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Beyond Andy Serkis - Other Audiobook Versions of Tolkien's Works · Mythmakers

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome to MythMakers, the podcast for fantasy creatives and fantasy fans.
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  Now my name is Julia Golding and I'm the director of the Oxford Centre for Fantasy who
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  brings you this podcast.
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  And we've promised to keep on ranging around all the themes to fantasy but today I thought
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  I'd go back a little bit to an episode we did a couple of weeks ago about audio versions
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  of Lord of the Rings.
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  This was prompted by Andy Circus, producing his mammoth work, doing all the voices, but
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  that may be go back and have a look at the other Tolkien inspired audiobooks out there
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  beyond Lord of the Rings.
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  So I thought I'd give you a rundown of the ones I know well and also I delved into some
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  of the ones I don't yet know just so you know what's out there.
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  Now we have to start again with Andy Circus because he did a version of the Hobbit last
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  year in 2020.
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  Now I think I remember him doing this as a lockdown project where he was doing like a reading
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  as a sponsored reading.
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  So clearly I think he must have then gone into the studio and done it under slightly
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  more less pressurised circumstances.
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  It's very much as you expect if you have listened to his Lord of the Rings reading you get
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  a very pleasant romp through the Hobbit.
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  It's a more what I would say more of an avuncular tone than Lord of the Rings which is inspired
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  by the fact that the narrator is more present in the Hobbit than he is in Lord of the Rings.
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  It has a bedtime story feel.
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  But you also get the performance aspect with Andy Circus, you know, watch out for the
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  riddle game with Bill Bowen-Gollum of course.
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  That must be the set piece that everyone wants to listen to.
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  I think when I'm listening to it what always comes into mind are the films because very often
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  he hits exactly the same cadence on a piece of dialogue which has made it into the script
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  channeling the actor who originally played it.
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  Now that's absolutely fine to be expected because of course he was one of the assistant directors
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  on the films but of course it does then bring to mind images from the film and if that's
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  the experience you want as close to the Peter Jackson films as possible then obviously
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  this is the version to go for but you do have a couple of other easily available options
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  if you're going through the audible route for buying your audiobooks and that is going
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  backwards in time 2005 Martin Shaw's version.
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  This is a straightforward reading from an actor who's very well known here in the UK.
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  He was someone I had a crush on when I was little because he was part of the professionals
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  which was like a cop drama programme at the time but he's then gone on to do many roles
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  on television in particular.
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  When I was listening to the sample I found the sound quality wasn't that great, that
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  might just have been the link I clicked on but if you are going to try that one do dust
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  double check that the sound quality is what you expected.
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  For me it seemed a little bit muffled and then going back before that there's dear old
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  Robert Ingalls the 1991 production love this is the one that I think I can listen to again
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  and again because it feels like Tolkien is reading to you.
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  Very fond of the way he delivers it and I can listen to this without thinking about
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  the film so it has that advantage but I also want to tell you about yet another version
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  which is the Hobbit dramatized version from the BBC.
