{
  "title": "ALGERNON BLACKWOOD [RADIO TALKS]",
  "category": "[RADIO APPEARANCES]",
  "article": "One of the premier writers of supernatural horror and fantasy of his generation, Algernon\nBlackwood first came to radio in 1934. For his initial foray into broadcasting he was supposed to\nbe interviewed on the magazine-format show In Town To-night, but instead of submitting to\nquestions, he told the interviewer a ghost story. This marked the beginning of a seventeen-year\nside-career for Blackwood as the BBC’s “Ghost Man”—a stint that only increased his popularity as\nthe years went by, culminating in 1949 with the award for “Outstanding Personality” from the\nTelevision Society (for he was, by then, a TV star as well as a radio celebrity).\nIt was not for want of trying on the part of the BBC that it had taken until ‘34 to lure the elusive\n“Pan” (his nickname among his friends) into a broadcasting studio and in front of a microphone.\nProducer Cecil Madden had been trying since 1928 to persuade him…. It was not reluctance on\nBlackwood’s part but simply an inability to be caught at the right moment. Ever in the throes of\nwanderlust, he was absent from the country for a good part of the time during the late Twenties\nand early Thirties—skiing in Switzerland,\nAlthough the spring of 1934 was the earliest that they were able to pin the author down to an\nactual date on the air, Blackwood’s theatrical friend Harcourt Williams had read one of his\nstories—title, alas, unknown—on the air seven years earlier, in 1927. Curiously, Blackwood\nhimself, before ever uttering a word into a microphone, had been published twice in the BBC’s\nweekly print-organ Radio Times—first, in 1927 with his story of a haunted Chinese mirror, “The\nLand of Green Ginger,” which appeared in the magazine’s Christmas number, and in 1930 (once\nagain, in the Yuletide issue) with a tale entitled “Revenge,” which later became the basis for his\nradio play, “Told in the Mountains.”\nCertainly a writer of many facets and interests, Blackwood was nevertheless aware of how his\nreputation stood with British fiction readers. “The classification of ghost-stories,” he noted, “has\nstuck to me closer than a brother, and even when the B.B.C. ask for a story it must be, preferably,\nof the ‘creepy’ kind… My own public, whatever that may mean, expect a queer sort of grim story\nfrom me and would be disappointed with an ordinary tale.”\nAnent the Queer Stories broadcast, the Manchester Guardian reported that “the B..B.C. rule of\nmanuscripts in advance for all who are to use the microphone will be relaxed in favour of Mr.\nAlgernon Blackwood, the story-writer, who will entertain listeners for twenty minutes from ten\no’clock with one or more stories, told extempore…”\nFollowing the broadcast the Guardian wireless columnist K.H. reviewed it thusly: “When Mr.\nAlgernon Blackwood came to the microphone in the National programme he told us that he had\nmany stories in his head. He told four or five, all of them dealing with the supernatural. The\nannouncer told us that Mr. Blackwood would endeavour to make the blood run cold, but at\npresent he is not able to do this on the wireless as he can with the printed word. The attention and\nthe interest were held, but a chill was not evoked.\n“Mr. Blackwood told the stories without pause in a steady voice, speaking at a fairly fast pace,\nand it seems probable that though they were not read they were at least memorized. He has a\ngood dramatic manner and voice, but he has some microphone faults to overcome. Last night his\nevery breath and a curious sound suggesting the closing of lips were audible to the listener.”\nFor all of the fervour which the BBC had devoted to obtaining Blackwood for the airwaves, and\nfor their backing down on reviewing his talk on ??? date, it should also be noted—gleaned from\nBlackwood’s correspondence of the time—that the BBC rejected several scripts which the author\nsubmitted to them in 1934 and 1935—“Accessory Before the Fact,” “The Locket,” “The Dream,”\nand “Lock Your Door,” the latter of which he finally did broadcast twelve years later.\nIn the midst of these sporadic but successful appearances at the microphone, Blackwood also\nfound himself—once again thanks to Cecil Madden—included in the line-up of the very first day of\nbroadcasting by the BBC Television Service. Although his reputation as the telly’s “Ghost Man”\nwould not flourish and spread until the post-war years, nevertheless there he was, an omen of\nthings-that-go-bump to come, on Monday, November 2, 1936, spooking it up for the cameras on\nthe premiere edition of the magazine program Picture Page. “Our make-up was something\nfierce,” he recalled, “and my bright blue lips and eyelids made me horrifying or fascinating\naccording to taste.” He was placed in a separate studio, completely darkened except for the lights\nspotted on different portions of his face. The Times singled him out for the effectiveness of the\npresentation—“The choice of Mr. Algernon Blackwood last night to tell two of his own inimitable\nghost stories was excellent—the lighting especially emphasized the ghostly character of the\nproceedings…” But some viewers longed for even more atmosphere in the mise en scene. “Can’t\nyou provide Mr. Blackwood,” pleaded avid spook fan (“Ghost stories, please!”) P.F. Titchmarsh of\nSheffield to the Radio Times, “with a studio lit only by flickering firelight, curtains that move\nwhere no wind blows, and sudden creakings from beyond the microphone?”