BBC Rerunning Radio Lord of the Rings 113
Motor writes "I'm not sure if I'm doing the BBC website a favour by mentioning this, but BBC Radio 4 is, from Saturday the 5th of January, running their excellent radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings in thirteen, one hour weekly episodes. I'm not sure how much load the streaming system can handle though :)"
Make a note of it, and save 'em. The LotR radio show is very acclaimed.
Ian Holm. (Score:5, Interesting)
[OT] Did anyone notice..? (Score:1, Interesting)
Did anyone else notice that Iam Holm in the movie looked a *lot* like J.R.R. Tolkien himself? And that it got more pronounced the older he got, reaching its most striking at rivendell, when Bilbo is showing Frodo "there and back again".. i thought that was kind of cute, especially given the whole bit about Tolkien thinking of Bilbo as self-insertion, and how the maps on Bilbo's desk were reproductions of Tolkien's originals..
I don't know, maybe i just imagined it, and it isn't quite relevant to any thread on the BBC series. I just thought i'd post this because i was curious as to whether anyone else watching the movie had thought the same thing, and this seemed as good a way as any to take a straw poll.
- super ugly ultraman
Re:Ian Holm. (Score:1)
This isn't the only connection. Longstanding Tolkien aficionado Brian Sibley, who co-scripted the BBC radio adaptation, is producing the official guide to the Peter Jackson movies. [hobbit-news.net]
Re:Ian Holm. (Score:1)
I personally hoped they'd bring back the person who played Gollum. There's simply no point in anyone else trying - it was done to perfection in this version.
Cheers,
Ian
PAY your licence fee ? (Score:3, Insightful)
alot of the people here did not why should we the british have to put up with the U.S. using the bandwidth that 'I' payed for !
oh and if a record company see's the bbc broadcasting their music for free so that people dont buy their music from the shops they just wont let the BBC play it
regards
john jones
Re:PAY your licence fee ? (Score:1)
Consider this Einstein:
The BCC is selling copies of this broadcast and as a result of their Internet broadcast they have effectively increased the size of their market from Britain to the world. Pretty good way to invest YOUR tax dollars if you ask me.
Also consider this:
Maybe, just maybe, a wonderful organization like the BBC appreciates that cultural programming such as the LOTF broadcast can and should be appreciated be an audience as large as as economicly feesable. Isn?t that the whole purpose of the BBC?
I could go on and on but to be honest with u I think you just wouldn?t get it anyway.
P.S. I?m not an American so is it ok if I tune in?
Ill be lsitening (Score:1)
Re:time to kill myself (Score:1)
You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:5, Informative)
http://216.122.251.79/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Scr
They also have the Hobbit and their orignal productions of Jack Flanders and Ruby the Galatic Gumshoe.
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS - wrong URL (Score:2, Informative)
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:1)
/me wonders how nomadic found it...
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:1)
you may ignore above...
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:1)
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:2)
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:1)
Or one might download the whole lot from Usenet. Someone started posting the series in alt.binaries.sounds.audiobooks around the 20th.
Unless, of course, you consider that stealing.
Re:You can get them on CD from ZBS (Score:1)
I've ripped them all to MP3, fit all the episodes on a single CD, and the kids and I listen to them at night. I've already read the LoTR books to them.
Shoot your teevee!
--Xan
Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:5, Informative)
If you use this service, please take the time [mailto] to tell them that you appreciate their support of open standards as the service is still tentative.
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:1)
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:2)
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:1)
FUD.
As long as the browser being used supports Java the applet download is around 115K significantly less than installing Real Player etc.
It's a streaming client happily decoding on the fly, I've used it for listening to content from the BBC for three months and found it reliable throughout.
Re:Ogg Vorbis streams (Score:1)
XMMS had this support from install of Mandrake 8.1.
Easy!
It's good, buy it (Score:3, Informative)
If you want to buy it, there are two versions on Amazon:
this is the more expensive (US$56) "library edition" [amazon.com] which i suspect is no different from this US$49 version [amazon.com].
