Inside Tolkein's Lord of the Rings - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Although looking somewhat on the low budget side this 3 disc exploration into the whole ethos of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings is incredibly fascinating, presented by Graham McTavish each disc focuses on a different book in the trilogy (made up of course of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King).

Although utilising minimum sets and talking heads (main contributions come from screenwriter Bob Carruthers, author Patrick Curry and Robert DiNapoli who also scripted this trilogy) the series does feature some archive footage of Tolkein’s (adult) children reminiscing about their father as well as contributions from Tolkein’s publishers Allen and Unwin.

All three discs also heavily feature the vibrant and colourful works of the Brothers Hildebrand who have spent years painting scenes from The Lord of the Rings. There are also one or two recreations (cheaply done) of key moments from the books.

It’s actually totally engrossing stuff though, drawing you into Tolkein’s finely detailed world and if you are a fan of the books (and the movies) you will want to add it to your collection.

EXTRAS: The 3 main extras are made up of an indepth biography of Tolkein mainly using archive footage that includes an interview with Tolkein’s biographer Humphrey Carpenter, a profile of the artists Hildebrandt and 3 performances (1 on each disc) by the group Mostly Autumn (yes prog rock is back!!) who perform the music featured in the documentaries.

Carpenter raises a very interesting point in that Tolkein never probably wanted to finish working on The Silmarillion (which contains tales of The Lord of the Rings and the book he was working on when he died) so immersed was he in the world of Middle Earth.