\nThe following month an article by Blackwood, reflecting on his BBC experiences, appeared in\nthe December 11 issue of Radio Times. Published under the title “You Can’t Tell Ghost Stories on\nthe Radio,” it…\nComparison of texts: how Blackwood would alter his text for telling over the air… For example,\n“The Destruction of Smith”… Blackwood’s original text:\n“We all stood, staring. The darkness came up closer. The horses ceased their whinnying. For a\nmoment nothing happened. Then Smith turned slowly round and raised his head towards the\nstars, as though he saw something. ‘Hear that?” he whispered. ‘It’s coming up close. That’s what\nI’ve bin hearing now, on and off, two days and nights.’”\nAnd the exact wording of his reading on the air:\n“We all stood staring, shivering. The horses ceased their whinnying. For a moment nothing\nhappened. Only the quiet stars looked down. Then Smith turned slowly around, lifting his eyes\ntowards those quiet stars, as though he saw or heard something. ‘Hear that?’ he whispered in a\nstrangled voice. ‘Hear that? It’s coming closer. That’s what I’ve bin hearing now, on and off, two\nnights and days. Listen!’”\nOn June 11, 1949 the BBC Third Programme featured a 25-minute talk by R. H. Ward entitled\n“Algernon Blackwood: An appreciation of his writings.”\n[Sydney Morning Herald, July 23, 1950—“At 82, He’s Still Master Of Horrors” “From A Staff\nCorrespondent In London”] “For nearly 50 years his name has been synonymous with the\nuncanny and the supernatural.\n“Horror has fascinated him all his days. As a little boy in knee-breeches he said, ‘I love the night,\nthe shadows, empty rooms and haunted woods.’\n“Such mysticism delights him now. For him, there is nothing horrific about the vampires, ghosts\nand things of nameless dread which unfold themselves almost spontaneously from his\nimagination. Towards them he is benign, benevolent.\n“It is the more earthly things that set his spine tingling.\n“The secret lies in his childhood. Although the son of an aristocratic family, he was brought up\nunder conditions of such strict puritanism that when he sailed for Canada he had never known\nthe dubious delights of alcohol, cigarettes or theatres. He was, therefore, ‘afraid of life.’\n“But not of death, or madness, or the bizarre and gruesome. When a poet-mystic he worshipped\ndied insane, he was sorry and sympathetic—but not horrified. The sight of a bed bug made his\nblood run cold, yet a macabre trail through the underworld of New York after a crazy forger\narmed with a razor was as matter-of-fact as a stroll through the park.\n“For all his self-confessed dread of life, he has tackled it with courage and fortitude. In turn, he:\n“Farmed—and went broke—in Canada; licked stamps for an insurance company; became\ngeneral factotum of a Methodist magazine; prospected for gold, ran a hotel; sold dried milk;\ndabbled in journalism; became an author.\n“In New York, on his uppers, without money, job or friends, he went hungry and endured\nagonies sleeping two-in-a-bed at a common lodging house peopled by criminals and degenerates.\n“While still doing ‘drudgery’ on the ‘New York Sun’ he discovered his faculty for story-telling. In\nthe evenings he would spin yarns for the entertainment of his fellow-lodgers, finding that ‘at a\nmoment’s notice…I could invent a tale with a beginning, middle and climax.’ One of his admirers\nput the stories on paper and sent them to a publisher. Thus in 1906 was Blackwood’s destiny\nsettled.\n“He has come a long way since then—nearly 40 novels, short stories by the hundred, scores of\nweird tales delivered on radio and television.\n“In 1949 he was rated the outstanding British radio personality of the previous year. He was in\nSwitzerland, on his annual ski-ing vacation, when the honour was announced. By the time he got\nback to England another laurel awaited him—a silver medal for the best contribution to British\ntelevision for 1948.\n“Two months ago 20th-Century Fox induced him to sit in a chair at a British studio and give the\nscreen 16 minutes of his face, voice and flair for the eerie. The one-man picture was an\noutstanding success. Now five more are to be made.”\nUnfortunately, the only currently-available commercial recording of Blackwood’s radio work is\n“Pistol Against a Ghost,” which was included in the BBC’s 2007 CD anthology set, British Writers.