Rating: 
Summary: Excellent sound quality
Review: We've had the 13 cassette box set of this BBC Radio dramatisation for years, and I recently bought the CDs for my husband. The dramatisation itself, although abridged, wonderfully portrays the epic tail of Frodo and the fellowship's journey, even whilst missing out some of the more debatable sections eg. Tom Bombadil.On CD I can finally hear all the sound effects I've been missing out on for years and we've been know to drive past our house whilst listenening to this in the car!! Well worth the money....
Rating:
Summary: Captures most of LOTR -- Good Radio Production
Review: This is a BBC radio production that goes back about 20 years and is now presented on 13 CDs. It is a very good production of LOTR, and reminded me of what a good radio production is -- good actors, combined with dialog, sound effects, and accompanying music that let you follow the story and visualize it in your mind. Although it is 13 hours long, it mostly goes by quickly. The books are of course very long and detailed, and the BBC adaptation is quite compact and faithful to the book -- very little of the action is left out. One nice feature of the recording is the use of a narrator who both moves the action along and also provides many of Tolkein's fantastic word pictures of the world of LOTR. The acting is very good in the series -- I particularly liked Ian Holm as Frodo and Robert Stephens as Aragon. The sounds effects are mostly very good -- lots of hoofbeats for the black riders, swords clanging, water running, etc. Most of the time, it is very clear who is speaking, though occasionally voices get lost in the melee. There are some songs and poems included in the set -- some people may find these tiresome, in that they do sometimes slow down the action. Each CD is about an hour long, and the set is nicely packed as 3-4 CDs into folders that fit into a book. Each folder provides background on Tolkein and the LOTR and includes a short summary of the plot for the each disk within the folder. The disks all have 5 or 6 bands, so it is possible to pick up the story again if you take the disk out of your CD player (e.g., your teenagers want to listen to something else). This is a set worth having, particularly at the price ... is selling it at (think of it on a per-disk basis). It tells the story in a very enjoyable way and will (hopefully) send you either back to the books or to the books if you haven't read them. A definite buy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have this on cassette and the BBC does a superb job with the story. The thirteen hours of tape encompass the whole trilogy. Any Tolkein fan would love this production.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven, but overall successful adaptation of a classic
Review: The best part of the BBC production is Ian Holm as the voice of Frodo. It's fascinating to listen to him in this 1981 performance and recall his work as Bilbo in the recent movie. However, the overall production, while excellent at times, is far from perfect. Some of the performances are disappointing, especially the completely flat and affectless voice of Galadriel. At times, it's hard to tell which character is speaking because some of the actors don't have very distinctive voices. In addition, the sound effects are often cheesy and low-budget. Huge, intense, deadly battles are reduced to a couple of metallic clinks that don't sound remotely dangerous. Finally, the choice to put some of Tolkien's poems to music makes me very glad that Peter Jackson elected NOT to do so in the movies. Sung in slow, operatic fashion, they come off as pretentious twaddle, almost like self-parodies in the style of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Even with these negatives, I am pleased overall with the BBC production, and consider it a worthwhile purchase. Until the films of The Two Towers and Return of the King are released in 2002 and 2003 respectively, this CD collection is the most successful dramatization of these books available in any format.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely enjoyable entertainment!
Review: As a Ring Rat, I find this gift my favorite from christmas! My daughter and I have listened to this over and over in the car, and at bedtime. Except for leaving out all of Tom Bombadill, this has all the meat of the books. I especially liked Sam singing the mournful poem of Luthien. Great character voices. Volume levels fluctuate, and some are in the distortion range. But I can live with it. A great buy, and you'll never tire of hearing them.
Rating:
Summary: Better than I expected
Review: The BBC Dramatization of "The Lord of the Rings" was Excellent. I highly reccomend it, if you are an avid fan of Tolkien, as i am.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful adaptation of the books!
Review: I have just finished listening to the entire 13 hour dramatization over the course of about a week and a half. I listened to it while driving in my car and it was extremely well done. The voice acting is dead on and really convey the physical qualities of each character very nicely. Also, the sound effects, songs and poems are not overdone and really help bring the book to life. There were many occasions that I would arrive at my destination and not want to leave the car right away just to hear what happens next. As a brief aside, the voice of Frodo Baggins, Ian Holm, is currently starring as Bilbo Baggins in the movie adaptation--which is absolutely stunning and must see event.
Rating:
Summary: Good in places but not impressive overall
Review: I'm going against the grain here, but in truth I found this CD set a bit disapointing. It's not the performances per se, but the adaptation that I feel is at times badly constructed, and the effects and overall production are not terribly inspiring to this listener and huge Tolkien buff. On the plus side, Gollum is a delight (is this the same actor who voiced the Ralph Bakshi 1978 cartoon version? It sure sounds like him), full of slithering menace and pathetic woefulness. But dragging this down is a lot of, well, silly music and singing in places (the Riders of Rohan sound like Monty Python Vikings, frankly) and a mix that veers from extremely hard to hear (in my car, anyway) to annoyingly shrill and clamorous. It's hard to set a reasonable volume amid all the histronics. It's also hard to follow the action during the purported combat scenes; one is expected to judge what is happening by which player is screaming the loudest, or what the other characters are saying in deadpan reaction. I hestitate to condemn this utterly on the basis of one listening, but on the whole, I think I'd prefer a staright narrative reading, now that one is finally available, of the unabridged original. There is too much of the low-budget, amateur hour quality about this dramatized edition.
Rating:
Summary: The best 'Book on tape' I've ever heard, bar none!
Review: I was a little skeptical about laying down the money for this, but I was going on a long road trip and figured I'd give it a try. By the time I was done, I had a little trouble enjoying any of my other audio books, as they suffer in the comparison. Unlike most books that are just read, this book is actually acted out [dramatized] with diferent actors for each part (not just the same person with a sound system to modify their voice.) While there are some things that are left out, they are not missed and the portions critical to the story remain. I found that the overall quality of listening to this was almost as good as reading the books, or seeing the movie. I originally owned the audio-cassette version, but I liked it so much I bought the CD set just in case anything happened to the first.
Rating:
Summary: Grand audio immersion
Review: The BBC audio production is excellent. It really takes you to Middle Earth. For those who value a finely packaged set this one fits the bill in all respects except the inclusion of art by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. I have always detested their depictions of Middle Earth. It would be nice at some point to see this set reproduced with art by Alan Lee or John Howe. Don't ignore this set because of the Hildebrandts though. The audio is truly superb.
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