2020 The Hobbit (Andy Serkis)

Release Date: 2020.09.03
Reader: Andy Serkis
Language: English
Translator: n/a
Organisation: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: n/a
Duration: 10 hours 24 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: UK
Licenced: Yes
Formats: MP3-CD, Digital

Having portrayed Gollum in the Peter Jackson films, reading the audiobook twenty years later has a sense of coming full circle. In May 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Serkis performed a 10-hour continuous live-read of The Hobbit (dubbed the “Hobbitathon”) to raise money for charity. It was so successful (£400,000+ raised) that HarperCollins commissioned him to officially record the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

Serkis voices every character, giving each dwarf a distinct regional British accent and personality. For decades, Rob Inglis (1990) was the only unabridged option in English. The two versions offer very different experiences; Inglis sings the songs to simple, folk-like tunes he composed himself; Serkis performs them with a more theatrical, modern cinematic intensity. Inglis feels like a “grandfatherly” fireside chat. It is steady, literary, and calm. Serkis feels like a “one-man stage play.” It is visceral, high-energy, and often quite loud.