So you've seen The Fellowship of the Ring, read the books (including the Silmarillion) and downloaded the new trailer for The Two Towers, yet your LOTR fix will not be sated! What is a poor fan of Tolkien to do? Simple! Grab the excellent BBC radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings and set aside a weekend for listening.

Before we begin this quick review, let's make one thing perfectly clear: This is not a Book on Tape. It's a radio dramatization similar to the old radio shows of the 1920's and 30's, yet much more. The box set comprises 13 hours of material spread across 13 CD's, all packaged in a beautiful, small box with one of the better pieces of LOTR artwork adorning the case. The CD's themselves are encased in 4 separate tri-folds, each with a picture of the last Elven ship leaving the Grey Havens, a map of Middle-Earth or a brief biography of J.R.R. Tolkien. In short, the packaging is of a quality rarely seen for this type of media.

The radio play was first broadcast by the BBC in 1981 and starred Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins (he played Bilbo in the movie). For those introduced to the series through the movie, you may be in for a bit of a shock the first time you listen, as the radio play is nearly word-for-word with the books and is more in sync with the feel and tone of the books than the recent movie. In other words, it is Very British.

Once the adjustment is over, I think you'll find this radio series a treasure. The voice actors are excellent in their renditions of the characters and the sound effects are top notch as well. Not once did I ever get the feeling that the action was taking place in a dank recording studio outside of London. This radio series is so thorough and meticulous in its portrayal of the text, that it's the closest you can get to experiencing all the action in the books without actually having read them.

If you'd like an excellent audio companion to the LOTR Trilogy as well as a different take on the original text than The Fellowship of the Ring, I suggest checking out the BBC dramatization. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.