Full LOTR mp3s here, ALL OF IT (Score:1, Informative)
download now.
Thanks dude (Score:1)
Re:Full LOTR mp3s here, ALL OF IT (Score:1)
NOT the BBC adaptation (Score:1)
I can find the BBC files on Morpheus, sure enough, using the following as a guide for the names and file order, though:
Unofficial BBC LotR page [uchicago.edu]
Nice story (Score:1)
Takes a long time to go through 13 CD's worth of story.
Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:5, Insightful)
have enjoyed it many times. One of the landmark radio
dramatisations featuring a superb cast: Ian Holm as Frodo (who
played Bilbo in the Jackson movie); Sir Michael Horden as
Gandalf; John LeMesseurier as Bilbo; and Robert Stephens as
Aragorn. It also features Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum, who
incidentally also played that character in the animated movie.
A matter of opinion of course, but I consider it a superior
adaptation than the recent film. While Jackson's effort is very,
very good, it (through necessity) betrays the book in many ways
resulting in a superficial version of the story. The BBC
dramatisation on the other hand, leaves the subtleties of the
story intact, resulting in a more rounded experience. The only
ommission of note is the absence, as usual, of Tom Bombadil.
If you have never heard a radio play, do yourself a favour and
have a listen to this.
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:1)
>dramatisation on the other hand, leaves the subtleties of the
>story intact, resulting in a more rounded experience. The only
>ommission of note is the absence, as usual, of Tom Bombadil.
Why as usual?
Andrea
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
live action movie, nor the animated movie.
Poor old Tom. No one loves him
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
With 9 hours to play with why does the movie have to betray the book as opposed to abridging it with care?
I'm really getting tired of people saying what a great version the new movie is and then going on to say what a mess of the books it's made. What's going on (I haven't seen it yet)?
TWW
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2, Insightful)
nuance of the book. It hasn't "made a mess" of it, and betray is
perhaps too harsh a word, but watching the movie and reading the
book are two different experiences. Listening to the radio play
offers another.
If you can imagine the book as a three-dimensional object, the
film takes a two-dimensional view of the story, the radio play a
different two-dimensional view. However, IMO, the latter's
interpretation captures the more important elements of the book.
In other words, the experience offered by the written word is
more similar to that of the radio play than of the film.
This isn't meant as a critique of either work.
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:1)
1. The whole Arwen-substituted-for-Glorfindel mess. If they wanted to show her in Rivendell and have the talk with Aragorn, that would have been fine (still more than is in the book). But they have her traipsing around, sneaking up on Aragorn and then riding against the Nine. Which leads to...
2. Frodo stood off the Nine at the Ford by himself, not with the aid of any elf, in the book. Much more powerful in my opinion
3. The cave troll in Moria. As someone else mentioned, it's an orc chieftain that stabs Frodo, not the cave troll. All we see of the cave troll in the book is an arm and a leg poking through the door. The rest of the encounter in Moria is different as explained by another poster (Gandalf doesn't try to hold the door, the ceiling of the chamber doesn't come down, they get surrounded by orcs that don't immediately kill them for some inexplicable reason, etc.). Also no dwarf bodies are found when they open the door to get into Moria. Gimli seemed like he would find Balin at home in Moria, I don't think he was that upbeat in the book.
4. On their escape from the Shire to the Buckleberry ferry, a Black Rider is chasing Frodo as the other three get on the ferry. Damn slow horses they have in Mordor, you would think he could have run Frodo down pretty easily.
5. Saruman's and Gandalf's Twister battle in Orthanc. Say what?
6. The whole end of the movie deviated from the book. Boromir never returns to the rest of the Fellowship to tell them that he tried to get the ring from Frodo. Aragorn talks to Frodo and Frodo tells them he is going to Mordor by himself. Pippin and Merry see Frodo as he is leaving and one of them, I guess for the benefit of the slow people in the audience, says "he's leaving." When Sam gets back to their camp, he doesn't see the "empty" canoe leaving by itself, since Frodo is not wearing the Ring. After Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find Boromir, they return to camp and see that Frodo and Sam have just reached the other side of the river. In fact, one of the things that I thought would annoy people is that part of the Two Towers is told in the first movie since we see Boromir die. However, I think this is probably a better spot to end the movie than the book. I just had to explain to my wife after the movie - "Oops, I guess I should have had you read more than just the first book!"
