Enter the BBC Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatization Contest

This really is a fantastic dramatisation. In my early teens I found a cassette tape of episode 26 (the final one) in the loft which had been recorded on its first broadcast in 1981. No one in my family had any idea who had recorded it, and it was on an unlabeled tape. The best guess was that my father had recorded Radio 4 at the wrong time, hoping to get Hancock's Half Hour or the Goons.

Shortly after finding the tape (and being terribly distressed at having managed to miss it on broadcast) the entire series was re-broadcast in 13 episodes and I dutifully recorded it every Saturday (or it might have been Sunday) lunchtime. It was truly a fantastic experience hearing it for the first time and I remember being so excited about hearing each new episode.

Then I obviously bought the tapes when they came out and as soon as the CDs came out in the limited edition boxed set of 5000 (the first CD release), I had to buy that. I think that first CD release is really the one to get (I remember paying GBP 69 for it new in 1995 - it seemed like such a lot of money back then as a new graduate that I kept it in the brown cardboard outer carton which I still have!). It's a nice edition that doesn't feel out of place on the shelf next to the books. I imagine that it is available relatively cheap on eBay, now mind...

If only Peter Jackson's awful movies with their abysmal dialogue and gibberish plots could have taken some real lessons from the BBC....

Stu

I remember listening to this avidly on its original broadcast in 1981, having just discovered the books (although I had read The Hobbit about five years earlier). I even dragged a radio round a sponsored walk with me one Sunday so I could catch it!

wellinghall