{
  "title": "THE DWELLER IN THE DARKNESS",
  "category": "[RADIO-SCRIPT]",
  "article": "“Reginald Berkeley’s first play was then broadcast, billed as ‘A play of the unknown’ and a play\nwhich ‘touches on the realm of the occult’…”\n“Berkeley was described as the author of 'French Leave', 'Eight O'Clock', his previous stage plays.\nBerkeley tells of the management row he encountered after it had been broadcast (Berkeley, 1928,\n18). He explains this thirty-minute play was 'a spiritualist séance, so as to get a \"background\" of\nweird rappings and noises'. He had been keen from the outset to invent 'a \"background\" by means\nof sounds'. (Berkeley was to script elaborate 'mise en scène' after 'mise en scène' in 'The White\nChateau' and 'Machines'). 'The Dweller' then came to the attention of 'an enterprising journalist'\nwho 'scenting good copy, at once attacked the B.B.C. for doing spiritualistic propaganda'. Berkeley\nthen found himself confronted by an 'aghast' B.B.C.:\n“To my utter astonishment I found the B.B.C. aghast. The Managing-Director, the Director of\nEducation, the director of Publicity had all bombarded the Dramatic Department with their\nopinions. Something had to be done at once. … The last line of the play was wrong. It must be\nchanged. It must be made innocuous. They adjured me to consent. … I consented. But I warned\nthe Dramatic Producer he was pickling a rod for his own back.”\nThis was the first censorship row that R.E. Jeffrey appears to have encountered and it must have\nbeen on his mind when his wrote his 'Radio Times' article for July and described his regulation of\nplays:\nAs to the actual nature of the plays, they will not follow the trend of the present stage play, with its\npredominating sex, or, rather, sexual, interest. They will set a new standard, rather than adopt an\nexisting one. It must be remembered that radio plays are presented at the, family fireside. Their\nethics, must be unquestionable. ('The Radio Times' 17 July 1925)\nIt is not clear when the attention of the 'enterprising journalist' was first drawn to 'The Dweller'.\nBerkeley's account is rather shortened. It could have been before or after broadcast. Was Berkeley\npressured to change his final line for the first broadcast – and this is perhaps more likely - or for\nthe repeats on 14 April (Daventry 5XX) and 16 April (London 2LO)? The second broadcast had\nthe same cast.\n[K. H., Manchester Guardian] “There is…no medium which more sensitively enhances the\nsuggestion of the supernatural than that of the microphone. The cinema may pile visual upon oral\nhorror, and the theatre give closer contact with the players, but the microphone by virtue of its\nlimitations presents to its scattered audience that conviction of ‘something strange,’ which, after\nindividual experience, can be more disturbing than an evening of ‘horrors’ in a well-filled theatre.\n“Nothing can be seen, often nothing heard, and it is this sheer blankness which tightens the\ntension for the listener. Mr. Berkeley’s ghost became audible, but it was in the earlier parts of the\nsketch as ‘something strange’ that he was most eerily sinister.”\n[Berkeley, Machines] “I first wrote for broadcasting about three years ago. As is usual, I\ndiscussed the plot in advance with Mr. Jeffrey—a charming man to work with—and in due course\ndelivered the script of a short ‘thriller’ called ‘The Dweller in the Darkness.’ I had better say in\nparenthesis that the first thing the writer of a wireless play has to think about is inventing a set of\ncircumstances in which he can obtain a ‘background’ by means of sounds. These and what he puts\ninto his characters’ mouths are his only scenery. Hence the present play, ‘MACHINES,’ and all its\nsub-developments; hence the mise en scene of my first attempt, which was a spiritualistic séance,\nso as to get a ‘background’ of weird rappings and noises.