\nMike Ashley informs us of what-might-have-been had certain intentions not gone awry 28 years\nago: “In 1982 the BBC did plan to issue an audio-cassette of Blackwood reading seven of his\nstories but finally decided that the quality of the recordings was not of sufficient standard for the\nmarket. For the record the intended line-up…was: ‘The Woman’s Ghost Story,’ ‘The Curate and\nthe Stockbroker,’ ‘A Pistol Against a Ghost,’ ‘A Japanese Literary Cocktail,’ ‘The Occupant of the\nRoom,’ ‘The Destruction of Smith,’ and ‘Disappearance in Texas’.”\nIn 1963 a Times correspondent wrote, “Can there ever have been a more vivid and memorable\nfigure than Algernon Blackwood? He was a reincarnation of the Ancient Mariner, his face as old\nand wrinkled as a turtle’s, and in his voice the power to mesmerize us with his tales of the\nsupernatural.”",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "Before Blackwood’s first radio appearance:\nWRITERS OF TODAY (2LO, LONDON, & 5XX, DAVENTRY—BBC)\n[Saturday—9:20-9:35 PM]\nAugust 27, 1927\n[“…Harcourt Williams, A Story by Algernon Blackwood…”]\nBlackwood radio appearances:\nIN TOWN TO-NIGHT (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—7:30-8:00 PM]\nApril 7, 1934\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood’s first radio broadcast in which, rather than an\ninterview, he told a ghost story. No records survive of which tale.”]\n[Reference to this broadcast is made by BBC staffer J. C. Cannell in his\nbook In Town To-night, where he describes getting certain guests to the\nshow. “Edward Crocker, this picturesque old man,” he remembered, “has\nstood at Westminster Bridge for over forty years with his telescope,\nthrough which, by paying a penny, you can get an intimate glimpse of the\ndecorative details of Big Ben. Red-faced and white-bearded, Edward\nCrocker never flinched at the prospect of broadcasting. I remember going\nto pick him up on the Saturday night in a taxi, accompanied by Algernon\nBlackwood, author of those classic stories on the unknown. Blackwood,\nwho figured in the same programme, was most intrigued by the old man,\nwho is still thrilled by the recollection of his experience on that night.”\nREADING (LONDON REGIONAL)\n[Wednesday—8:00-8:20 PM]\nJuly 11, 1934\n“The Blackmailers”\n[ASHLEY] “England (London): Alexander is being blackmailed but the\nblackmailer commits suicide and his ghost helps Alexander.” An original\nstory for radio, its first (and apparently only) appearance in print was in\nMy Grimmest Nightmare, the spin-off anthology from Cecil Madden’s\nEmpire series Nightmares (although the story was not actually broadcast\nas part of the series). The story was originally scheduled for broadcast a\nmonth earlier on June 15 in a 9:20-9:40 PM time slot, but was [ASHLEY]\n“rescheduled due to illness.”\n(EMPIRE SHORTWAVE)\n[Wednesday—5:18-5:43 AM]\nJuly 18, 1934\n“The Blackmailers”\nGOSSIP HOUR (EMPIRE PROGRAMME)\n[Wednesday—2:30-3:30 PM]\nAugust 1, 1934\n[ASHLEY: “Instead of a formal interview Blackwood chose to tell two\nghost stories. No record survives.”]\nOther guests on the show included the “Horror Man” of stage\nmelodrama, Tod Slaughter, and vaudevillean/racing tipster “Prince” Ras\nMonolulu of Abyssinia. According to Mike Ashley, “He [Blackwood]\nenjoyed broadcasting and the BBC found him ideal radio. He\nendeavoured to create the right atmosphere in his stories as if he were\nrecounting tales at a house party. To sustain this atmosphere, though,\nBlackwood hoped he could be given a studio on his own. ‘I’m sure you\nrealise how appallingly difficult it was recently to tell a ghost story\nimmediately after bagpipes and a comedy Abyssinian prince!’ he wrote to\nthe BBC.’ (Unpublished letter from Blackwood to the B.B.C., August 4,\n1934)\nPERSONNEL: Cecil Madden (producer, host).\nDetail from group photograph taken after the August 1, 1934 broadcast of\nGossip Hour shows Algernon Blackwood and the “Sweeney Todd” of the\nbarnstormers, Tod Slaughter, standing side by side at the far right. At far left is\nproducer Cecil Madden, an important figure in Blackwood’s radio career.\nQUEER STORIES (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—10:01-10:20 PM]\nAugust 28, 1934\n“Yogi” / “Blank Cartridges” / “Homicidal Dream” / “Evidence\nin Camera”\n[“…Mr. Algernon Blackwood, the story-writer, will entertain listeners for\ntwenty minutes from ten o’clock with one or more stories, told\nextempore…”]\n[ASHLEY: “Four short anecdotes…all presented as unexplained\nmysteries.”]\nNIGHTMARES (EMPIRE PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—7:45-8:00 PM]\nSeptember 4, 1934\n“The Empty House”\n[ASHLEY] “Adapted by the author from ‘A Haunted Island.’… Note: the\ntitle ‘The Empty House’ appears on the script with the subtitle ‘A\nCanadian Ghost Story.’ The Programme-as-Broadcast sheet lists it simply\nas ‘A Ghost Story’.”