The Best of Halloween audio
The unsettling
Every
Now and Then
by George Zarr
Voices in the Wind
Cromwell’s
Talking Head
by
Gareth Calway
Room
29
http://pparadio.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/cromwells-talking-head.html
The
Shining Guest
by Paul Evans
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play (September 2011)
One of the most unusual and arresting plays
I’ve heard in a long time, combining two things that would never go
together—documentary style so close to what you actually hear on Radio 4 and a
truly weird way of explaining paranormal phenomenon—as time shifting
continually over imprinted places in nature.
An Iron Age woman in a Victorian grave with a 1980s hair clip and a
submerged Welsh village. I’m not sure I
understood it all, but it was the kind of story that validates radio drama as
an art form.
A House
to Let
by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell,
Wilkie Collins, et al
Starring Marcia Warren, Sam Dale, Miranda
Keeley, Stephen Critchlow, Warwick Davis
Dir. Ned Shyay
BBC Radio4extra
This was enjoyably eclectic, with a
would-be ghost story, the tale of a sideshow dwarf, and the unusual
relationship between a spinster and her manservant.
Hercule
Poirot: Halloween Party
by Agatha Christie, adapted by Michael
Bakewell
starring John Moffatt, Stephanie Cole,
Alexandra Bastido, Siann Jenkins, June Bary, Gareth Armstrong
dir. Ellen Williams
BBC Radio4extra
This required very close attention, but
Poirot was fun, the self-parody of Agatha Christine who sounded more like Miss
Marple, a credible assistant, and the whole creepiness of the story—all these
girls, and a certain degree of a scandal at a school—contributed to the
setting, a girl being drowned in a tub used for bobbing for apples was macabre
indeed, but the pseudo-pagan ritual sacrifice made it almost like a Doctor Who sleuthing tale.
Night
Talker
by Danny John-Jules
starring Nicholas Boulton, Harry Myers,
Stuart Mclaughlin
dir. Ann Edivoe
BBC Radio4extra (2008)
This was written by the Cat from Red Dwarf. All thoughts of celebrity aside, this was a
delightful gem broadcast on BBC7 in the days leading up to Halloween. For a 20-minute play this was superb. Night DJ Andy Stone is a jerk, putting his
listeners and co-workers down, but in the course of a few minutes we learn he
lost his twin brother, his birthday is Halloween, he hasn’t seen his parents in
years, and he’s in love with his producer!
Was it spooks in the studio?
Frank
by Ian McMillan
starring Kevin Eldon, Glenn Cunningham,
Deborah McAndrew, James Quinn
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play (31 October 2008)
I really didn’t like this for the first few
minutes and was considering turning it off, but I persevered. It was altogether too silly, obsessed with
rhubarb—and then the play finally got going and started to make me laugh. The
idea of a frustrated Yorkshire rhubarb farmer wanting to get his dole benefits
by making his doppelganger do his work is funny enough. But the fact that Frankie “the monster” is
Scottish and far sexier than Frank his maker is outrageous. I also really liked the ending—very sly.
The
Monster Hunters
by Matthew
Woodcock and Peter Davis
Newgate
Productions
http://pparadio.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/monster-hunters.html
Caligari
by Amanda Dalton
starring Peter Hamilton Dyer, Tom Ferguson,
Eileen O’Brien, Sarah McDnald-Hughes, Robin Blaze
dir. Susan Roberts
BBC Radio 4 (2008)
This was a very ambitious experiment, and
even if perhaps it didn’t all come together, it was very memorable. It’s an attempt to shift German Expressionism
from the silent film—The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari—into radio. I hadn’t seen
the film until after I heard the play, so I went out and rented it (this was
right around Halloween). Both play and
film share an atmosphere of dreamy menace, where nothing is quite what it
seems, and both are quite frightening in places (or I should say,
disturbing). Caligari himself did not
have a speaking role in the play, but Césare, his sideshow somnambulist, was
sung by a counter-tenor. This is very
interesting in regards to the film, in which Césare did not speak. The play also added a militant soldier-fool
(with a northern accent) who was a particularly well-realized character (for
passing judgement on World War I).
The Spooky
Flight of a Witch
by Ellis Peters,
adapted by Sally Hedges
starring Iwan Thomas, Rob Spendler, Michael
Tudor Barnes, Deborah Boleyn
dir. Sue Williams
BBC Radio 4extra (2009)
A mystery with the touch of the
supernatural. Great music by Anthea
Gomez and great sound effects subtly shaded us toward the narrator’s
predisposition toward some kind of spooky explanation. There was the historical story of the early
18th century Welsh girl who got lost in the mountain, and though the
story was old-fashioned enough for the 1960s, what with girls running away to
meet their lovers in Birmingham clandestinely, I figured out the murderer,
which is rare. Everyone thought there
was something witch-like about Annet Beck, and we never found out who her real
father was. The PC and his brother the
narrator were a toned-down comedy duo.