7. At some point after Frodo was attacked at Weathertop, they were in the glen with the three trolls that were turned to stone in The Hobbit. I knew this scene would be in the movie based on a review somewhere and my wife noticed the trolls, but darned if I didn't. I don't know that a little dialogue here would have hurt so much, especially since Bilbo is telling the story to some hobbit children at his party.
8. At one point in Moria, Frodo thinks they are being followed by Gollum. Gandalf says yea, and you even see Gollum. In the book, you get references that Gollum is about, but Frodo doesn't speak his fears until they are out of Lothlorien.
9. At the Council of Elrond Gimli tries to destroy the Ring with his axe. Also, the Council seemed much more argumentative than the book. I think the film was trying to hint that the Ring was exerting its influence on the members there. Also Boromir's vision is not mentioned and there is not much background on Legolas or Gimli.
I think that sums up my main annoyances with the movie. Overall, it was a really good film if you had never read the book. It just took some liberties with the story that I couldn't understand and added material that could have been cut in favor of a "better" storyline.
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
That said, I agree that the council of Elrond could have been handled a little better. Explaining Boromir's vision would have both established him better as a character (his name isn't even mentioned until they're well out of Rivendell) as well has helped develop Aragorn's storyline.
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
The structure of LotR is very strong, even the language develops from the start to the end and all the Hobbits' characters change quite radically, and we do all like character development, don't we?
TWW
Re:Superior Radio Dramatisation (Score:2)
The best part of the radio plays is they include a great many of the songs that are included in the books, along with characters expressing some real heartfelt emotions.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and turn on my lights at http://206.54.177.105 [206.54.177.105]
If you get the CD's be sure to get the BBC version (Score:4, Informative)
The BBC version is awesome.
Kevin
Re:If you get the CD's be sure to get the BBC vers (Score:1)
1) The American (Mind's Eye Productions) does not omit the Bombadil sequence. The BBC version does. This is important to me because I really like Bombadil. The scenes with the Barrow Wights explain how they get their swords.
2) The BBC version has English accents, which probably sounds more authentic.
3) The BBC version "unravels" the story line to make it more linear. The American version relies more on "flashback" and story-telling, which follows the flow of the books.
4) The BBC version does have Strider telling the story of (oh, I forget her name) the elf that gave up her immortality to live and die with the mortal man she loves - giving a nice foreshadowing of Strider and Arwyn's situation.
5) Of course, the BBC version gives you another hour, which is cool.
They are both excellent, and after listening to both of them several times (I'm a LOTR AND Book-on -tape junkie - don't ask how many times I've listened to Harry Potter on tape). I cannot say that one is better than the other.
stream audio (Score:1)
Anyway, I have this in MP3 already - it's over 400 megs - I'm not sure what bitrate it is, but the quality is pretty good.
VBR would have been a better choice for speech though (this is fixed bitrate). So if BBC is testing OGG/Vorbis, it is a good thing.
at what time? (Score:1)
or... 6:30 AM PST... oh boy! now i won't even be able to sleep in an the weekends!
Beware! (Score:4, Funny)
So I sat down to work one day and fired up the mp3 player. Two hours later I realized that I had done NO WORK! I had simply sat there basking in the glory of this production.
I usually listen to music when I work at home and don't find that distracting at all.
Unfortunately I also found this Lord of the Rings things completely addicting. I found myself looking for excuses to listen to it. Luckily it is only 13 hours long.
I think that I should have saved this for commuting and caused some accidents.
