Lord of the Rings: The 1981 BBC Radio Adaptation - TM2YC's Audiobook Version

[TM2YC]

(^ Poster based on original Radio Times magazine cover art by Eric Fraser) and an iTunes Vinyl LP sized version:

The amazing 1981 BBC Radio-4 13-part adaptation of The Lord of the Rings edited into one long 12-hour "audiobook" version, for convenient iTunes listening.

The 1981 BBC Radio-4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has been one of my favourite things since as far back as I can remember. I had it on crackly home-made cassette (in a box I made with a childish Gandalf painting), then on the the pristine 2011 CD remaster. I must have listened to it 2-3 times every year, so that's got to be at least 100 times (or 50+ solid days of my life). But those have always been in the 13-episode/56-minute format from when the series was re-broadcast in 1982, the original 1981 broadcast was actually 26-episodes of 23-minutes.

I was curious to recreate that forgotten 26-episode version (for completeness and to offer a new way of listening) but as I was preparing the sources, I realised it would be more fun to do the opposite, an unbroken single episode edit, in an "audiobook" style. Since creating this version I've listened to it a couple of times and I love the new experience of going on the journey with Frodo and Sam, uninterrupted, all the way to Mordor and back again.

Sources:
- The 2011 BBC 19-CD Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit boxset.
- The Soundtrack CD included with the set.

Editing:
All references to this being a multi-episode series are removed, all episodes have been edited into one long narrative and all 13 closing credits sequences have been edited into one unifying closing sequence at the end. AI tools were invaluable in completely removing the music from all the credits sequences, so they could be cut up at will and re-scored.

00.01.50 - Removed Ep1 specific introduction voice-over and extended music to bridge the gap.
00.54.45 - Extended fade up created from the sound of Gwaihir's wings.
01.48.18 - There are two performances of Merry's dialogue as he returns to The Prancing Pony. I went with the one that opens Ep3, as I thought it was marginally better.
02.43.11 - There are two performances of Frodo's dialogue as he volunteers to be the ring-bearer. I went with the one that closes Ep3, as I thought it was a far superior performance of the lines.
03.35.46 - A simple edit between Ep4 & Ep5 at a point during Gandalf's speech on the Bridge of Khazad-dum, since both versions seem to be identical.
04.28.54 - Blended together Boromir blowing his horn, with Aragorn hearing it. I had to loose a few seconds of Orc cries and horn blowing to get a smooth transition.
05.23.25 - Blended in the coda from the 'Shadowfax' theme from the soundtrack CD, to extended the music into Pippin and Merry talking about Ents.
06.16.48 - Left in a section of music from the end of Ep7, after Gandalf arrives at Helm's Deep, to have a pause before the battle has been won at the start of Ep8.
07.11.21 - There are two performances of Faramir's first lines of dialogue. The one from the end of Ep8 was better but it had noticeably quieter waterfall soundFX under it than at the start of Ep9. So I extended/looped the soundFX and mixed it under the Ep8 dialogue.
08.08.05 - Left in a section of the music just after the 'Forth Rode The King' song from the end of Ep9, and extended/looped into under Pippin's talk with Gandalf from Ep10.
09.05.01 - Mixed the end of Frodo's rant about the ring from Ep11, with the start of it from Ep10.
09.59.57 - Looped up some of the water sound from Gandalf's speech at the end of Ep11, to make a smooth transition into Frodo and Sam in Mordor at the start of Ep12.
10.55.52 - Looped up some soundFX to smoothly transition between Ep12 & Ep13.
11.51.54 - Used AI to strip out the music from all 13 credits sequences and then cut them up (and re-arranged according to the Fellowship, Gondor, Rohan etc) to make one complete credits, including all actors and crew members (hope I didn't miss anybody). Re-scored with an edit I made of parts of track-1 (the main theme) from the soundtrack CD. It's roughly twice the length of the normal credits music but it begins and ends in a similar way. Edited out references to this being a series, or having individual episodes.

Original Length: 12 hours, 21 minutes
Fanedit Length: 11 hours, 56 minutes
Removed: 26 minutes
Added: 1 minute

Format: 1GB mp3 file

I'll put this up on IFDB later today. Message me if you're interested.

 

[Wraith]

(^ Poster based on original Radio Times magazine cover art by Eric Fraser) and an iTunes Vinyl LP sized version:

The amazing 1981 BBC Radio-4 13-part adaptation of The Lord of the Rings edited into one long 12-hour "audiobook" version, for convenient iTunes listening.

The 1981 BBC Radio-4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has been one of my favourite things since as far back as I can remember. I had it on crackly home-made cassette (in a box I made with a childish Gandalf painting), then on the the pristine 2011 CD remaster. I must have listened to it 2-3 times every year, so that's got to be at least 100 times (or 50+ solid days of my life). But those have always been in the 13-episode/56-minute format from when the series was re-broadcast in 1982, the original 1981 broadcast was actually 26-episodes of 23-minutes.

I was curious to recreate that forgotten 26-episode version (for completeness and to offer a new way of listening) but as I was preparing the sources, I realised it would be more fun to do the opposite, an unbroken single episode edit, in an "audiobook" style. Since creating this version I've listened to it a couple of times and I love the new experience of going on the journey with Frodo and Sam, uninterrupted, all the way to Mordor and back again.

Sources:
- The 2011 BBC 19-CD Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit boxset.
- The Soundtrack CD included with the set.

Editing:
All references to this being a multi-episode series are removed, all episodes have been edited into one long narrative and all 13 closing credits sequences have been edited into one unifying closing sequence at the end. AI tools were invaluable in completely removing the music from all the credits sequences, so they could be cut up at will and re-scored.

