Which, once you get over the low production values, is actually a very good series. Amazing actors, including Derek Jacobi. I once saw Derek Jacobi and Robert Lindsey in a play on stage, Becket, which had a few cloths and spotlights as props. These people can act. It was amazing.

I never considered it a bad series. We had it on TV even behind the Iron Curtain before 1989.

From what I've seen on youtube regarding British TV plays, they were much much higher budget, and much closer to just a normal TV series/film, maybe with a theatrical dramatic flare, while Soviet TV plays often had abstract "modern theatre" like decorations, fewer or no background characters, other cost cutting measures, much closer to theater in terms of production.

The production values of this Soviet Lord of the Rings strike me as quite similar to I, Claudius. And it's worth noting that the televised low-budget stage play production values of I, Claudius notwithstanding, it's one of the best television shows ever made.