[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I think that it would have been interesting to see what Christopher Lee would have made of Gandalf, since he's a tremendously versatile and experienced actor; but then we would have been deprived of his excellent characterisation of Saruman. Although I don't think that the script gave him as much to work with as is present in the book, I think that he really captured the fallen wisdom and flawed majesty of Tolkien's character. It probably helped that he reads The Lord of the Rings each year and has done since the first edition came out. I don't think that he'd be happy to hear his voice described as 'monotonous', though: he's been trained as an operatic singer and enjoys singing arias. To some, his voice is his best feature.

An interesting aside is that in his autobiography, Christopher Lee mentions some research that an acquaintance of his had done into on-screen swordplay:

As the result of a formidable amount of research on swordplay in films, and duelling with axes, daggers, swords, knives, etc., he'd established a kind of chart, in the way that sports pages maintain lists of leading goal scorers. ... Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn have both chalked up eight. And at the top, Derek showed me Christopher Lee, with seventeen. It must be admitted that the others were generally victorious, whereas I was usually killed.