Karl wrote:
I'm interested in purchasing CDs of the BBC Tolkien productions. This (2011) set has 19 CDs (5 Hobbit, 14 LoTR). The 2009 J.R.R. Tolkien Collection includes Tales from the Perilous Realm and J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait. It has a total of 21 discs - with 4 each for The Hobbit and each book of the trilogy and an additional 5 for Tales and the Portrait. Does the newer set have more (Hobbit and LotR) content with its 3 additional discs (19 vs. 16)? From what I can glean from Amazon, the individually sold sets are as follows:
Tales: 3 discs
Audio Portrait: 2 discs
Hobbit: 5 discs (contains "bonus author interview")
LotR: 12 discs (one of which is music)
These seem to correlate with the 2009 set with the exception of the extra Hobbit disc (is this simply the bonus interview? - is this the same extra disc as the 2011 set?).
Can anyone sort this out for me?
I don't think the newer sets have any additional content for "The Lord of the Rings". The original LoTR set is 14 CDs (13 hours dramatisation + 1 Music CD). I bought one of the first batch of CDs when they first came out on CD as a numbered limited edition. They have been re-released plenty of times since, but I think the content has always remained identical and only the packaging has changed.
Not sure about "The Hobbit". That is only 8 half hour episodes (i.e. 4 CDs), and not sure what the extra disc is. I'd be very surprised if the extra disc is anything other than the "bonus author interview", though, given the dramatisation was done back in '67, and there is only one extra CD in total (19 rather than 18).
I would think that Tales from the Perilous Realm would run to 2 discs, as it was two cassettes when I got it. That would take you up to the 21 discs in the complete set that you mention.
The BBC LoTR is absolutely fantastic. Best adaptation of anything, ever, in any medium. The Hobbit is not so good, but still worth a listen - some of the voices are very poor and the pronunciation of some of the names makes me want to punch the actors :) Still worth a listen, though, as some of the actors do a very acceptable job (e.g. Thorin).
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