\n[“Canada (Ontario): a haunted house on an island, the occupant has a\npre-vision of his own murder.”]\nPERSONNEL: Cecil Madden (producer).\nREADING: SHORT STORY (NATIONAL PROGRAMME-DAVENTRY)\n[Saturday—10:01-10:20 AM]\nSeptember 29, 1934\n“A Suspicious Gift”\n[“…a tale of a young writer who, having written a sentence about the\npowers of imagination and waiting for further inspiration, undergoes a\nterrifying experience…”]\nNIGHTMARES (EMPIRE PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—8:01-8:17 AM]\nOctober 30, 1934\n“By Water”\n[ASHLEY] “Egypt (Guebel Haidi): a clairvoyant warns Larsen to beware\nof water.”\nPERSONNEL: Cecil Madden (producer).\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD’S SHORT STORIES (GSD, DAVENTRY)\n[Friday—3:15-3:30 PM]\nNovember 16, 1934\n[“…Transmission 4… Sir [sic] Algernon Blackwood’s Short Stories…”]\nSHORT STORY (REGIONAL PROGRAMME)\n[Sunday—9:03-9:24 AM]\nJuly 7, 1935\n“First Hate”\n[ASHLEY] “Canada (Vancouver): the instinctive survival trait of hate at\nfirst sight.”\n[Sunday—9:00-9:20 AM]\nSeptember 1, 1935\n“The Chinese Picture”\n[ASHLEY] “Adapted by the author from “The Man Who Was Milligan.”…\nEngland (London) & China: a Chinese picture inexplicably transports\nMilligan from his lodgings to China.”\nYOUNG IDEAS (NATIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON)\n[Friday—7:30-8:00 PM]\nOctober 4, 1935\n“Train Ghost”\nOctober 11, 1935\n“Come With Me”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood relates an incident of two men (a big man and a\nlittle man) who are crossing a field. The little man alone hears a voice\nsaying, several times, ‘Come with me’ and, on the final time, he realizes\nthe big man has disappeared without trace.”]\nOctober 18, 1935\n“The Wig”\n[ASHLEY: “An old lady sleeps in a haunted room where a little gnome-\nlike ghost steals her wig and places it on top of the wardrobe.”]\nNovember 1, 1935\n“Lion in New York City”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood recalls an incident from his days as a New York\nreporter when a lion had escaped from a circus.”]\nNovember 29, 1935\n“A Backwoods Adventure”\n[ASHLEY: “An abridged and freely adapted version of ‘’Mid the Haunts\nof the Moose’… “Canada (Ontario): a moose-hunting episode in October\n1898 and the experiences that lead to the story ‘Skeleton Lake’…\n‘Skeleton Lake: An Episode in Camp’ [publ. in Empty House]: “Canada\n(Quebec backwoods): non-fantasy, tale of a murder.”]\nSHORT STORY (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—8:15-8:32 PM]\nJune 27, 1936\n“King’s Evidence”\n[ASHLEY: “freely adapted from ‘Confession’”]\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD (EMPIRE, DAVENTRY)\n[Thursday—10:00-10:15 PM]\nJuly 2, 1936\nPICTURE PAGE (BBC-TV)\nNovember 2, 1936\nASHLEY: “The first programme to be transmitted on television. Blackwood read two ghost\nstories but details are not known. They were clearly very short as the ten minute slot also\nincluded two other interviews. Blackwood probably related two personal anecdotes.”]\nSHORT STORY (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)\n[Sunday—2:00-2:25 PM]\nSeptember 12, 1937\n“The Curse of the Wolf”\n[ASHLEY: “Adapted by the author from ‘Running Wolf’.”]\nAT THE BLACK DOG (EMPIRE PROGRAMME)\n[Wednesday—11:31 AM-12:00 NOON]\nAugust 16, 1939\n[ASHLEY: “No script survives. Blackwood was interviewed and told a\nstory.”]\nPERSONNEL: Roy Speer (producer).\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Sunday—10:01-10:22 PM]\nDecember 17, 1939\n“Two of a Kind”\n[ASHLEY: “Adapted by the author from ‘The Survivors’… England\n(London): after an accident, a man meets another only to discover that\nthey are both dead.”]\nTHREE STORIES BY ALGERNON BLACKWOOD (HOME SERVICE)\n[Monday—12:33-1:00 PM]\nDecember 25, 1939\n“Transition” / “The Laughter of Courage” / “A Boy and His Bag”\n[ASHLEY: “A Boy and His Bag” was adapted by the author from “The\nLittle Beggar.” “…an old man senses the spirit of a son he never had”.]\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Thursday—11:20-11:35 AM]\nFebruary 29, 1940\n“By Proxy”\n[ASHLEY: “a thug tricks a little boy into murdering his own mother.”]\n[Wednesday—3:50-4:00 PM]\nApril 17, 1940\n“The Voice”\n[ASHLEY: “adapted by the author from ‘The Reformation of St. Jules’…\n“France (St. Jules): a man invents a machine which projects writing on\nthe sky together with a booming voice, but the locals feel it is divine\nintervention.”]\nAT THE BLACK DOG (PROGRAMME FOR THE FORCES)\n[Friday—12:30-1:00 PM]\nMay 3, 1940\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood spoke for six minutes on his experiences in\nCanada.”]