Fraser--[Tolkien], Black and white artwork relating to 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

[TOLKIEN, J.R.R.]--FRASER, ERIC

Black and white artwork relating to 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, comprising:

Twenty-six black and white drawings, 40 by 120mm. (average), ink and gouache drawings, some signed with initials “ef”, title captions by the artist in pencil, many with acetate sheet giving notes to block makers

THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS FOR EACH EPISODE PUBLISHED IN RADIO TIMES TOGETHER WITH FIVE UNPUBLISHED DRAWINGS.

In 1977 Eric Fraser (1902-1983) illustrated the Folio Society edition of The Lord of the Rings. He was therefore familiar with the work when asked to provide illustrations for Radio Times in 1981. The adaptation is one of the legendary BBC radio broadcasts (with a script by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell). The cast included Ian Holm as Frodo (later to play Bilbo in the films), John le Mesurier as Bilbo, Michael Hordern as Gandalf and Robert Stephens as Aragorn. It has frequently been repeated and issued on cassette and CD. The cast of the Peter Jackson film trilogy are also known to have adopted it as essential listening.

Originally broadcast from 8 March to 30 August 1981 in 26 weekly episodes (repeated mid-week), most episodes were accompanied by an illustration by Eric Fraser. There were exceptions: in June industrial action by the National Union of Journalists caused Radio Times to be published in a “National Edition” and demands on space resulted in the illustrations being abandoned; there were also “difficulties at our printers” in August and one issue of Radio Times failed to appear. No illustration was printed for episode 23, although produced by Fraser.

The illustrations were an immediate success. The ‘Letters’ section of Radio Times on 18-24 July 1981 included a correspondent from Surrey who noted “…the drawings seem to fit in so well with what I expect to hear in the appropriate episode”.

Of the 26 illustrations present here, 20 were published in the Radio Times (for episodes 1, 3-14, 18-21 and 24-26). The Radio Times illustration for episode 2 is not present here. The five illustrations for episodes 15-17 and 22-23 are apparently unpublished. A design entitled ‘Gandalf and the Hobbits’ was also apparently unpublished in the Radio Times but was the design used for the presentation case containing the cassette tape issue and on the reverse of the 1981 poster released by the BBC.

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