00.01.50 - Removed Ep1 specific introduction voice-over and extended music to bridge the gap.
00.54.45 - Extended fade up created from the sound of Gwaihir's wings.
01.48.18 - There are two performances of Merry's dialogue as he returns to The Prancing Pony. I went with the one that opens Ep3, as I thought it was marginally better.
02.43.11 - There are two performances of Frodo's dialogue as he volunteers to be the ring-bearer. I went with the one that closes Ep3, as I thought it was a far superior performance of the lines.
03.35.46 - A simple edit between Ep4 & Ep5 at a point during Gandalf's speech on the Bridge of Khazad-dum, since both versions seem to be identical.
04.28.54 - Blended together Boromir blowing his horn, with Aragorn hearing it. I had to loose a few seconds of Orc cries and horn blowing to get a smooth transition.
05.23.25 - Blended in the coda from the 'Shadowfax' theme from the soundtrack CD, to extended the music into Pippin and Merry talking about Ents.
06.16.48 - Left in a section of music from the end of Ep7, after Gandalf arrives at Helm's Deep, to have a pause before the battle has been won at the start of Ep8.
07.11.21 - There are two performances of Faramir's first lines of dialogue. The one from the end of Ep8 was better but it had noticeably quieter waterfall soundFX under it than at the start of Ep9. So I extended/looped the soundFX and mixed it under the Ep8 dialogue.
08.08.05 - Left in a section of the music just after the 'Forth Rode The King' song from the end of Ep9, and extended/looped into under Pippin's talk with Gandalf from Ep10.
09.05.01 - Mixed the end of Frodo's rant about the ring from Ep11, with the start of it from Ep10.
09.59.57 - Looped up some of the water sound from Gandalf's speech at the end of Ep11, to make a smooth transition into Frodo and Sam in Mordor at the start of Ep12.
10.55.52 - Looped up some soundFX to smoothly transition between Ep12 & Ep13.
11.51.54 - Used AI to strip out the music from all 13 credits sequences and then cut them up (and re-arranged according to the Fellowship, Gondor, Rohan etc) to make one complete credits, including all actors and crew members (hope I didn't miss anybody). Re-scored with an edit I made of parts of track-1 (the main theme) from the soundtrack CD. It's roughly twice the length of the normal credits music but it begins and ends in a similar way. Edited out references to this being a series, or having individual episodes.

Original Length: 12 hours, 21 minutes
Fanedit Length: 11 hours, 56 minutes
Removed: 26 minutes
Added: 1 minute

Format: 1GB mp3 file

I'll put this up on IFDB later today. Message me if you're interested.

I have this and listen to it at least every couple of years...in the car...
IT OUTSTANDING.

Having a singly file is even better...

Good for you in putting this together...

 

[AriochRN]

I’m currently playing Microsoft Flight Simulator in VR, doing multi-leg “bush tours” in small aircraft - this sounds just the thing to listen to while sight-seeing New Zealand and it would save me the faff of rooting out the CDs

 

[TM2YC]

@Malthus kindly pointed that within the first two minutes I'd missed one of the mentions in the opening credits that this was "13 episodes". I'll make a fixed version soon for anybody that finds that 1-second error as annoying as I do.

 

[AriochRN]

@Malthus kindly pointed that within the first two minutes I'd missed one of the mentions in the opening credits that this was "13 episodes". I'll make a fixed version soon for anybody that finds that 1-second error as annoying as I do.

Damn, there goes my joke after finishing listening to the whole thing - I was going to say “it’s really good, but where are the other 12 episodes?”

(Listened to the first hour or so last night, didn’t hear the join at all - very smooth work )

 

[TM2YC]

That's it fixed with the help of https://vocalremover.org/ to split the vocals and instrumental, and then some remixing and editing to remove the offending 3 words "in 13 episodes".

I was going to say “it’s really good, but where are the other 12 episodes?”

I wish there was another 144 hours of it.

 

[Thomas1972]

Awesome! Have you considered editing in the two extra chapters - Tom bombadil and the barrow downs - which can be found on the BBC audio CD ‘Tales from the perilous realm’? They were produced by Brian Sibley who regretted not recording them for the original production. I don’t know if it would work as they used different actors. (AI the voices to match?)

 

[TM2YC]

Awesome! Have you considered editing in the two extra chapters - Tom bombadil and the barrow downs - which can be found on the BBC audio CD ‘Tales from the perilous realm’? They were produced by Brian Sibley who regretted not recording them for the original production. I don’t know if it would work as they used different actors. (AI the voices to match?)

I had not heard of that before. I'd be interested in hearing a version of that with the voices replaced and rescored etc. But recently re-reading the books I was reminded why the 'Tom bombadil and the barrow downs' section should be deleted from any and every abridged adaptation.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

I had not heard of that before. I'd be interested in hearing a version of that with the voices replaced and rescored etc. But recently re-reading the books I was reminded why the 'Tom bombadil and the barrow downs' section should be deleted from any and every abridged adaptation.

Interesting to hear there's a BBC version of this. I agree on Bombadil. I do appreciate P.J. giving some of Bombadils lines and the old willow tree to Treebeard. That was a very elegant way of keeping some of Bombadils spitit intact. (despite me mercilessly cutting this from my own edit lmao)

 

[Thomas1972]

I had not heard of that before. I'd be interested in hearing a version of that with the voices replaced and rescored etc. But recently re-reading the books I was reminded why the 'Tom bombadil and the barrow downs' section should be deleted from any and every abridged adaptation.

I remember enjoying the BBC recording of the Bombadil chapters but you’re right, they aren’t necessary to the story. Still, I might have to dig out my copy and have a re-listen to figure out if a convincing swap of the voices of the four hobbits would be technically possible or indeed worth the considerable effort.