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tree_and_leafMy copy of the BBC radio version of The Lord of the Rings arrived today. Much happy listening awaits, what with Michael Horden as the definitive Gandalf, Ian Holm as a fine Frodo, Bill ("William") Nighy very loveable as Sam, and - although I know some people were critical of him - Robert Stephens sounding extremely sexy and noble as Aragorn. The music is good, too, and all in all I'm glad to finally have it on CD, rather than on my self-pirated rather poor quality home recording from the last time the BBC repeated it. Which my unfeeling mother forced me to leave at home, so that she could listen to it during the ironing (to be fair, the tapes wouldn't exactly have fitted in my luggage).
However, thereby hangs a tale, because I bought the German edition - German in the sense that it was produced in Munich, although not only the audio content, but the packaging and accompanying notes are in English - it's in a cardboard box, rather than the usual BBC enterprises jewel case, and it doesn't have complete production notes, but I can live with this.
Why did I go to this rather counter-intuitive length? For the simple reason that in Britain, the RRP of this fine production is £80 (although Amazon sometimes sells it for around £70). The German edition... well, including P&P, I paid £36.
However, thereby hangs a tale, because I bought the German edition - German in the sense that it was produced in Munich, although not only the audio content, but the packaging and accompanying notes are in English - it's in a cardboard box, rather than the usual BBC enterprises jewel case, and it doesn't have complete production notes, but I can live with this.
Why did I go to this rather counter-intuitive length? For the simple reason that in Britain, the RRP of this fine production is £80 (although Amazon sometimes sells it for around £70). The German edition... well, including P&P, I paid £36.
