It is very very good, and I strongly recommend it. Ian Holm as Frodo, Bill Nighy as Sam, Michael Hordern as Gandalf, and John Le Mesurier as Bilbo are excellent in their roles. (Shout out also to Stephen Thorne as Treebeard and Jack May as Théoden.) But the two key performers, in my view, are Robert Stephens as Aragorn and Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum/Sméagol.

I would say the biggest performance gap between the audio and the Peter Jackson movies is that between Stephens and Viggo Mortensen. Stephens' Aragorn is tough, damaged, wise, and (as far as we can tell) not even particularly good-looking. He carries every scene he is in, and invests dignity and authority in every line, be it Tolkien's original words or new material from Bakewell and Sibley. (And unlike the Peter Jackson films, Aragorn's story is left pretty much intact.)

The gap between Peter Woodthorpe and Andy Serkis is smaller but it is still in Woodthorpe's favour. Gollum's internal dialogue (ie his habit of talking to himself) works well for audio, and indeed here we get a number of extra scenes with Gollum's adventures away from the main storyline. In his penultimate scene, told by Frodo that he can never have the Ring back, he complains bitterly that 'nassty hobbitses has no idea how long 'never' is', a moment where he almost engages our sympathy. His final moments shortly afterwards are gorgeously manic and rightly expanded considerably from the few lines Gollum's demise gets in the original text.

I remember a few years back seeing an archive interview with Tolkien where he stated with an air of elderly innocence that the books were 'all about Death, really.' I wondered about this at the time, since to an extent I still read the book through my own nine-year-old eyes, and it's not such an obvious concern of the Peter Jackson films. But it's clearly a theme of the audio. Boromir's funeral, to a minor key variation of the theme tune; Denethor's suicide; Frodo and Sam facing up to death in Mordor (rather than bickering); Bilbo gradually slipping into old age; not to mention the various actual battles; these are all real and awful events in the BBC version. And the music is good, too. It is truly gripping. Get it if you can. ( )

Over the years that I've had this set I've listened to it several times. It never grows old and is so well done I get sucked right into the story everytime.

This BBC Radio production of Lord of the Rings is still one of my favourite renditions of the story (aside from the books). The acting and characterizations are, by far, the best available.

I highly recommend this production for your next long road trip or as an excellent alternative to airplane movies. ( )

From: http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/lor....

In 1981, the BBC again tackled "The Lord of the Rings", this time in a serial of twenty six 30-minute episodes. This production was not a condensed version, although it does leave out a number of events. Still, it is about as faithful to the book as one could reasonably expect. The characterizations are excellent and music is very nicely done.

The 1981 trilogy was adapted for radio by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell. It was directed by Jane Morgan and Penny Leicester. It is voiced by some very fine British actors including Ian Holm as Frodo, Michael Hordon as Gandalf and Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum among others.