Tag Archives: agatha christie

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 269 – Mystery Is My Hobby

Prior to and after the commercialization of radio, many people found entertainment in the many magazines and pulps which were ubiquitous at that time. By the time radio drama began to develop there were many short stories and serials from these magazines that were beginning to be picked up by radio. those with an interest in crime oriented subjects were… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 267 – Suspense – Til Death Do Us Part

On November 30th, we celebrate the 110th birthday of mystery writer and radio dramatist, John Dickson Carr (right). Carr was a master of the locked room mystery and his most famous detective was Dr. Gideon Fell. However, he wrote a number of suspense thrillers including helping the CBS series Suspense get its start in the early 1940s. For a period… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 201 – Witness For the Prosecution

Up in this podcast, a look at the inverted detective story, thanks from a tip by Cameron Estep. Unfortunately, there isn’t a really good example on radio of one, but a close contender is a play from the Molle Mystery Theater via the AFRS Mystery Theater called “Witness for the Prosecution” based on a play and short story by Dame… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 198 – Philomel Cottage

A look at how suspense is built dramatically as described by Mitchell Wilson, novelist and critic, in 1947. This podcast will use Agatha Christie’s short story, “Philomel Cottage,” and compare it to Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Rebecca in how the initially weak protagonist reaches a level of fear in which the reader/listener empathizes before either becoming strong by the experience and… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 193 – The Beast Must Die

From the book by Nicholas Blake, aka Cecil Day-Lewis (father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis), The Beast Must Die is considered one of the author’s best works of fiction featuring his detective, Nigel Strangeways. This adaptation for Suspense excludes the detective, but adheres to some of the story as best it can within a one-half hour production. Starring Herbert Marshall as… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 191 – Philo Vance Genre Pt. 4

In looking at the development of the American detective genre reflected through Radio Drama, we are now into the early 20th century. Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has begun to affect many of these early fictional detectives in the rise of the “deductive” detective.  American detective fiction writers including S.S. Van Dine are finding their own detectives are models of the… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 160 – Banquo’s Chair

Rupert Croft-Cooke is a little known British writer who wrote a short story based upon a play called Banquo’s Chair in 1930. His mystery writings were never on the level of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie or G.K Chesterton, all of whom he spoofed in a detective story he wrote. But his story Banquo’s Chair did achieve some success starting with… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 155 – Trent’s Last Case

This week you’ll hear from a detective who is not well known, yet, the novel on which it is based is considered very influential to the modern detective story. E.C. Bentley originally wrote his novel, Trent’s Last Case, on a challenge from his life-long friend, G.K. Chesterton. Bentley wrote this after becoming exasperated with the “perfection” Conan Doyle built into… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 150 – The ABC Murders

This time I present an example of taking an excellent fictional story and trying to squeeze it into a one half-hour suspense play. Agatha Christie’s story The ABC Murders is a fine Hercule Poirot mystery, but when handled by a normally excellent scriptwriter turning it into a radio drama, something has to give. The radio play as pure radio drama… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 38 – Hercule Poirot

One of the best known fictional detectives in the world – Hercule Poirot was heard in books, movies and radio. This week, a look at this little man with the “little gray cells.” I’ll look at a number of his radio appearances with the full show being the premier episode of the first serialized version from 1945 starring Harold Huber… (more…)