One ring to bore them all...

The lavish budget for the mirthless rollercoaster that is 'The Rings of Power' season two has been spent unwisely. And why must humour be eschewed at all costs

- Nick Hilton

“All Middle-earth balances on the brink of the abyss,” whispers the Dark Lord Sauron, ominously. And so it proves, in this second season of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Fragile truces will break, new alliances will be brokered – and in the fires of the great furnace, 16 more rings will be forged. This is JRR Tolkien’s fantastical vision rendered on a big scale, for the small screen.

At Rivendell, the elves are in crisis. Last season, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) is still reeling from the discovery that she was in cahoots – and almost in love – with Sauron (Charlie Vickers), who had disguised himself as a harmless mortal. Now, Sauron is off to forge his own ring – leaving Galadriel and estranged bestie Elrond (Robert Aramayo) to bicker about the use of the three sparkling elvish rings. Meanwhile, the strange wizard who may or may not be Gandalf (Daniel Weyman) is marching through the deadlands of Rhûn with his harfoot companions, Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle) is once again angling for power in Numenor, and Isildur (Mr Bean’s Holiday’s Maxim Baldry) is forging his own path across Middle-earth. That’s not to mention all the other characters – with word-count destroyingly long names – who are off on their own adventures.