\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Friday—11:00-11:15 PM]\nSeptember 6, 1940\n“The Destruction of Smith”\n[Thursday—11:15-11:25 PM]\nSeptember 19, 1940\n“The Voice”\n[ASHLEY: “broadcast instead of ‘Violence’ as announced”]\n[Tuesday—6:45-7:05 PM]\nDecember 24, 1940\n“King’s Evidence”\n(PROGRAMME FOR THE FORCES)\n[Saturday—12:15-12:30 PM]\nJune 7, 1941\n“By Water”\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Monday—7:40-7:59 PM]\nAugust 18, 1941\n“The Chinese Picture”\n(PROGRAMME FOR THE FORCES)\n[Thursday—7:15-7:30 PM]\nOctober 23, 1941\n“Violence”\n[ASHLEY: “England (London club): non-fantasy, subjective study of\ninsanity.”]\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Saturday—7:45-8:00 PM]\nAugust 15, 1942\n“Violence”\n[Sunday—10:13-10:32 PM]\nDecember 13, 1942\n“The Magic Mirror”\n[ASHLEY] “France (Monte Carlo): a gambler is given a mirror which\nreveals the winning numbers at roulette.\nTHE WEDNESDAY STORY (HOME SERVICE)\n[Wednesday—10:15-10:30 PM]\nOctober 25, 1944\n“The Castlebridge Cat”\n[ASHLEY: “Original story for radio. England: a traveling salesman\nreturns to a town where six months earlier he had murdered a\nblackmailer, only to find himself betrayed by the victim’s cat.”]\nLATE NIGHT SPECIAL (HOME SERVICE)\n[Sunday—11:08-11:24 PM]\nApril 1, 1945\n“Transition”\nAT THE BOWLER HAT (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—5:30-6:00 PM]\nOctober 16, 1945\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood told how he became an author, his experiences as\na New York reporter and his meeting with Angus Hamilton. He then tells\na brief ghost story about two pranksters who dress up as ghosts to scare a\nthird man. The third dies of heart failure and the two pranksters\nsuddenly realize there are three of them.”]\nFIVE MEN (HOME SERVICE)\n[Tuesday—11:03-11:30 PM]\nDecember 25, 1945\n“The Curate and the Stockbroker”                     [EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “A one-off Christmas special of five men gathered together to\ntell ‘true tales of high adventure.’ Others present were Michael Graham,\nAnthony Irwin, Charles Lambe and Peter Scott… Pre-recorded December\n19, 1945. Blackwood told the fifth story of ‘The Curate and the\nStockbroker.’.”]\nTHE WORLD GOES BY (HOME SERVICE)\n[Sunday—4:30-5:00 PM)\nApril 7, 1946\n“The Russian Dentist”\n[ASHLEY: “Italy: Blackwood relates an experience when, with toothache,\nhe visited a Russian dentist in Naples who gave him an inexplicable and\nunorthodox treatment. Pre-recorded March 28, 1946.”]\nSTORIES OLD AND NEW (HOME SERVICE)\n[Monday—4:45-5:00 PM]\nMay 6, 1946\n“Lock Your Door”\n[ASHLEY: “Original story for radio. England: after a railway accident an\nold lady is directed to a desolate house for the night. A voice warns her to\nlock her door which she does just in time to stop someone entering. She\nlater learns the house is haunted.”]\nTHE WORLD AND HIS WIFE (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—6:30-7:00 PM]\nSeptember 9, 1946\n“Reminiscences as a Crime Reporter”\nSTORIES OLD AND NEW (HOME SERVICE)\n[Monday—4:45-5:00 PM\nOctober 28, 1946\n“Lock Your Door”\nTHE WORLD AND HIS WIFE (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—6:15-6:45 PM]\nOctober 28, 1946\n“A Queer Story”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood told ‘A Queer Story’ which he later re-told as ‘A\nTexas Farm Disappearance’.”]\n(THIRD PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—9:55-10:23 PM]\nSeptember 23, 1947\n“The Woman’s Ghost Story”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded August 18, 1947. Originally planned [and\nannounced] for transmission on August 18, 1947, but postponed.\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Wednesday—6:45-7:00 PM]\nOctober 29, 1947\n“The Fear of Heights”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood relates some personal experiences related to the\nfear of heights or the total lack of it.”]\nPERSONNEL: Basil Taylor (producer).\nHALLOWE’EN (BBC-TV)\nOctober 31, 1947\n“The Curate and the Stockbroker”\nASHLEY: “The success of this broadcast led to a regular Saturday Night Story spot.”\n(THIRD PROGRAMME)\n[Wednesday—7:00-7:15 PM]\nDecember 3, 1947\n“The Fear of Heights”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “The second broadcast was recorded” [i.e. this one]”\n[The recording was re-broadcast on December 30 (Home Service),\nFebruary 11, 1948 (Trans-Canada, CBC Wednesday Night), July 27, 1950\n(Pacific Service, Famous Writers), and September 20, 1950 (Home\nService).]\n(FAR EASTERN SERVICE)\n[Thursday—11:55 AM-12:05 PM]\nDecember 25, 1947\n“The Spirit of Christmas”\nBlackwood reminisces about Christmases past and then discusses what\nthe holiday is like now in the years following the war. Ashley notes that\nthis talk was recorded beforehand, on December 16, 1947. [OG]\n(THIRD PROGRAMME)\n[Thursday—10:37-11:00 PM]\nDecember 25, 1947\n“The Chinese Picture”\n[The Times announced that the story would be “With Intent to Steal,”\ndescribed [ASHLEY] as “black magic, the disembodied spirit of a dead\nmagician seeks a new body.” “The Chinese Picture” noted [ASHLEY] as\n“pre-recorded December 22, 1947” and broadcast on 12/25/47 (Third),\n1/9/48 (West Indies Service), and seven times between 1/29/48 and\n1/31/48 (General Overseas Service).]