Re:The old Farts are ? - cash in baby baby-oh ! (Score:1)
They have names I have never heard of b4 ? - Am I supposed to know who they are ?
you don't reconise Bilbo from the movie?! i spotted him right off the bat! (hint: he played frodo in the BBC production)
The return of ...an old friend. (Score:1)
Closest to the books I've found.. (Score:5, Informative)
While not disappointed with the new movie, I was somewhat dismayed by their attempt to rush more important aspects of the story and drag out those parts that play little role. LOTR is, more than anything, about the growth of the characters. How these small, fat, lazy hobbits go on an adventure and when they return they run the evil out of their homeland. How a dirty rugged old ranger ends up becoming king, and how a dwarf and an elf, both with much inbred conflict with each other, manage to become lifelong friends.
The cave troll did not take 3 minutes to dispatch in the book. It was an orc chieftan who skewered frodo, not a troll. Frantically, the party ran from that room, carrying Frodo (whom they believed to be dead) with them. Gandalf attempts to seal the door with a spell, only the Balrog fights him back with magic and almost destroys him. All this was missed. Instead they have to spend precious time on the character development of Arwen, who doesn't get more than 5 minutes in the books anyways.
And at the end, we don't have the troublesome Aragorn. In the books, he was distraught because he didn't know what path to follow, and then everybody gets separated, Boromir dies, all the hobbits disappear, and the fate of frodo and sam is unknown. Aragorn is forced to make a decision on who they follow and choose to pursue Merry and Pippin.
Galadriel warned against betrayal in the party. Yet there was no such warning. Oh, the book hinted about Boromir's desire for the ring, but up until the very minute he tried to steal it, Frodo only thought that Boromir wanted them to keep it safe at Minas Tirith, and not to walk it into the enemy's hand. However, the rest of the party did not desire it so, and none of the rest of them were a risk. This is shown most prominantly in the "Samwise the Strong" segue in the third novel when Sam is tempted by the power of the ring while he holds it for a while, and yet manages to overcome it with barely any thought on the matter.
But anyways.. No need to overanalyze this. The radio plays are GOOD. Listen to them if you can.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and turn on my lights at http://206.54.177.105" [206.54.177.105]
a little shocked (Score:4, Interesting)
Spoilers!!!!!
-Gandalf simply TELLS Frodo that Biblo has gone to live with the elves: in the books this is a wonderful surprise to Frodo.
-Gandalf learns of the Palantir early, for no reason, instead of discovering it at the end of The Two Towers
-Galadriel simply tells (or pretty darn strongly implies) to everyone that Boromir will try to take the Ring
-As mentioned, Aragorn feels no confusion as to what to do about Frodo.
I felt that most of this simply drained excitement and mystery out of the plot for no puropse (in most cases WASTING time instead saving it, by requiring more exposition). Maybe they had some reason, but I can't see it yet. I also thought that for a movie short on time, spending whole minutes in slow-mo reaction shots was a bit silly (Frodo getting stabbed by the troll for like five minutes, Sam drowing in slow motion) as well as deadening the pace at crucial moments. Despite Peter Jackson being totally non-Hollywood, it was SOOOO Hollywood.
The radio plays, of course, had no such temptation to cliche, which is interesting: are there really as many major radio-show cliches as there are movie cliches?
Re:a little shocked (Score:1)
-Gandalf learns of the Palantir early, for no reason, instead of discovering it at the end of The Two Towers
-Galadriel simply tells (or pretty darn strongly implies) to everyone that Boromir will try to take the Ring
/QUOTE
in TT (and later in ROTK,) Gandalf (when telling everyone about the palatir, esp merry and pippin, says he 'long suspected' that they were around. I saw this more as a good time to foreshadow the palantir's role in ROTK w/ Denethor -- when Gandalf and Saruman start talking about them in FOTR (movie) Gandalf plainly says "they're not all accounted for and can't be trusted"; this is more of a setup for Denethor's scene and Gandalf's expository there.
