1956 The Lord of the Rings: BBC Third Programme

Date: 1956.11.19
Language: English
Organization: BBC Third Programme
Duration: 6 x 30 minute episodes
Unabridged: No
Country: UK
Licenced: Yes
Preceded by: 1955 The Fellowship of the Ring

The previous year, 1955, had seen the first series by Terence Tiller adapting volume one, The Fellowship of the Ring. See that entry for the genesis story of this production. That series had been intended to be the first of three, mirroring the published volumes, But on January 20^th 1956, Tiller received a letter from The Deputy Head of the Third Programme, Christopher Holme, informing him that the decision had been made to only make one more series. This forced Tiller to compress volumes two and three into a final run of six, thirty minute episodes and was thus entitled The Lord of the Rings.

In November 1956, Tiller again wrote to Tolkien, asking for advice on the accents of the Orcs, the Rohirrim and the people of Minas Tirith. The response “I paid great attention to such linguistic differentiation as was possible: in diction, idiom and so on; and I doubt if much more can be imported, except in so far as the individual actor represents his feeling for the character in tone and style.” and also mentioned that orcs should sound “unpleasant.” It is known from the letters that Tolkien saw the first three scripts of this second series but there is no mention of the final three.

A final, rueful but polite, letter from Tolkien on November 6^th reflected that “Can a story not conceived dramatically, but (for lack of a more precise term) as an epic tale, be dramatized unless the playwright is allowed or takes liberties himself as an independent person? I have the impression that his task has been very difficult.“

However, only six months later Tolkien was in correspondence with Rayner Unwin about a proposed animated film production of The Lord of the Rings, saying  “I think I should find vulgarization less painful than the sillification achieved by the BBC.” This was eventually released on November 15^th 1978, five years after Tolkien’s passing.

These two productions and the BBC’s For the Schools adaptation were the only ones made and released during Tolkien’s lifetime. All of which are now lost as the BBC did not usually retain recordings at this time and no off-air recordings are known to exist. However, in 2022 a copy of the scripts was recovered by Oxford academic, Stuart Lee, in the BBC archives and contained hand-written notes and comments by Tolkien himself (in red).

There is an excellent and much more detailed account of this given by Stuart Lee, in the book The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien and is also available online.

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