The
Female Ghost: Man-Sized Marble
by Enid Nesbitt, adapted by Chris Hawes
starring Carolyn Jones, Stephen Critchlow
dir. Mary Nancary
BBC Radio 4 (1997)
Spooky little tale; the mood and the
bittersweetness were striking—two poor but happy artists in their little
cottage, the superstitious local woman, the Irish nationalist doctor . . . and
two marble villains who come out of their tombs to kill them!
The
Female Ghost: The Cold Embrace
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, adapted by Mary
Nancary
starring Stephanie Turner, Jonathan Firth,
Alison Petit, Ioan Meredith
dir. Mary Nancary
BBC Radio 4 (1997)
The narration by Mary Elizabeth, which
normally annoys me, actually worked really well. A selfish German artist abandons his fiancée,
and she drowns herself. He feels her
cold embrace whenever he’s alone, and it ruins his life. The final scene is at the Paris Opera at the
Shrovetide Ball, which I loved. Firth
was perfect, even managing to evoke some pity at the end. Very spooky.
The
Woman in Black
by Susan Hill, adapted by John Strickland
starring Robert Glenister, John Woodvine,
Stuart Richmond, James Quinn
dir. Chris Wallace
BBC Radio4extra
I have read The Woman in Black, seen the touring stage show, and have seen the
film. I like it in all forms, and
although the film version caused me to jump in my seat all the way through,
there is an effective and eerie menace in the radio adaptation, which is from
the early 1990s. I maintain that the
scene with the dog Spider getting sucked in the marshlands mud is best in this
radio version—nothing yet has topped its edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Faust
by Martin Jenkin
starring Mark Gatiss, Julian Rhind-Tutt,
Thom Tuck, Jasmine Hyde, Pippa Hayward
BBC Radio 4 (2010)
Superb.
Mephistophéles was able to inhabit “our” time and to there were some
absolutely spot on jokes (Merthyr Tydfil!!).
I’ve heard Gatiss do a lot of radio, but this was his best
performance—suave but much more threatening than Sherlock’s brother! This was the version of Faust that doesn’t end happily like
Goethe’s—Gretchen’s life is bad but she does end up in Heaven (at least
according to Mephistophéles—we don’t know if he was lying or not). A good edition for Halloween, but more
pertinently, just a really cool idea, with the contemporary music and 5 x 15
min segments.
Voices
from the Grave: 50, Berkeley Square
by Dylan Ritterson
starring Sophie Roberts, Harry Myers, John
Cummings
dir. Gemma Jenkins
BBC Radio4extra
Pleasant, eerie little ghost story, set
some time in the 19th century, where a lady of the night and two
sailors break into the most haunted house in Britain. She escapes; they pay with their life and
sanity.
Weird Tales: Connected
by
Melissa Murray
starring
Fiona Glascott, Joseph Klowksa, Ewan Hooper
BBC
Radio4extra (2010)
Certainly
thinking in four dimensions: Steph ended
up in a submarine to nowhere banging on the radiator pipes of her widower! She’d been phoned by her dead brother-in-law
who was so selfish, he took her with him!
The idea of every mobile in the shop ringing as you walk in is a bit of
contemporary creepiness.
Weird Tales: Rounder
by Ed
Hime
starring
Joseph Klowska, Lizzie Watts, Jonathan Taffler
dir.
Jessica Dromgoole
BBC
Radio4extra (2010)
This
took a bit of an effort to understand—it gives us unsettling theories about
what might go on in a comatose person’s head.
The way it came together in the end with the music, repetition, and
revelations equalled anything Steven Moffat could come up with, I think. The image of three people clinging to the
Ferris Wheel falling out of the sky was pretty horrific.
Carmilla by J S
LeFanu, adapted by Don McCanfield
Starring
Anne-Marie Duff, Brenda Baicz, David Warner, Celia Imrie, Kenneth Cranham,
Nigel Anthony
BBC
Radio 4
An
absolutely haunting adaptation of the novel, full of sensual atmosphere and
beautiful performances from Laura and Carmilla.
The music is an integral part of a well-paced remembrance, narrated by
Laura, and contains none of the gore associated with the BBC Dracula adaptation from 1998. It is a tragic love story, in fact, and
treated as such.
The Strange Case of Spring Heel’d Jack
by
Gareth Parker and Robert Valentine
The
Wireless Theatre Company
The Scary
Fear on
Four: Hand in Glove
by Elizabeth Bowen, adapted by Elizabeth
Troop
starring Edward deSouza, Majorie Westbury,
Kate Finche, Elizabeth Hays-McCoy
directed by Peter Fozzard
BBC Radio4extra
A really disturbing play. You could, really, pin all the horror down to
a society of women defined by their relationship to men—if Aunt Alicia’s
husband hadn’t shot himself, she wouldn’t be at the mercy of “elder abuse” from
her niece Ethel, who in turn wouldn’t be so callous (we assume) if she wasn’t a
disenfranchised spinster. Hints of Poe
and Faulkner as Ethel got strangled by her aunt’s disembodied gloves. Yeeek.