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nJanuary 24, 1948\n“The Mirror”\nBOOKS AND AUTHORS (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—2:00-2:30 PM]\nJanuary 31, 1948\n“Gooseflesh”\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded January 20, 1948… An extensive interview with\nBlackwood on the subject of ‘Gooseflesh.’ Blackwood tells what makes\nhim shiver, what makes stories frightening, and of his own feelings when\nwriting ‘The Wendigo’.”]\nPERSONNEL: Arthur Calder-Marshall (host, interviewer).\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Wednesday—10:00-10:45 PM]\nMarch 3, 1948\n“The Genesis of Ideas” / “The Destruction of Smith”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[“…a talk by Algernon Blackwood, followed by one of his stories…”]\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood looks in general at the origin of ideas for stories,\nand then specifically in relation to “By Water” and The Centaur.”\n[NOTE: The Radio 4 program Reece Shearsmith’s Haunted House (broadcast on October\n29, 2009) played a very brief excerpt of “The Destruction of Smith” from this recording.]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nMarch 6, 1948\n“The Chinese Picture”\nMarch 27, 1948\n“Lock the Door”\nSTUMP THE STORY-TELLERS (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Thursday—10:15-10:35 PM]\nApril 15, 1948\n[ASHLEY: “A panel programme in which famous authors are challenged\nto improvise a story along given lines in a set time. Each author is given a\nsealed box containing four objects. The author must open the box and\nthen has four minutes in which to tell a story in which all four objects\nplay a part. Blackwood appeared in the first programme of the first series\nand the third programme of the second series. No recording or\ntranscription of his stories survive.”]\nPERSONNEL: Ronald Waldman (host).\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD TELLS A STRANGE STORY (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—11:15-11:20 PM]\nMay 10, 1948\n“Texas Farm Disappearance”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood tells of a boy on a farm in Texas who went to fetch\nwater from a well and was never seen again.”]\n[According to Ashley, all of the Strange Story segments were pre-\nrecorded on May 7.]\nPERSONNEL: Basil Taylor (producer). [Taylor also produced May 11-14.]\n[Tuesday—11:00-11:05 PM]\nMay 11, 1948\n“The Holy Man”\n[ASHLEY: “An anecdote as witnessed by an English official. An old\nIndian Holy Man pulls the dead body of a young man from a river.\nWithin minutes the young man rises and left behind is the cast off body\nof the old man. Earlier related as ‘Yogi’ in the ‘Queer Stories’ sequence.”]\n[Wednesday—11:15-11:22 PM]\nMay 12, 1948\n“Pistol Against a Ghost”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “Three men spend a night in a haunted house in Norfolk, one\narmed with a pistol, and the others play a trick on him. Earlier related as\n‘Blank Cartridges’.”]\n[Thursday—11:15-11:20 PM]\nMay 13, 1948\n“Japanese Literary Cocktail”                                [EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “A fictional anecdote of a painter, a foreigner in Japan,\nlooking for an ideal subject, who meets a creature with no face.”\n[Friday—11:00-11:07 PM]\nMay 14, 1948\n“The Curate and the Stockbroker”                   [EXTANT RECORDING]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nMay 15, 1948\n“Confession”\nNEW BOOKS AND OLD (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—2:00-2:30 PM]\nJune 5, 1948\n[ASHLEY: “A series in which invited guests discuss a new book and an\nold book (still in print) of their choice… Blackwood reviewed The Fairy\nTradition in Britain by Lewis Spence and Confessions of an Opium-\nEater by Thomas de Quincey.”]\nIT’S GOOD ENGLISH (FAR EASTERN SERVICE)\n[Tuesday—12:55-1:10 PM]\nJune 8, 1948\n“The Confessions of an Opium-Eater”\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded May 11, 1948… Blackwood selects The\nConfessions of an Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey as the book he\nrecommends as good English and a classic of literature.”]\n[Presumably Blackwood’s text was at least partially drawn from the talk\nhe had given three days earlier on New Books and Old.]\nPERSONNEL: Rex Moorfoot (producer).\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD TELLS A STRANGE STORY (GENERAL OVERSEAS\nSERVICE)\n[Sunday—9:10-9:15 PM]\nJune 13, 1948\n[Tuesday—4:20-4:30 PM]\nJune 15, 1948\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nJune 26, 1948\nJuly 17, 1948\nAugust 21, 1948\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Tuesday—8:15-8:29 PM]\nAugust 31, 1948\n“Oddities”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood related four inexplicable personal experiences.”]