The Hobbit: 6 Mis-Castings That Ruined It (And 4 That Were Perfect)

Jul 5, 2016 July 5th, 2016

4. Sylvester McCoy - Radagast The Brown

Gifted a substantially boosted version of Gandalf's wizard "cousin" Radagast the Brown, the former Doctor Who lead was great - he brought the perfect type of idiosyncratic oddness to the nature-loving wizard, seguing effortlessly between playing the fool-like character and the immensely likable hero-type. And all with a matted patch of bird mess in his hair.

The character design for Radagast was again brilliant, and McCoy's physical performance, implying fragility at first, but with a vibrant undercurrent that came into play during the Warg chase sequence added both drama and humour to that scene.

Honourable mention: Graham McTavish - Dwalin

Had he been given anything substantial to do or say - in line with most of his dwarf brethren, but he was still perfectly cast as surly, physically impressive Dwalin - brother of Ken Stott's Balin - and he wore the dwarf's scars of war, both on his body and in his demeanour exceptionally well. If only he'd been given more - by the text and the film - he could have been more than an honourable mention on this list.