The Birds (radio play)

Although published in 1952 it was the Hitchcock movie adaptation eleven years later that thrust Daphne du Maurier's short story of a world held hostage by angry avians, 'The Birds', firmly into the wider public consciousness and gave every sighting of a flock a degree of menace.  

Unlike the movie du Maurier's original story revolves around the family of a disabled farm labourer, recently returned from the war, and struggling to find work in Cornwall and this adaptation by Melissa Murray for Radio 4 , featuring Neil Dudgeon ('Midsomer Murders') and Nicola Walker ('The Last Train'), keeps that premise whilst making some judicious changes to the narrative, both narrowing it's focus and widening it's scope, but retaining the essential character of the original in a bleakly claustrophobic story.

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All Hallows

Written by Walter De La Mare and first published in 1926 in 'The Connoisseur and Other Stories', 'All Hallows' tells the story of a traveller's visit to a remote cathedral and his meeting with the verger who tells him of the strange goings on within building.

De La Mare's tale is a masterclass of atmosphere and suggestion.  Any and all sense of the uncanny is literally in the telling, both De La Mare's and the Verger's (and indeed in Richard E Grant's sympathetic reading), and in our and the traveller's imaginations as, potentially, nothing actually uncanny happens beyond a tour of the cathedral at dusk in the company of a companion spinning a yarn of disappearance, death and devilry.  The story ends on a positive note for the future, but we are left guessing as to the veracity of the Verger's tale of diabolic renovations but captivated by the story he's spun.

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The Tower

Marghanita Laski was an English journalist who was science fiction critic for The Observer in the 1960s, biographer of Jane Austen, George Eliot and Rudyard Kipling and author, most notably, of the timeslip novella, 'The Victorian Chaise Longue' and the terrifying short story, 'The Tower'.

First published in 1955 in Cynthia Asquith's 'Third Ghost Book' it's the story of Caroline, the young wife of the domineering Neville, who decides to strike out on her own for some solo siteseeing at the end of which, with evening closing in, she spots and decides to climb the 420 steps of a tower stood amidst a ruined village.

Laski's story, one of very few short stories that she produced, has long been a staple of anthologies of supernatural fiction and deservedly so.  A deceptively simple seeming tale, beautifully written and with a devastating sting at it's end that floored me when I first read it.

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The Hound of Death

Read by Christopher Lee, 'The Hound of Death" was first published in the collection of the same name in 1933, which, unusually for Agatha Christie, consisted of several stories of a supernatural bent.

The story of an Englishman intrigued by the story of a young Belgian nun who is believed to have conjured a bolt of lightning killing a group of invading German soldiers and destroying her convent and leaving behind only the outline of a hound scorched into the ruins.  Visiting her in her new home in Cornwall he discovers her wracked by hallucinations and under the treatment of a young and ambitious doctor.

There is much here that will be familiar to Christie fans but this unusual foray into the realms of the supernatural makes for an enjoyably heady mix particularly when narrated by so distinctive and iconic a voice as Lee's with all it's associated cultural weight.

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The Fenstanton Witch

I  recently stumbled upon this M. R. James story in an anthology called 'Tales of Witchcraft' edited by the late, great Richard Dalby which was the first time the story had appeared in print in a book.  Subsequent collected editions of James' stories have included the story but as mine predates 'Tales of Witchcraft' this came as a very nice surprise indeed.

The story tells of the efforts of two teachers at King's College, Cambridge and their attempt to harness the powers of a recently killed witch for their own nefarious ends.

The recording is taken from 'The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James: Volume 2' (Buy it here) and is read here by David Collings who some of you may know as 'Silver' in 'Sapphire and Steel' and also as the English language voice of the titular character in 'Monkey', the theme tune to which I'm sure has just earwormed it's way into your head (it's in the link back there if you want to hear it).  He is an excellent reader and his many years of experience with companies such as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company means his delivery is spot on and he gives the story (and the others in the set) just the right level of gravitas.

Enjoy.

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show live

I first happened across 'The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' via the magnificence of the TV show.  Radio was never a big part of my life growing up so the original radio play had passed me by and the lack of a bookshop anywhere near where I grew up meant the book had gone unnoticed also.  So, the TV show was a revelation. A glorious, madly funny, revelation.

I managed to track down the first two books a little while later but the radio show eluded me for years.  By the time I did get to finally hear it so entrenched was I with the TV version that it took some effort to get my head around those characters that has been recast from this original version.

One of those was the voice of Trillian. Played by Susan Sheridan who was for me a jarring change from the very distinctive Sandra Dickinson version that I'd grown up with.  Another was the Geoffrey McGivern version of Ford Prefect as opposed to the David Dixon one. The radio show is, of course, fabulous and all the cast are perfectly at home in the roles and that initial "Oh, it's a different actor" aside I soon grew to love it.

So it's with sadness that I noticed this weekend the passing of Ms. Sheridan and so, with my condolences to her family and friends, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you, not the original show because it's not online, but the casts triumphant return to the roles with the 2014 live show.

The Quatermass Memoirs

Nigel Kneale
(BBC Audio)

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1996, this is a mix of original TV soundtrack and drama-documentary, in which Nigel Kneale reflects on the 1950s fearful atmosphere in which he wrote the classic 'Quatermass' TV serials. The programme mixes the factual story with a dramatic narrative, in which the now-retired Professor Quatermass (played by Andrew Keir) reluctantly recounts his past exploits to a female journalist. This in turn is interweaved with soundtrack footage from the Quatermass TV dramas.

What a strange little artifact this turned out to be. I’m really not sure what it’s meant to be; part documentary, part drama, part reminiscence / retrospection. Throughout the two discs Nigel Kneale talks about the influences on each of the Quatermass TV series and attempts – rather clumsily – to put each into a socio-political context. Interspersed with this is an odd little dramatisation featuring Andrew Keir reprising his portrayal of the now aged, retired and even crankier Quatermass who is ‘pushed’ into reminiscence of the events of his past by a young researcher turning up at his door.

It was a pleasure to hear Keir and the Kneale sections were diverting enough in their way but on the whole this was a bit of a non event. The attempt at the very end to bring in a set-up for the world of the 1979 TV series was a nice little conceit but, much like the rest of it, rather clumsily done.

Buy it here - UK / US

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Aliens in the Mind

Robert Holmes & Rene Basilico
(BBC)

Strange people are discovered on a remote Scottish island. Classic radio sci-fi starring Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, written by Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes

Originally starting life as a proposed Doctor Who script (Second Doctor) this was later made into this fantastic sci-fi serial starring real-life friends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price as old college friends – eminent brain surgeon John Cornelius and the laconic parapsychologist Curtis Lark. I’m very pleased that it was turned down. Cushing & Price are in phenomenal form trading banter and handling the often pretty absurd dialogue with aplomb. And, let’s be honest here they both have amazing voices that one could happily listen to all day.

The story details their discovery (via another old friend) of a colony of telepathic ‘mutants’ on a small Scottish island. Amongst their number they identify two women they describe as ‘controllers’, mutants who can control the actions of other mutants. Their investigation into this phenomena leads them to London and an attempt to take over the government which they foil in what must be said is an anticlimactic ending.

The whole thing is gloriously dated and sublimely archaic and great, great, great fun.

Buy it here - Aliens in the Mind (Classic Radio Sci-Fi) - or listen below.



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