Microphones in Middle-earth...the BBC Lord of the Rings

[Brian Sibley]

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

I really enjoyed how though by-passing the Old Forest the four hobbits make it clear that they are "going off the road" and going through the Old Forest on their way to Bree. This gave me the possibility that the events on the book on the Old Forest occurred, while allowing the adaptation to move on. I enjoyed this and again, this is something I wish the movies could have done.

Well done! You got it!!

I don't think anyone has ever picked up on that before. That is why, when I later did the Bombadil/Barrow-Downs episodes in my radio dramatisation, Tales of the Perilous Realm, I felt that I was able to just tell listeners what had happened on that pat of the journey they didn't hear!

I was disappointed that we weren't able to get the original cast back together (it was several years later and Ian Holm was already spending quite a lot of time in Hollywood) because, sadly, this meant that it could never really work for anyone who had listened to the original LOTR broadcasts and didn't make much sense on its own to anyone who hadn't!

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

I love Barliman's character and the actor doing his voice nailed it. I know that Gollum may be the Gollum others hear when they read the series, this is what I hear for Barliman's voice.

Me too! James Grout: superb!

When I was shown the first sneak footage of Jackson's FOTR and I saw the scene where Barliman peers over the top of the bar at the hobbits when they enter 'The Prancing Pony', I was convinced they had lifted the voice from the radio serial! Unfortunately, as with many 'minor' characters in the film trilogy, there was so little of Mr Butterbur on the screen that he was never able to develop...

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

I enjoyed the 'fiddle" in the Prancing Pony and felt it was a good back drop since inn's have been associated with music and "fiddles" at least here in the US. I was glad that the song was included because I think it shows Frodo in a different light than at any other time during the journey. I enjoyed the Inn scene.

I just wish that Ian had been able to SING 'The Man in the Moon'.

I remember the agonies and frustrations (for him and composer Stephen Oliver) at the recording session... Speaking the lines didn't quite work for me and I always found myself asking: "WHO is playing the fiddle?" and "How do they KNOW what song he is going to perform?"

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

Questions on this Segment:

I understand the need to cut Tom Bombadil out of the adaptation but was the hobbits conservation about going through the Old Forest to avoid the riders and the road a way to allow listeners familiar with the story the notion that the advents of the Old Forest occurred, while allow for the story to move forward?

As I say, above: you got it in one!

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

Tolkien himself said that Tom was important or he wouldn't have kept him in the story. What do you think we lose by taking Tom out of any adaptation, and what is gained?

I think Dave and others have already said most of what can be said about this... What is lost? A fascinating character... A episode of unexpected dangers... A indication that TREES are not always what they seem to be... An oasis of peace at Tom's house providing a moment's respite on the trail... An opportunity to know that there are those (or at least one) who is untouched by the power of the Ring...

What is gained by cutting Tom? Keeping up the momentum of Frodo's flight and the Riders' pursuit... In Tales of the Perilous Realm, these chapters took TWO half-hour episodes, so, if it had been included in the original broadcasts, these scenes would have needed to be compressed to a point of being, probably, meaningless...

Originally Posted by ArathornJax

Perhaps this leads to another question, what was the process for deciding what to add in, what to not include to the story? Is there still anything you would want to add if you still could to the adaptation, or are you happy with the overall product now?

Dave discussed the process in one of his first posts: it was, basically, down to me (with suggestions from Michael Bakewell, and the producers Jane Morgan and Penny Leicester); the arrangement of the material after the breaking of the Fellowship follows, as closely as possible, the dates given by Tolkien in his appendices.

Of course I would do it differently NOW... But, yes, I am happy with it as it stands - except for the mistakes, which irk me, and one or two moments where I wish we'd had more time - either for the script to escape being cut or to have been able to better perfect a scene... But, then, I've lived with it for 27 years!!