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Andy Serkis Audio book of The Lord of the Rings - Our Verdict · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to the MythMakers podcast brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy.
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  This is the podcast for everybody who loves fantasy, old and new.
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  My name is Julia Golding, I'm a writer but I'm also the director of the Oxford Centre
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  for Fantasy which in particular has a focus on J.R.R. Tolkien and the Inklings as well
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  as other fantasy writers who have come out of Oxford.
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  In today's episode I thought I would tackle the big thing that's recently happened for
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  all of you who love Tolkien which is the new recording unabridged by Andy Circus,
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  the entire reading of the Lord of the Rings.
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  It just come out and is the first time that an unabridged recording has been added to
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  your choices since the Robert English version back in 1990.
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  I also wanted to add into the review of the comparison of the various options you have
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  the much earlier 1981 BBC dramatised version because for many people that is where they
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  begin their listening journey.
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  So taking those various options in order in which they were produced, I'd like to give
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  you a little guide as to what you might find if you choose to go with one of those.
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  Now let's go back to 1981.
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  I actually remember this being made, it was a huge part of my childhood that the BBC had
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  done this fantastic version.
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  It was dramatised in 26 episodes and in those days of course it wasn't on demand, you
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  had to wait with your cassette tape recorder to record them if you wanted to listen again
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  and I have to admit to doing that.
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  The cast was Stella, some of the names many of you will recognise so Ian Holm played Frodo
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  in the BBC version and he returned as Bilbo in the Peter Jackson films.
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  But Gandalf was played by a man who was like a very well-known actor at the time, Michael
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  Horden.
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  I actually knew him as a child because he was the voice of the Paddington cartoons but
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  he also was a very notable film actor.
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  Robert Stevens, he is perhaps also known for being once married to Maggie Smith.
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  He played Aragon and Bill Nye played Sam and there are lots of other very notable people.
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  John L'Emisserie played Bilbo and those of you who have watched the British comedy
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  programme Dad's Army, he was in that cast.
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  So you can see they were really able to attract into the recording studio a really superior
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  team of voice actors.
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  Now, a really nice thing about the BBC version is that it was directed by two women, Jane
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  Morgan and Penny Leicester and they did a really excellent job in choosing their material
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  dividing it up.
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  They brought along Stephen Oliver, whose music I think is definitely amongst the best versions
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  of the songs, extremely singable.
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  They also had little extras at the end of the, some of the episodes where you could have
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  even more songs if you wanted, like I remembered there was an extra set from Treebeard at one
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  point in the two-tows.
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  So they did a really, really excellent job in bringing the poetry of Tolkien into the
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  dramatisation.
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  I think that one thing to point out is they took some cuts like Peter Jackson did, they
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  didn't include Tom Bomberdale and there was sort of, you know, there is a argument that
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  Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring takes a long time to get going and the Tom
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  Bomberdale material isn't really important later on in the plot.
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  So it's an obvious cut if you want to slim down your offering.
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  They also had really good, simple special effects.
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  So when you listen to it, you do feel very, if you lay in bed or in the car or wherever
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  you are, you really feel in the world with sort of wind sounds and the idea of particularly
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  the black riders they have a very ghostly tone.
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  There's a very good smegle as well.
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  I mean, we've all got so used to Andy Circus, but actually the person who takes on smegle
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  in this version, that's Peter Woodthorpe, he, for me until I saw the piece of Jackson
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  films, he was the smegle, the voice of, and he had previously voiced the same character
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  in the Ralph Bakshi animated version.
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  And I believe that the gentleman who played Boramir, Michael Graham Cox also had appeared
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  in that version too as a voice actor.
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  So there's some lovely crossings over between the various versions.
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  So I would say that it was just such an excellent production, really very high class.
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  For me, the voice that I didn't quite warm to, and this perhaps is just a personal taste,
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  is I found Robert Stevens as arrogant as a, he felt older and I happened to sort of
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  already know what Robert Stevens looked like because he'd appeared in some children's
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  dramas at the time and he had played a bad guy in a version of, I think it was the box
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  of delights, the John Maysfield story.
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  And I remember feeling he wasn't quite right.