The Darker Side of the Border: Olalla
by Robert Louis
Stevenson, adapted by Marty Ross
starring Paul
Blair, Richard Conlin, Carol Ann Crawford, Alexandra Pope
dir. Bruce Young
BBC Radio 4
(2010)
Having since
read the original tale and researched it, I am even more impressed at the way
Ross managed to bring clarity and a sense of violent dread to Stevenson’s
rather diffuse original. The original is
not necessarily a vampire tale, but the adaptation has used the romance and the
horror of a tale of degeneration in the most Gothic sense.
Dracula
by Bram Stoker, adapted by Nick McCarty
starring Bernard Holly, Frederick Jaeger,
Phyllis Logan, Sharon Maharaj, Philly Walsh
dir. Hamish Wilson
BBC Radio 4 (1998)
This year, and not too long in coming,
there is another BBC adaptation of this wonderful novel; it condenses the novel
into two parts, which is quite ambitious, so I’m looking forward to seeing how
it’s done. This comprehensive 7-part
version is excellent, especially its depiction of Jonathan being attacked by
the Brides and the staking of Lucy scenes.
Frederick Jaeger makes a Dracula very faithful to the book, and the
creative way in which it gets Jonathan to relate back his experiences makes for
gripping listening. Also it is not above
making little in-jokes, and has considerably enlarged the characters of
Holmwood and Morris. The music and sound effects are superb.
Voices
from the Grave: The Parson
by David Varella
starring Mark Basley, Geoffrey Beevers,
Wayne Foscott
dir. Luke Frayle
BBC Radio4extra
Easily the best of this series—extremely
scary, but at least the disillusioned parson fought old magic/darkness and
won! It was relevant and also moved
quickly, the characters weren’t stiff.
“The Lottery” + Vicar of Dibley +
“Curse of Fenric” + Hotel Rwanda.
The
Voyage of the Demeter
by Robert Forrest
starring Finlay Welsh, Gary Lewis, Steven
McNicoll, Grant O’Rourke, Alexander Morton
dir. Patrick Rayner
BBC Radio 4 (2009)
This is one of my favorite radio plays of
all time, and extremely scary to listen to in the dark on Halloween! Robert Forrest has done a tremendous job
filling in the blanks left by Stoker, when the Russian captain of the Demeter, bound to Whitby from Varna,
slowly loses control of his crew, his ship, and his sanity as Dracula slowly
takes over. Dracula (“The Stranger”) is
terrifyingly evoked and the whole play whips up at atmosphere of supernatural
horror with sensational music and sound effects. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Fridays
When It Rains
by Nick Warburton
starring Lyndsey Marsal and Clive Swift
dir. Claire Grove
BBC Radio 4 (2010)
Overall this is one of the best radio
thrillers I have ever heard. I have
since figured out that Warburton uses the same motifs a lot, and that somewhat
lessens the startling originality, but that’s of little consequence. This was creepy in the extreme with some
excellent mood music. Starring only
Lyndsey Marshall as the girl and Clive Swift as the man, the suspense and the
dialogue were perfectly pitched. Swift
was terrifying. I remember sitting in
the living room staring out the window gripping my seat because I was on the
edge of it! There’s no doubt I loved the
fact it took place entirely on a steam train in 1910, 1964, and the present
day. I have since realized that Nick
Warburton is one of the best radio dramatists the BBC has ever had.
Weird Tales: The Loop
by
Chris Harrald
starring
David Stretfield, Steven Hogan, Stephen Critchlow, Paul Rider
dir.
Faith Collingwood
BBC
Radio 4extra
This
was pretty scary, and as such moved quickly purely as a horror tale (the
mechanisms left totally unexplained at the end). Set in 1906 in a Tube expansion tunnel, the
skeleton discovered is just the beginning of horrors emerging from a black slab
and a sealed chamber. I was disturbed.
All the Dark Corners: Something in the Water
by
Paul Cornell
Starring
James Nickerson, Zara Turner, Joel Davies, Conrad Nelson, Jonathan Keeble
Dir.
Nadia Molinari
BBC
Radio 4 (2011)
This
got a bit hysterical in the end, and I think Cornell had been watching “The
Daemons” before he wrote it, but overall I quite liked the way it sidestepped
the plesiosaur explanation and managed
not to debunk mystery completely by making the Lake monster into a fibrous
bio-organism in symbiosis with the town itself.
It worked surprisingly well for radio.
The Woods
Icebox
Radio Theater
Echo Point
by
Louis Noura
starring
Brandon Burke, Lucy Bell, John Gaden, Russell Kiefel, Stewart D’Arrietta, Asher
DeGrey
dir.
Judith Kampfer
BBC
Radio 4 Afternoon Play (2012)
I like
when we get to hear Australian plays on BBC, and this one’s unusual setting
hooked me. It’s a haunted house story
from an urban explorer’s dream, set in an old sanatorium in isolated New South
Wales. It is a marvellous creepy tale
because all the ghostly manifestations can be explained by mental illness; that
doesn’t make it any less disturbing.
I hope
YOU will supply the last two plays to round out the collection!
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