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  Now this is actually the one my own children listened to in their bedrooms when they were
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  little as like bedtime story tapes and I was surprised when I looked it up that the
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  date on this is 1968 which predates me and I think now I know that I can sort of sense
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  it in the production because you've got the BBC radio phonics workshop doing some
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  music in the background and putting some of the voices through synthesizers, acquired
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  taste maybe, it's fun but it's got a very jokey film more like almost a cartoon version
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  of the Hobbit. It's a bridge two three and three quarter hours which might help if you're
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  playing this for younger listeners and I think the strongest part of this for me is the
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  interpretation between the narrator and Bilbo so you've got an actor called Anthony Jackson
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  doing the storytelling role the sort of Tolkien role and then amusingly you've got bursting
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  in and disagreeing or laughing or chuckling or even sort of gainsaying the character playing
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  Bilbo who is an actor called Paul Daneman. Another thing that I've thought was noticeable about this
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  is the casting of Gandalf by an actor called Heron Carvick and it shows that we are before the
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  Michael Horden or the in McKellen versions in that he sounds more like a character, more like
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  an Elrond character younger and somehow more, something more sinister in fact, more poised to him
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  so which I thought was really interesting coming back to it now after and having listened to it for
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  quite a few years. So definitely worth a listen just to see what 1968 made of the Hobbit and it still
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  stands up today I think as a as a listen. Okay so moving on from the Hobbit let's go to the next
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  big book that you might want to listen to and this is a Silmarillion. Now the best game in town
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  is Martin Shaw's Reading and I think this might possibly be my favourite of all the audio
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  versions out there of everything. It's extremely well presented it's got nice breaks in between
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  the different books. Martin Shaw does a very steady and listenable reading and it also helped me
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  who you know Silmarillion wasn't the book I would rush to but listening to it I suddenly realized
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  how the pros worked that it is it is really written to be read out. I really love this and I
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  dip back into it again and again so definitely put that on your wish list if you want to get to
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  grips with the Silmarillion particularly if it's always been a book that you've been a bit scared of
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  or had trouble with. Right so the next big and going on from there is the unfinished tales.
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  Now this has only just come out in 2021 and you get almost 22 hours of listening and this is
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  what I'm currently listening to at the moment. What's delightful about this collection of the
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  manuscripts edited by Christopher Tolkien is they've done it as a two-hander between the father
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  and son actor team Samuel and Timothy West so you get Timothy West saying the editorial parts and
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  Samuel West telling the story so it makes it very clear does get over the problem of what to do with
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  footnotes. I love this I really think it's worth a listen so for example in this you've got things in
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  there like the story of Turin and there you've got wonderful descriptions of the journey to the sea
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  which really brings alive the beauty of the landscape that Tolkien is evoking there so definitely
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  one to look up it sort of makes the unfinished tales feel quite finished actually they're lovely
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  lovely stories. So just to reiterate I think this is really worth your time particularly because
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  I think there's a feeling sometimes when you're getting into the the weeds of the Tolkien manuscripts
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  as is it worth my time I've read the Silmarillion why should I read us another version of the same tales
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  and what what what more can I get and it's more than just an expansion it's more of a dip into the
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  poetry of Tolkien that you get listening to it like this so definitely have a listen.
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  Now going on of course we've got lots of the little well not that little really because they
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  often end up at about eight hours of listening time but there are the other manuscripts that
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  cover quite a lot of the same material but were edited by Christopher Tolkien and put out a
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  separate works. So we've got as well highlight amongst this is the Children of Turin of course
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  which came out in 2006 read by Christopher Lee so if you can't get enough of your Sarah Mann
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  obviously this is the one to go for I found it very moving how much he enjoys saying the names
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  of places and also I was amused when sometimes a word would come up which chimed with something he
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  said as Sarah Mann like the word power and immediately I can see him in his white robe obviously
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  a much missed actor so a little bit of classy Christopher Lee in that and then another of in a sort
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  similar area is the Fall of Gondolin which is one of the main events of the first age and here
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  it's produced in 2019 and they use the Timothy West Sam West combination for that I haven't
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  listened to this all the way through it sounds a very you know if you if you're particularly
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  interested in the Fall of Gondolin it sounds a great way to actually hear that story because
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  the the the way they split it between the two makes it very clear but it does look as though
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  there is quite a lot of editorial comments so it becomes an audio book about the process of
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  of editing manuscripts so it probably is more of a specialized interest that one than those who
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  were just going for a story and again another of these first-age stories is Berrin and Luthian