\n“’The Dweller’ was immediately put into rehearsal and was broadcast. An enterprising\njournalist, scenting good copy, at once attacked the B.B.C. for doing spiritualistic propaganda… I\nwent to see my friends at Savoy Hill expecting to find that a jet of cooling ridicule had been turned\non the newspaper in question (the editor of which, by the way, sent me an apology for the\nstupidity of the attack). To my utter astonishment, I found the B.B.C. aghast. The Managing-\nDirector, the Director of Education, the Director of Publicity had all bombarded the Dramatic\nDepartment with their opinions. Something had to be done at once. Not, of course, that the\nnewspaper attack made any difference whatever. They all assured me of that. But they had\nsuddenly seen the light. The last line of the play was wrong. It must be changed. It must be made\ninnocuous. They adjured me to consent. The Managing-Director put in a plea on the telephone. It\ndidn’t seem to me to make a great deal of difference either way, and as the change would give\nthem great pleasure I, of course, consented. But I warned the Dramatic Producer that he was\npickling a rod for his own back.”",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "(5XX, CHELMSFORD)\n[Tuesday—9:15-9:45 PM]\nApril 14, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nSCRIPT: Reginald Berkeley.\nPERSONNEL: R. E. Jeffrey (director).\nCAST: Mabel Constanduros (Mrs. Vyner), Gordon Douglas (Mr. Vyner), Henry\nOscar (Mr. Mortimer), Phyllis Panting (Phyllis Vyner), Ashton Pearse (Professor\nUrquhart), Raymond Trafford (Henry).\n(2LO, LONDON)\n[Thursday—9:15-9:40 PM]\nApril 16, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nCAST: Mabel Constanduros (Mrs. Vyner), Henry Oscar (Mr. Mortimer), Phyllis\nPanting (Phyllis Vyner), Ashton Pearse (Professor Urquhart),  Tarver Penna (Mr.\nVyner), Raymond Trafford (Henry).\nLONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (BOURNEMOURTH)\n[Monday—9:10-9:45 PM]\nMay 4, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE LONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (5WA, CARDIFF)\n[Friday—9:15-9:45 PM]\nMay 22, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE REPERTORY PLAYERS (5SC, GLASGOW)\n[Monday—9:15-9:45 PM]\nJune 1, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nCAST: Mabel Constanduros (Mrs. Vyner), Drelincourt Odlum (Mr. Vyner), Henry\nOscar (Mr. Mortimer), Phyllis Panting (Phyllis Vyner), Ashton Pearse (Professor\nUrquhart), Raymond Trafford (Henry).\nTHE LONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (2BD, ABERDEEN)\n[Friday—9:15-9:25 PM]\nJune 19, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE LONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (2ZY, MANCHESTER)\n[Monday—9:15-9:40 PM]\nJune 29, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE LONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (2LO, LONDON)\n[Wednesday—8:15-8:50 PM]\nJuly 8, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE LONDON RADIO REPERTORY PLAYERS (5NO, NEWCASTLE)\n[Friday—9:10-9:40 PM]\nJuly 17, 1925\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nTHE DWELLER IN THE DARKNESS (2LO, LONDON)\n[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]\nJanuary 4, 1926\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\n[THE TIMES: “…The scene is a card room at Hardenby Court, a large\nhouse rented furnished by Mr. Vyner. The room is a comfortable one\nwith shaded electric lights and a parquet floor. The time and the\ncharacters will be made plain in the course of the play…”]\nCAST: Mabel Constanduros (Mrs. Vyner), Laurence Gowdy (Professor Urquhart),\nMichael Hogan (Henry), Henry Oscar (Mr. Mortimer), Phyllis Panting (Phyllis\nVyner), Herbert Ross (Mr. Vyner).\nTHE DWELLER IN THE DARKNESS (5SC, GLASGOW)\n[Saturday—9:15-9:40 PM]\nSeptember 24, 1927\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nCAST: J. G. Chalmers, Enid Hewit, Percival Steeds, Bertha Waddell, R. B.\nWharrie, George Yurll.\nTHE RADIO PLAYERS OF WFAA (WFAA, DALLAS)\n[Thursday—9:30-10:00 PM]\nSeptember 27, 1928\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”\nPERSONNEL: Talbot Pearson (director—1928).\nCAST: Roy Cowan, Marion Pearson, George Spelvin, Gladys Stavely, Dillon\nWhite.\nPAGES FROM A SKETCHBOOK (LONDON REGIONAL, LONDON—BBC)\n[Saturday—9:15-10:15 PM]\nJuly 7, 1934\n“Comforts” / “Waiting” / “The Dweller in the Darkness” / “The\nPunter’s Friend” / “The Interview”\nPERSONNEL: Max Kester (producer).\nCAST: Clifford Bean, Bert Coote, Barbara Couper, Jack Melford, Dorothy\nMonkman, Cyril Nash, Henry Sherek, Maria Solveg, Philip Wade.\n(GSD, DAVENTRY)\n[Saturday—7:20-7:40 PM]\nNovember 28, 1936\n“The Dweller in the Darkness”",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}