The Lord of the Rings (1955 radio series)

During 1955 and 1956, a condensed radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, adapted and produced by Terence Tiller, was broadcast in two series of six episodes each on BBC Radio's the Third Programme. These radio broadcasts were the first dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, the final volume of which, The Return of the King, had been published in October 1955. The script had been thought lost, but it was rediscovered in the BBC archives in 2022.

The cast included Norman Shelley as Gandalf and Tom Bombadil, Felix Felton as Bilbo and Sauron and Robert Farquharson as Saruman and Denethor.

The adaptation was well received by newspaper critics at the time. The radio audience welcomed the first series, where Tiller had selected which scenes to use and which to cut; it was far more critical of the second series, where Tiller had compressed many scenes. Tolkien did not like the broadcasts, or the BBC's panel of critics.