\nLONDON WEST CENTRAL (LONDON CALLING EUROPE)\n[Saturday—7:00-7:30 PM]\nOctober 30, 1948\n[ASHLEY: “Eric Stenton spoke on Halloween and then introduced a\nghost story written and read by Blackwood. No copy of the script survives\nor details of the story told.”]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nNovember 6, 1948\nSPEAK FOR YOURSELVES (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Sunday—2:30-2:56 PM]\nNovember 14, 1948\n[ASHLEY: “A series of unscripted discussion programmes for young\npeople with an invited guest, recorded in different towns about Britain…\n#5 in the series, in Swansea. Pre-recorded November 9, 1948 after a\npreliminary meeting on October 19. Chairman Douglas Allan and\nBlackwood discussed three topics with the young people, ‘What is\nadventure?’, ‘Are possessions necessary?’ and ‘Have we lost the spirit of\nadventure?’ Blackwood did not have it all his own way in the ensuing\ndiscussion with the youngsters challenging him on his way of life.”]\nTHE STORY-TELLER’S CLUB (HOME SERVICE)\n[Tuesday—9:15-9:45 PM]\nDecember 21, 1948\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood served as President (i.e. Chairman) and the panel\ndiscussed stories for Christmas… No recording or transcript survives.”]\nCALLING THE ISLANDS (PACIFIC SERVICE—RED NETWORK)\n[Wednesday—6:15-6:30 AM]\nDecember 22, 1948\n“Some Eerie Stories”\n[recorded 11/29/48]\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded November 29, 1948. Blackwood told ‘Some\nEerie Stories’ but no recording or script survives or details of the stories\ntold.”]\nFLASH OF BELLS (FAR EASTERN SERVICE)\n[Saturday—12:00 NOON-12:12 PM]\nDecember 25, 1948\n“The Spirit of Christmas”\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded December 2, 1948.”]\n(THIRD PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—6:48-7:05 PM]\nDecember 25, 1948\n“Little People and Co.”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood’s belief in fairies and the little people… Pre-\nrecorded December 20, 1948.”]\nMID-MORNING STORY (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—11:15-11:30 AM]\nJanuary 3, 1949\n“A Dangerous Gift”\n[ASHLEY: “Adapted by the author from ‘A Suspicious Gift’.”]\nPERSONNEL: Basil Taylor (producer).\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nJanuary 8, 1949\n“No Moss”\n(EASTERN SERVICE)\n[Friday—2:30-2:45 PM]\nMarch 11, 1949\n“A Dangerous Gift”\nPICTURE PAGE (BBC-TV)\nMarch 16, 1949\n[ASHLEY: “On his eightieth birthday Blackwood was interviewed for five minutes by Leslie\nMitchell on his receipt of the Television Society Award as the year’s most Outstanding\nPersonality.”]\nSATURDAY NIGHT PAGE (BBC-TV)\nApril 2, 1949\n“The Reformation of St. Jules”\nNEW BOOKS AND OLD (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Saturday—2:00-2:30 PM]\nApril 9, 1949\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood reviewed Haunted Britain by Elliott O’Donnell\nand The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.”]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nMay 7, 1949\n“Earrings”\nMay 28, 1949\n“Accessory before the Fact”\nWOMAN’S HOUR (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—2:01-3:00 PM]\nMay 30, 1949\n“Is Monday Black and the Rest of the Week Uphill?”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood relates a chat with a window-cleaner about\nimagining the days of the week pictorially and allocating them colors.”]\nPERSONNEL: Marguerite Scott (producer).\nSTUMP THE STORY-TELLERS (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Thursday—10:15-10:35 PM]\nJune 23, 1949\n[ASHLEY: “Additional requirement that the story be set in North\nAfrica.”]\nPERSONNEL: Franklin Engelmann (host).\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nJune 25, 1949\n“Max Hensig”\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Wednesday 10:00-10:20 PM]\nJuly 13, 1949\n“Two Holidays”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood recalls his two trips down the Danube providing\nthe inspiration for ‘The Willows’, and a holiday on a Swedish island\nwhich inspired ‘The Camp of the Dog’.”]\nWOMAN’S HOUR (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—2:00-3:00 PM]\nAugust 29, 1949\n“The Little Puzzles”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood considers a few minor puzzles, such as why, when\ngetting a smut out of your eye, you also always open your mouth.”]\nPERSONNEL: Marguerite Scott (producer).\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nSeptember 3, 1949\n(THIRD PROGRAMME)\n[Thursday—8:39-8:50 PM]\nSeptember 8, 1949\n“Minor Memories”\n[ASHLEY: Early memories of childhood, Canadian experiences and how\nhe became a writer.”]\nPERSONNEL: Julian Hall (producer).\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Sunday—9:20-9:35 PM]\nSeptember 25, 1949\n“On Being Eighty”\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood reflects on four ‘torches’ that were his motivators\nin early life: to be a violinist, a mountaineer, a poet and a holy man.”]