Hi Davem,
Cheers for posting the links, looking forward to this one!
Hopefully it should be good in its own right and concentrates on a really dramatic period of history that rarely gets on TV. I guess the 'Middle Earth' bit is just a cynical marketing ploy, but it seems to have worked with us
.
From the Tolkien point of view, JRRT says that he envisaged the men of LoTR to look much like the Normans and Saxons of the Bayeaux tapestry, so should give plenty of inspiration for RPG and fanfic.