The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Dramatised)

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Ian Holm, Michael Hordern, Robert Stephens, full cast

Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

The second instalment of Tolkien's epic tale, adapted from the original BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Having fled the Shire in their escape from Sauron's Dark Riders, Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring have journeyed to Rivendell and beyond. Their mission is to reach the Mountain of Fire in Mordor, where the Ruling Ring can be destroyed, but already their campaign is in jeopardy. Gandalf has fallen into an abyss, and Boromir has fatally succumbed to the power of the Ring. The others are besieged by an army of orcs - save for Frodo and Sam, whose journey down the River Anduin is being watched by a dark and shadowy figure....

Widely regarded as a broadcasting classic, the BBC Radio dramatisation of 'The Lord of the Rings' stars Ian Holm, Michael Hordern, Robert Stephens, John Le Mesurier and Peter Woodthorpe.

©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd trading as BBC Studios (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd trading as BBC Studios

flies through the book

A wonderful dramatization, but confusing if you aren't very familiar with the book. Mostly dialogue, it gleans over the descriptions and details of place and time. nonetheless it captures a literary feel and language that do the novels justice, often when the movies do not.

superb!

loved picking up the differences between the movie and the book. the performance was awesome and the characters unique personalities really grew on me :) best series ever written.

Excellent

Outstanding cast and performance, and the special should effects only added to the already great quality. The studio really did justice to the story. Highly recommended.

Great job

Absolutely love this set, One of my favorite series done with amazing narrators, Excellent purchase

Awesome!!!!!

Great narrator, great story not one thing wrong! If your a Tolkien or for that matter fantasy fan get it you will not regret it

absolutely Fantastic

I loved this dramatization, but I found it to be lacking in the story department. if I was unfamiliar with LOTR I believe I would have been lost at many different moments throughout.
but giving that I have read the book more time than I care to count I followed along perfectly and the voice actors were incredible!

Amazing!

Please refer to my in depth review of the trilogy on The Return of the King. In short, these 3 audio gems are priceless beyond measure.

My Christmas tradition

I used to listen to this series on cassette tapes way back when that was a thing. So nice to find the series and enjoy them again this Christmas.

The quality continues.

As I said I wasn't made aware of the BBC's dramatization of Lord of the Rings until 2001, twenty years after its initial release. And even then I wasn't aware of the anniversary edition which added the opening and closing narrations by Frodo. But as I said it was a much better version than the NPR Playhouse version. Granted I do still somewhat enjoy that one, but after hearing this one I must conclude that it' is far superior. And of course it's far better than the films, as good as those admittedly were.
One thing I like about this version is that it stays more or less true to the characters as described in the book, which the films didn't always do.. A notable example is Treebeard. In the NPR playhouse version he was voiced by Tom Luce with a rather annoying echo effect added. Needless to say it made hm sound rather campy. In the films he was hostile towards the Hobbits at first and made them aware of Gandalf's survival long before they learned of it in the book. Here, actor Steven Thorn gives him a commanding yet somewat mischievous quality that I always did perceive in the character. And the Ents have a cool marching song which I'm sure was in the novel but here is excellently presented.
In short I don't think I stopped listening to this any longer than was absolutely necessary, such as for meal and bathroom breaks. But then back to it I went. And now that Audible has them I can carry them with me on my IPod anytime, which should come in useful particularly for long trips in the car. And tense or scary parts of the story really come off as tense or scary here, which is definitely a good thing! Excellent music and SFX combined with an excellent cast bring this tale fabulously to life. It's definitely worth the credits or the money.

Good like part 1

Just like the previous book, good performance by the cast. I still would have liked the full thing but its good as it is.