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  So for me, that was one of the weaker sides of that production.
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  But definitely highly recommended, particularly as I mentioned earlier, for the quality
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  of the songs, which they do really, really well.
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  So moving on, we're heading a bit more into the digital age, but not quite yet.
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  In 1990, an actor called Robert Inglis sat down and recorded an unabridged version of
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  the Lord of the Rings.
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  It was directed by Claudia Howard and the music is a variety of either music sort of noted
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  by Tolkien, something that Robert Inglis had done.
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  Doshoff, his name is Inglis or Ingles, I think I'll go Ingles.
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  He made up himself and also Claudia Howard also added some music too.
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  In the production, I think they re-released it at the same time as the films.
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  It has some very nice musical interludes that signal the end of a book and the beginning
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  of another.
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  They use this same production note in the Martin Shaw version of Silmarillion and then
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  really well chosen, a sense of almost like the tie is leaving.
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  And I think it really adds to that version.
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  What do you get when you listen to Robert Inglis?
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  Well you get a very professorial tone, almost, I kind of tell myself, it's a bit like
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  sitting listening to Tolkien, read it to you and that is a big plus point.
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  He's very good, he doesn't push too far away from a reading voice, it's not to dramatized
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  reading, but he does find a lot of different notes and you're never confused by who's
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  speaking.
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  He does an extremely good job and I think it's very listenable, it definitely has a
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  quality about it which is very relaxing and the perfect audio book in a sense that you
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  can just let it wash through you and wash over you and you go with the story.
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  I think that perhaps he's less good on how to put this because it feels a bit like a
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  period piece, I'm almost surprised to find it was recorded in 1990 because he feels like
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  he could have recorded it in 1950.
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  There is an element of it feeling slightly old fashioned, I think it might be the tone
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  and the feeling of a gentleman of a certain age.
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  What you're getting, as I'm saying, does feel quite appropriate to imagining it being
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  a bit like Tolkien reading to you.
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  Let us move on now to the big new player in the field and that is Andy Circus' version.
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  I think it's really interesting finding Andy Circus, having dedicated what must have
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  been a very large part of his life recently.
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  Maybe it was a lockdown project to recording this and I think that what you get of course
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  is it feels much more familiar to people who have come at Tolkien from the film.
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  The very first thing to say is when he chooses a character voice he very often is channeling
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  what you see from the screen thanks to Peter Jackson.
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  So for example, the choice to make Pippin Scottish, the shower is a very small place and it's
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  quite funny to think that within such a small area there are such wildly different accents
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  which is perfectly fine and I can see that it distinguishes the hobbits from each other
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  but I'm also thinking of, of course, Billy Boyd as he does the voice is fine but just warn
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  you that there is that element of hearing film actors underneath what Andy Circus is doing.
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  The other thing that the other actor who is very clearly an inspiration for a voice is
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  Boramir, totally Sean Bean, very good interpretation of Sean Bean, again the choice of an
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  Northern accent there. So that I think will please lots of people because they will so be
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  clued in they can imagine almost seeing a version of the film in their imagination happening.