\nPERSONNEL: Eileen Maloney (producer).\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nOctober 22, 1949\nI SPEAK FOR MYSELF (FAR EASTERN SERVICE)\n[Saturday—12:13-12:23 PM]\nDecember 3, 1949\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood’s early experiences and how he became a writer…\nPre-recorded October 27, 1949.”]\nPERSONNEL: Laurence Staple (producer).\nMORNING STORY (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—11:45 PM-12:00 NOON]\nNovember 22, 1949\n“Two of a Kind”\n(GENERAL OVERSEAS SERVICE)\n[EXTANT RECORDING]\n[Wednesday—2:00-2:24 AM]\nDecember 21, 1949\n“The Occupant of the Room”\n[ASHLEY: “Pre-recorded December 14, 1949… Hotel room haunted by\nthe mood of a suicide.”]\nPERSONNEL: Prudence Smith (producer).\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD READS HIS STORY (HOME SERVICE)\n[Sunday—8:30-8:55 PM]\nDecember 25, 1949\n“The Occupant of the Room”\nALGERNON BLACKWOOD (HOME SERVICE)\n[Thursday—3:05-3:30 PM]\nDecember 29, 1949\n“The Occupant of the Room”\nTHE STORYTELLER (HOME SERVICE)\n[Tuesday—6:15-6:30 AM]\nFebruary 14, 1950\n“Two of a Kind”\n[Ashley says 2/14/50 Pacific Service and 2/15/50 General Overseas Service]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nFebruary 25, 1950\n(HOME SERVICE)\n[Saturday—7:45-59 PM]\nJune 10, 1950\n“Spiders and Such”\n(AKA “Along Came a Spider,” “Algernon Blackwood on Spiders.”)\n[ASHLEY: Blackwood describes his fear of spiders together with some\nparticular experiences.”]\nPERSONNEL: Eileen Maloney (producer).\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nJune 17, 1950\n“By Water”\nWOMAN’S HOUR (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Tuesday—2:00-3:00 PM]\nSeptember 12, 1950\n“The Human Touch”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood tells some of the secrets and some of the pitfalls\nbehind his successful unscripted live television broadcasts.”]\nSATURDAY NIGHT STORY (BBC-TV)\nSeptember 30, 1950 “Jewel Thieves at Albert Hall”\nHALLOWE’EN (BBC-TV)\nOctober 30, 1950\n[ASHLEY: “Due to Blackwood’s frailty the programme was pre-recorded on October 26th.”]\nSUMMER LIGHTNING (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Sunday—6:30-7:00 PM]\nMay 6, 1951\n“The Human Touch” [excerpt]\n[ASHLEY: “1 minute 7 second extract only.”]\nTELLER OF TALES (LIGHT PROGRAMME)\n[Monday—9:45-10:00 PM]\nJuly 2, 1951\n“The Destruction of Smith”\nTHIS IS BRITAIN (PACIFIC SERVICE)\n[????]\nCirca 1951\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood recorded his contribution on June 25, 1951 but it\nhas not been possible to determine whether it was ever broadcast.”]\n(BBC-TV)\nOctober 13, 1951\n“How I Became Interested in Ghosts”\n[ASHLEY: “Blackwood tells of his father’s interest in ghost stories and of his own first\ninvestigation of a haunted house. The programme was pre-recorded and the film survives in\nthe BBC film archives.”]\n[RESOURCES]\nAshley, Mike. Algernon Blackwood: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1987.\nAshley, Mike. Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001.\nBlackwood, Algernon. “The Fear of Heights.” The Listener (November 6, 1947).\nBlackwood, Algernon. The Magic Mirror: Lost Supernatural and Mystery Stories. Wellingborough:\nEquation, 1989.\nBlackwood, Algernon. “Oddities.” The Listener (September 9, 1948).\nBlackwood, Algernon. “Pistol against a Ghost.” Audio recording collected in British Writers, compiled by\nRichard Fairman. London: British Library, BBC, 2008.\nBlackwood, Algernon. “Queer Stories.” The Listener (September 12, 1934).\nBlackwood, Algernon. “Strange Story of a Texas Farm Disappearance.” The Listener (May 13, 1948).\nBlackwood, Algernon. “You Can’t Tell Ghost Stories on the Radio.” Radio Times (December 11, 1936).\nK.H. “Mr. Algernon Blackwood.” Manchester Guardian (August 29, 1934).\n[Madden, Cecil (ed.)]. My Grimmest Nightmare. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1935.\nPERIODICALS: The Gleaner [Kingston], Manchester Guardian, Radio Times, Syracuse Herald, The Times\n[London].\n[OG-NOTE: For any readers who have a special interest in the life and work of Blackwood, the two Mike Ashley volumes\nare an indispensable part of one’s library. They are the be-all and end-all of Blackwood scholarship. The Ashley-edited\ncollection The Magic Mirror is also a must-have item, as it contains a number of rare tales and anecdotes that Blackwood\nutilized in his radio talks, including “The Blackmailers,” “The Wig,” “King’s Evidence,” “Lock Your Door,” “The Texas Farm\nDisappearance,” “The Holy Man,” “Pistol Against a Ghost,” “Japanese Literary Cocktail,” “The Curate and the\nStockbroker,” “By Proxy,” “The Voice,” and the title story.]",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "Algernon Blackwood    Blackwood, BBC TV, 1936       Blackwood, BBC TV, 1949",
  "images": []
}