Dr Ian Roberts

I waited for the end of series 1 before writing this review: Positive - some beautiful photography of scenery - the one star Negative - Flow in the storyline is too slow and full of irrelevant offshoots that have nothing to do with the forging of the rings. The rings produced were so unstylish. Dire acting - only one young female hobbit shines Absurd casting Slovenly makeup for the orcs and pathetic special effects - particularly the fire mountain. False ethnic stereotyping was depicted in this series by the use of accents: Dwarfs are mainly portrayed as belligerent aggressive, reactive short-tempered with a limited capacity to reflect and usually perform menial tasks and all speak with Scottish accents (however this is not an accurate characterisation of people with restricted growth nor of those who speak with a Scotish accent); Hobbits are depicted travellers who hide to avoid interaction are limited to routine tasks of building shacks and gathering food, the tribe is all that matters - all speak with Irish accents (however this is not an accurate characterisation of travellers nor of those who speak with an Irish accent); Humans appear to be a disparate lot without clear focus apart from they will do what they are told by their regent Queen - they mainly speak with Northern/ Midlands English accents (however this is not an accurate characterisation of those who speak with a Nothern/midlands English accent); Elves are depicted in the series as the true intellectuals, scientists and artistic craftsmen - all speak with a public school southern English accent. Is this an accurate depiction of those with this accent? Then there are the evil Sauron-supporting witches who appear to have foreign English accents (possibly meant to be Russian) (yawn so predictable and whoever devised this series thinks it is PC because it includes racial diversity in each group ? What about the false ethnic stereotyping? The only good thing about episode 6 was that subsequent episodes could not get worse. Captured nothing of Tolkien's imagination or Jackson’s skills - a shame on the Weta's workshop if they were involved. Could £750m have been better spent on something that matters in the world we live in? Oh and by the way amazon refused to post this review on amazon - no appeal, no specific explanation given - just inappropriate

One of the best I have ever seen on the BBC. May be thanks to the collaboration with Netflix but let's see more of these