TTT the movie has deviated so far, I think the BBC drama is going to keep its high place in my mind. :) But same here, I reread the books and did find the very small difference between the drama and the books, but I didn't mind.

The performances were great. And there's a strong Frodo and a _good_ Faramir to be found in the drama. Not only that, but they did include Halbarad and the other Rangers (even if they did leave out the twin sons of Elrond) and other such details. It was the addition of details of Tolkien that really made the drama feel like it wasn't just a cheap sell!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's a great Faramir! :-D And Eowyn is rather splendid too *goes off into brief happy reverie*

One other thing I like about it enormously is how well the music works, particularly the settings of the Rohirric verses, the way that they play such an important part in driving the narrative forward, as they should. (I do think the music from the films is pretty spectacular too, that was one thing I wasn't expecting it to rival.)

Brian Sibley did a talk at our local Borders some time last year; he pitched the radio play at just the right time at the BBC, and with the naivety that comes from being a new writer. Lucky bugger!

[cirdan-havens.livejournal.com]

I love the music! :) I wish they would put out more music of the same type for LotR. It really suits. I like the film music, but I don't hear much of Tolkien's poetry. Even Gollum in the movie waxes more poetry than our main characters, and when it is there, it feels too forced. Like Theoden before they charge out of the Hornburg, that felt forced. But his poetry when being arrayed in armor, now that was good. *shakes head* Seeing that in the commercials, I totally thought TTT would take my breath away. I thought Faramir wasn't as handsome as Boromir, but I figured I'd like him all the same. *cough* Shows how wrong I was.

Wow, and I'm glad you got to hear Brian Sibley talk... and he is lucky to have done it at just the right time!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

One thing which frustrates me about the film score is the way that it's been (for want of a better word) 'packaged'. For example, when I listened to the director's commentary of the FotR EE DVD, I found out that the words being sung over Boromir's death scene are a translation into Elvish of Faramir's fabulous speech ("I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness..." etc.). Which is a marvellous thing to know - firstly, because it makes that scene even more moving; secondly, because then you realize that that speech (which isn't in TTT) is there in the film adaptation.

So have done all these wonderful things with the music, that really add to the texture of the film. But I had to listen to the director commentary to find it out! The sleeve notes to the CDs are content free - and it's just that kind of thing I want to know.


I'm glad you got to hear Brian Sibley talk

He's very engaging - even if I do envy his luck, I don't resent it, LOL!

[cirdan-havens.livejournal.com]

Yup, I know what you mean about the lack of sleeve notes and the like. And actually, as cool as the Elvish is, I wouldn't mind having it in English too.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Isn't Ian McKellen doing one of the parts - or was it Ian Holm?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ian Holm is Frodo - it's a stunning performance.

[(Anonymous)]

Ian Holm is Frodo - it's a stunning performance.

Certainly bloody is. For my money, the portrayal of Frodo in Mordor, dragging himself towards Mount Doom, is the one part of the radio play which is unambiguously better than the book.

If only Peter Jackson could have borrowed a time machine, and had Bilbo played by Ian Holm the Elder, and Frodo by Ian Holm the Younger.

Iain

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I was rereading some of the bits set in Mordor recently, and they hit me in a very different way this time. The reason I was reading them was because of this piece of fanfic by Teasel, called On Gorgoroth Plain - it made me reread the Mordor chapters in a very new way. It's very short, and very worth a read.

[(Anonymous)]

That is a great story.

I've always found the Mordor chapters very powerful, and prefer them to the war stuff in the other branch of the tale. Indeed, I recall a massive disgreement with you on that very point. I think Teasel's fanfic has got you reading those chapters the way I read them.

Iain

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've always found the Mordor chapters very powerful, and prefer them to the war stuff in the other branch of the tale. Indeed, I recall a massive disgreement with you on that very point. I think Teasel's fanfic has got you reading those chapters the way I read them.

Hm, this post of yours completely snuck past me. Plus my gorgonzola memory strikes again - a massive disagreement?!? Us?!? No way! Was I insisting that the retreat from Osgiliath was the most powerful war bit? Not that I mediate everything I read through fanfic and Faramir-lust, oh no sir.

I am definitely reading those chapters very differently now. But I think I would still think first of all the bits in Book V that make me cry - the seige, "your son has returned after great deeds", Gandalf facing off the Lord of the Nazgul, "no long slow sleep of death embalmed...", the cock crowing and the horns ringing in the mountainside, "and they sang as they slew... and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City", "no living man am I", Merry saying good bye to Theoden, the pyre, "and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people", Arwen's banner at the Harlond, Pippin thinking of Denethor at the Morannon...

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, this post of yours completely snuck past me. Plus my gorgonzola memory strikes again - a massive disagreement?!? Us?!? No way!

Incredible, I know, but I have distinct memories of you beating me severely about the face and neck with a hardback copy of the Silmarillion, while I tried vainly to defend myself by flailing a paperback Farmer Giles of Ham around wildly and crying "By Elbereth and Luthien the fair, calm it tae fuck, doll!"

It was all that Book V stuff you were praising, as I recall. It's all good, but the journey into Mordor still resonates more deeply with me.

Iain

[altariel.livejournal.com]

you beating me severely about the face and neck with a hardback copy of the Silmarillion

I'd never do that with my hardback Silmarillion - it's a first edition. It must have been The Treason of Isengard.


"By Elbereth and Luthien the fair, calm it tae fuck, doll!"

Now that has a certain haunting familiar quality...