How Italy’s hard-right claimed JRR Tolkien
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This weekend, Rishi Sunak was in Rome meeting Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni. As well as being a fan of the British PM, she's also a devotee of one of the UK's most famous writers - author of The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien. An exhibition on his life and work has opened in the city, so how did he become a cultural icon for the for Italy’s hard-right?
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Guest: Tom Kington, Italy Correspondent, The Times.
Host: Luke Jones
Read more:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eye-of-meloni-turns-on-jrr-tolkien-exhibition-7xjcf08pq
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meloni-attends-tolkien-show-kkhj0dwl2
Clips: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/New Line Cinema, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS, MiC Italia, Vista Agenzia Televisiva Nazionale, France 24, Facebook/Giorgia Meloni, Reuters, CGTN, Fanpage.it, DW News, Barbarossa/Martinelli Film Company International/Rai Fiction.
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Transcript
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| 1:15.0 | Legend tells of a ring, created by an ancient evil that gave its wearer the power to enslave the world. Would you believe Gandalf and his Hobbit and Elf friends are 70 years old? |
| 1:20.0 | My precious. |
| 1:36.5 | J. R.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy weren't just best selling books of course, but later multi-billion dollar grossing films and now a multi-million dollar costing TV series. |
| 1:42.0 | People obsess about Middle Earth, people including |
| 1:46.8 | Italy's divisive Prime Minister Georgia Maloney. |
| 1:50.3 | Maloney's victory has a lot of folks worried because she's set to be Italy's most far right |
| 1:54.8 | prime minister since Mussolini claims to be a big Tolkien fan who used to dress up as a |
... |
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