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  The other thing about Andy Circus's approach is unlike Robert Engels who as I said had more of a
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  reading voice and doesn't push too far into the drama there is more energy and more performance
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  behind Andy Circus's version. So in terms of listening experience there is peaks and troughs it's
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  actually more, it's more dramatic and it is a performance as opposed to a reading if I can draw
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  that distinction. I have to have some caveats there are a couple of things in it which for me
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  are a problem and they come particularly at the beginning of the fellowship of the ring
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  which is he's not that great at singing the hobbit songs. He does get better I felt as the
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  fellowship of the rings went on but there are some pretty ropey songs either he's not been given
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  a great tune or he's decided they don't sing very well and that was a bit off-putting and the
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  section which I find really difficult and disappointing was Tom Bombardill. He's gone for a very
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  bombastic tone and it has just really jared for me I disliked it intensely if I'm going to
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  listen alongside I would go and listen to that chapter done by Robert Ingalls in future who
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  doesn't send it up as much. It may be that because this character didn't appear in the films there
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  wasn't a sense of who he could be and he comes across it being he doesn't seem to have the gravity or
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  the depth and the earth you know he's the oldest creature ever alive and the Andy Circus version
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  makes him feel really annoying so I don't recommend those chapters but everything else I've
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  thoroughly enjoyed and massive, massive plus point which is why you might go for this version
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  over the others if you're a talking nerd is that when it's said to be an unabridged version it
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  is an unabridged version he does the prefectory material the talking introduction is absolutely
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  fascinating as a scene setter for what you went go on to here and the appendices now that is a
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  really bold choice by the people who produced this audiobook but hooray so now you can actually hear
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  the appendices read as well which is great that's new material and I think is worth definitely
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  buying return of the king if you've already got say the Robert Ingalls version you might want to say
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  pick that one because you've got a whole load of new material at the end and of course he gets to be
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  golem again so that's pretty good isn't it I find the strongest voices for me in what he's done
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  the sweeter voices he's done I really like Frodo and Sam I think they're really good
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  and also his arrogant is great it's a sort of slightly deeper Andy circus voice very attractive
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  it doesn't have the problem I found with the Robert Stevens of being too plummy it's got a very
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  it's not a takeoff of Vigo Mortison at all it if you're looking for a voice actor for whom it's
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  a bit like it sounds a bit like Clive Lewis it's got a very nice tone and you can think yeah
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  this is one of the heroes so thank you very much audible for giving us yet more hours of talking to
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  enjoy if I was going to finish with sort of like my star review I think for performance as in drama
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  you would have to struggle to beat the BBC version that's definitely five stars
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  Robert Ingalls on performance in drama is more of a you know a three and Andy circus is another
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  five star for a single voice actor in terms of listenability they all score really highly they're all
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  five stars but if I was going to give you a sort of which one do I buy I'd say if you've got a
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  family listening go for the BBC version if you are personally listening on your own the choice
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  between the Andy circus and the Robert Ingalls version is do you want to be read to or do you want
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  to be performed at and that's where I would you know decide which one I'm going for and of course
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  if you if you're like it get get all of them which is what I've done and depending how I feel I choose
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  the one I want to so thank you very much for listening and that's my view on the audio versions
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  but before we leave I always in every podcast try and choose where in the world is the best place to go
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  and for this episode I thought we'd choose where in the fancy world is the best place to be ill
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  because listening to the Lord of the Rings again reminded me just how often particularly Frodo
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  gets ill or gets wounded and how important healing and medicine is now obviously you might say the
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  best place to go in Tolkien's world for healing would be the houses of healing in Ministerus
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  that's or or of course Rivendell where you've got Elrond as the sort of master healer
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  but I was also thinking outside of Tolkien's world I'm very fond of a fantasy series that starts
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  with a book called War Prize by Elizabeth Fawn and what I like about that series is that the
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  character arc of the main character is that she brings it's not that magic or anything like that
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  she brings conventional medicine to the invaders who come to her country she's handed over as a
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  war prize and her role is to teach these people the importance of healing and I really enjoy
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  that's the dilemma it's an unusual dilemma to have in a fancy book that her job is to persuade them
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  that you know you don't just kill somebody when they get injured they give them the mercy stroke
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  because you know broken leg meant they'd never be able to be a warrior again she is turning around
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  their traditions and their understandings about strength weakness and what what is really strong
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  isn't necessary muscles it's intelligence and caring and all those kind of things so in a sense I would
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  say the best place for healing might be in Elizabeth Fawn's world prize just to ring the changes
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  not always choosing Tolkien you see there of course going to see as Lewis it's very useful to have
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  Lucy's cordial on hand because that seems a very quick pick me up pretty much almost bringing
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  back from the dead so not quite but almost so that's also a little you know if you're going to
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  travel have Lucy's cordial with you that would help so that's the answer to wherein the world
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  I hope that you've also had a chance to listen to our podcast that we did with the live stream about
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  the forthcoming Amazon Prime series set in Tolkien's second age where I was joined by Paula Calamaris
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  writer and Ty Trusdale filmmaker if you haven't caught up with that yet it's available on YouTube
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  for Facebook and also as a podcast so please do check that out and let us know what you think
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  so until next time thank you very much for joining us here at MythMakers goodbye