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  which is of course a central story for Tolkien he had the name Berrin and Luthian on his tombstone
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  with his wife Edith so it's their story in a sense a love story and here we get the West's out
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  again it was only done in 2020 similar things you may feel you've already heard the story of
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  Berrin and Luthian in the various places but the two team of the team of two narrators is very
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  strong again not the first one I'd buy I think I'd go for the unfinished tales if you're looking
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  for the Sam and Tim West version go for that first not least because it's huge and lots of
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  listening but yeah why not it's it's pretty much a beautiful story isn't it okay now the here
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  are some smaller ones which are worth looking into there are several versions of tales from the
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  perilous realm now that's the name given to a collection of stories which includes
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  roverandum farmer giles of ham the adventures of tom bomberdill leaf by niggle and smith of
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  wooden major these can also be bought separately so be careful you're not buying the same thing twice
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  this particular edition the straightforward reading is read by the wonderful Derek Jacobi
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  who delivers it suitable for I mean it's a sort of a these are children's tales particularly
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  roverandum and that is the the feel of those though of course actually leaf by niggle is much more
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  of a philosophic work it's about a man man's creativity and the squizziness which he draws a
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  single leaf and trying to put all the beauty into that so it's very amazing essay story essay written
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  by Tolkien these are lovely but as I said the big warning here is don't buy it twice so you can
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  buy the collection where you get them all and then you wouldn't need to go and buy the separate
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  titles but I found in this little troll that there is also a version of tales from the perilous
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  realm which was done by the BBC I didn't know this existed till I started looking all this up it's
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  got Michael Horden in it as Gandalf he obviously plays Gandalf in the BBC dramatized version of Lord
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  of the Rings and as he died quite a long time ago it puts us back at that time back in the 80s
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  it's definitely got a top team of voice talent um Brian blessed is in there James Grout these are all
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  you know wonderful voice actors and there is an added audio portrait of Tolkien put together by
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  Brian Sibley which draws on the BBC resources of interviews with the author himself and with others
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  so I haven't yet listened to that yet but I think I'm just going to put that on my wish list now
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  because it sounds a great listen so that's the little run through just a recap I think for me
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  um possibly my favourite hobbit might be the robbing ghouls one my favourite summer
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  rillian in fact the only game in town really is Martin Shaw but it's the my favourite of all the audio
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  books and I think unfinished tales by the west is the one I would go to to listen to for them
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  of all the various readings they they're doing now I always in all these podcasts end with
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  where in the best where is the best to go in a fancy world for something and we've done forests and
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  ins and places to be ill um places to be a woman and today I decided I'd pick on places to be a
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  singer because one of the things that comes out in audiobooks is how good the readers can sing
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  poor old Annie circus is where he's challenged on this robbing ghouls does a very good job
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  and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop does an interesting treatment shall we say of the songs
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  you have to listen to them just to get get the vibe if you know the theme tune for Doctor Who
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  you can get a sense of the area in which they're working electronically it was the new thing back
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  in 1968 anyway so I was thinking where in all the fancy worlds is the best to be a singer
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  and I've just been listening over the last couple of weeks to a series by a new writer to me a
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  lady called Michelle Diner who writes sci-fi fantasy and in her class five series I think it's
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  a great place to be a singer now the concept of this is that we're in a a universe where humans
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  have been abducted as part of a scientific mission by the bad guys in this world and they get rescued
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  over the various books the people taken as specimens but the wonderful thing is that to the race
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  who rescues them human singers any of us any of us can sing a tune are amazing because in that
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  culture they have very few singers and it's a highly prized art so they've got sort of five
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  singers for all the planets in their system and so these human women coming along are a real shop
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  to the system and they have great fun in this book by people at various times saying happy birthday
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  to you and because they put someone's name in it it becomes like an astounding cultural revelation
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  there's some very funny moments where they sing always look on the bright side of life
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  which in a very dull moment are people astonished that they're able to sing at these times
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  anyway I love the humour of that and the concept that you didn't have to be a very good singer
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  but in this world you are your Beyonce you are Adele your
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  Kavarotti as far as they're concerned oh yeah and look out for the rendition of Bohemian
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  Rhapsody that's probably a very high moment anyway I love the comedy of that so hands down the
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  best place to be a singer is in the sci-fi fantasy world of Michelle Dynas class five series
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  so thank you very much for listening and I hope you enjoy the audio versions I've mentioned
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  goodbye thanks for listening to MythMakers podcast brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy
• 18:17
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• 18:24
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