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The Hobbit (Dramatised)

The Classic BBC Radio Production

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The Hobbit (Dramatised)

Written by: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Heron Carvic, Paul Daneman, Anthony Jackson, Francis de Wolff, John Justin, John Pullen, Full cast
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About this listen

 The radio dramatisation of The Hobbit became a classic when it was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1968 and it continues to delight today.

Tolkien's famous saga, the prelude to the Lord of the Rings, has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure: dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls, a fearsome dragon, a great wizard, a perilous quest, and a dramatic climax. At the centre is the unsuspecting hero Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving unambitious Hobbit who is suddenly thrust into the biggest, indeed the only adventure of his life.

©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd trading as BBC Studios (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd trading as BBC Studios Fantasy Science Fiction
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Used to listen to this as a kid and it still holds up to what I remember. Some of the music can be a little twangy but besides that the rest is five stars

Love it!

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Slightly different interpretation than one might be used to, but the major thrusts are all there, much better than the hobbit movies.

Brilliant

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incredible it was so pro it was like what how is it so pro how was it so pro

it was pro like the pro's of the world in the pro

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The story of the Hobbit is a timeless classic, but, as the title of the review states, the production of this audio dramatization leaves a bit to be desired. Some of the vocal characterizations, and almost all of the music, are very difficult to listen to for a modern ear. I was constantly having to adjust the audio to avoid discomfort at some of the nasal character voices and dreadful orchestrations of the inter-scene musical interludes. The BBC would later advance the art of radio drama by light years, notably their productions of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and later the Hobbit's successor, the Lord of the Rings, and there are glimpses of that later promise here. Just not enough to redeem the work as a whole.

Timeless Story, Dated Production

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too confusing as to what is happening. may as well have been poorly acted out, voices recorded and put on here.

no description of who is speaking

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The audio is terrible. A bunch of voices talking over eachother and sound quality from the 1930s.

Waste of a download

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The Hobbit, a classic kids’ novel and the first in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series of novels, rarely fails to entertain. This performance, however, leaves a LOT to be desired. The actors in question seem to have tangentially heard of English through a friend, and their pronunciations are absolutely awful. In this dramatization, we join ‘Gun Delf’ the wizard, ‘Tha-Reen’ the dwarf king and Bilbo Baggins (surprised they got THAT one right) in their quest. The music the dwarves play sounds like someone hammering on an old 80s Casio keyboard set to ‘Harp’, and I’m not sure anyone involved knows what the word ‘rhythm’ means. I simply couldn’t finish this, it was just too poorly put together. Only a few hours, but a few hours too many. Go for the version read by Rob Inglis; You’ll be happier for it.

The Hobbit, as you’ve (gladly) never heard it before

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wish i could refund this for the normal version. the audio is hard to flow and ad libbed.

the audio is bad. the actors are anoying.

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