Galadriel (in the movie,) only tells Frodo outright. The movie can't give that third-person-omniscient point of view ("Boromir thought...") that the book can without doing cheesy voice-overs, so by necessity, I think they felt they had to hammer the point home that Boromir was not to be trusted.
The only things about the movie that i was annoyed by were the total omission of Bombadil (although, what else could Jackson have done?) and the complete fucking of Arwen and Aragorn's roles.
I would have enjoyed more of the incidental dialogue (although they did a fantastic job with it) like Gandalf's "A Balrog! what cursed luck! and I am already tired..." and the whole Bill Ferny thing in Bree...
The sound sucked (someone tell the music guy he's not the fucking star,) and Galadriel's voice during her test ("...set up an EVIL QUEEN!") was just too fucking stupid. But these are minor quibbles and the movie is GREAT.
Re:a little shocked (Score:2)
Re:a little shocked (Score:2)
I saw one review [nationalreview.com] that said "I wish there were fewer scenes of Frodo staring into the camera like Jodie Foster in Nell (or Contact, or a half-dozen other movies where Foster seems to think that intense, wide-eyed staring is what the academy is looking for)"
The thing that bothered me (and might be related to your complaint about long slow-mo reactions) was what I thought was an over-use of awe inspiring special effects - Not where it was appropriate like the battle scenes in Moria but in segues. Especially all that zooming about up and down the tower of orthanc and into the fantastical (and a little fake & hokey looking) caves and crevices beneath it. By over doing it by so much in such inconsequential scenes Jackson had no way other than just making it longer to make an impact during the really pivotal scenes. I wish he had used a lighter hand which would have not only improved the scenes affected by making them appropriately more subtle but also would have improved the scenes with all the FX that would be improved and given more impact by the contrast.
But that is really my only complaint and it is mere nitpicking. Many of the things that bothered other people didn't bother me at all. It is a movie after all which is a very different storytelling media and many of the changes were necessary and good for the story in movie form. I don't mind dropping Tom Bombadil or Arwen replacing Glorfindel and moving the love story between Arwen and Aragorn out of the Appendix at the back of ROTK and into the main storyline.
Joesph Campbell (Score:2)
Re:Joesph Campbell (Score:1)
A real blast from the Victorian age of Freudian mumbo-jumbo "psychology".
TWW
Re:Joesph Campbell (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Joesph Campbell (Score:2)
These are spectacular (Score:1)
Radio (Score:4, Informative)
As a nice Christmas gesture the BBC cut the bitrates down across the board on their terrestrial Digital Radio (DAB [bbc.co.uk]) service a couple of days ago, LoTR's will be on Radio 4 [bbc.co.uk] which is often found at 80kbps Mono MP2 now, instead of 192kbps stereo, the FM signal is now of superior quality.
A note to all those people who are interested in buying a DAB tuner (all 3 of you!), don't bother, unless they resurrect the bitrates you might as well just get a decent FM tuner, the quality will be better. Another decent technology ruined.
Re:Radio (Score:2, Informative)
LOTR FOTR (Score:1)
so the first movie should be called "bad dad"
Save them?! (Score:2)
Don't tape the radio. You don't own anything you hear.
Psst... (Score:2)
Re:Save them?! (Score:1)
I bought the whole set (Score:1)
ISBN 0-553-47228-3 (Score:2, Informative)
A few years ago my parents bought this audio series for me on cassette. It is excellent. I've listened to it a few times and it kept me awake on the long drive home for the holidays. I must say that this radio-series is a lot truer to Tolkien's books than the new movie. Also all voices have authentic British accents. =)
Amazon has it for $41.96/ qid%3D/103-3685064-5132664 [amazon.com]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553472283
-Mike_L
Christmas Gift (Score:2, Informative)
Or you can find it. . . (Score:1, Informative)
They are doing something like 3 mp3 files a week.
Not the BBC version (Score:1)
NOT a good Rendition! Anybody know where the good (Score:1, Interesting)
thanks,
Hans
nightowl@nightmoon.inland.net