A word in your ear: The Lord of the Rings

In December, The Two Towers, the second film of J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, will be released. One way to prepare for it is to listen on audio. Closest to the films, though richer in detail, is the BBC's dramatisation of the trilogy. First broadcast in 26 episodes in 1981, it was adapted with exceptional skill and sympathy by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell, and has superb music by Stephen Oliver. It stars Ian Holm (Bilbo in the film) as Frodo, Michael Hordern as Gandalf and John Le Mesurier, who is Bilbo here. It is available either in three separate parts (each c.4.5 hrs, £16.99 on tape, £24.99 CD) or as a boxed set (£50 tape, £85 CD); there is also a children's box set with covers that spread out into a map of the journey (£50, tape). A more major commitment, which will solve road-rage problems for the foreseeable future, is to listen to the story in its unabridged form. This includes Tolkien's own preface, which gives insights into how he came to write the book, and is read with extraordinary versatility by Rob Inglis (HarperCollins, each part c.18 hrs, £45 tape, £60 CD; set £125 tape, £150 CD). An unmissable add-on to either of these is Tolkien himself reading excerpts (HarperCollins, c.3 hrs, £9.99). Notorious as the most inaudible lecturer in Oxford, he is transformed here into a bard in the old tradition: spinning stories and almost singing ballads in a way that keeps the listener gripped as if clutched by the Ancient Mariner, or, indeed, Treebeard the Ent.