APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR
[RADIO-SERIES]
“This is your storyteller, The Man in Black, here again to tell you a story that may
divert…soothe…or—who knows?—…even disturb you.”
Transposed bodily from the scripts and concepts created by John Dickson Carr in 1942 for the
CBS show Suspense, this anthology series was a deliberate attempt by Carr and flamboyant BBC
producer Val Gielgud (the older brother of Sir John) to create a thriller program “in the American
manner.”
“Carr was unequaled,” writes his biographer Douglas Greene, “in creating an eerie atmosphere
by careful choice of emotive words, and many passages of his novels and short stories are
especially effective when read aloud. This ability transferred easily into the preparation of radio
dramas.”
“In spite of his many appearances on stage, screen, and radio, people still tend to look on him,
he once told us, as ‘The Man in Black.’ ‘I have even been stopped in the street and told by a man
that I had frightened his wife, and that if I continued with the series there’d be trouble.’”
Valentine Dyall: “It was a tremendous success… It was an empty jackpot which one hit… I don’t
know whether it was a bad thing or a good thing… The listening figures were only very slightly
under that of ITMA, so you’d imagine that people rather listened to it. And they were awfully good
stories…”
[London Times, November 1, 1945] “At an inquest at Birmingham yesterday on the body of
Brian Howard Phillips, 13, of Egghill Lane, Northfields, Birmingham, who was found hanging in
the bathroom at his home, it was suggested by Mr. Roderick Baker, representing the school
authorities, that the boy tried out on himself Dr. Ley’s method of committing sucide after
listening to the B.B.C. feature ‘Appointment with Fear’.”
Although it owed its genesis and inspiration to Carr, Appointment With Fear didn’t become a
full-fledged horror series until after he had left the show. Carr confessed (in a letter to Frederic
Dannay, one-half of the nom de plume “Ellery Queen”) that he lacked the temperament to delve
into the pure supernatural. “I can’t write a straight ghost story,” he admitted. “For my own soul’s
comfort I must have an explanation. It seems untidy, it seems dodging a writer’s real
responsibility, to say, ‘Oh, that was a ghost.’”
In 1946 Martyn Webster became sole producer of the series and began placing a greater
emphasis on horror. Classics of supernatural menace, such as E. F. Benson’s vampire story “Mrs.
Amworth,” were done, and also tales of physical and mental torture, including a play from the
London Grand Guignol, “The Nutcracker Suite,” in which adulterous lovers are crushed to death
in a room with inwardly-moving walls while the revengeful husband plays their favorite
Tchaikovsky piece on the gramophone.
A northern station in the late Forties frolicked with a comedy-variety hour called Appointment
with Cheer. And in 1953 Appointment with Weir was a platter-spinning series in which, the
Radio Times announced, “Frank Weir invites you to listen to his selection of gramophone
records.”
Valentine Dyall’s sinister narrator finally got his own program in this 1949 series.
Dyall was sometimes at pains to separate the reality of his own personality and interests from
the dark predilections of his vox persona, but he did so with grisly good humour. “A rumour
started,” he wrote in 1954, “with my weekly broadcasts as ‘The Man in Black’—that my appetite
for mystery and horror was acquired at six years of age, when Christmas parcels got mixed up and
I received The Works of Edgar Allan Poe instead of Mother Goose. It is absolutely untrue. I was
only five… There are many other cruel falsehoods—that I keep puff-adders as pets, rear
Belladonna in my window-box and dress like a certain advertisement for a well-known port. The
truth is that I have no penchant for the macabre—only, like Kipling’s baby elephant, an ‘insatiable
curiosity’, a fatal fascination for ‘the sealed room’. I cannot resist an unsolved mystery, and if it
happens to involve ‘buckets of blood’—well, that’s no deterrent.”
[Adelaide Mail, February 2, 1952—“Radio Round-up—‘Ghosts’” by John Quinn] “Anyone who
enjoys being scared stiff by ghosties and things that go bump in the night will be captivated by
‘The Man in Black.’
“It is heard from 5CL on Monday at 9 p.m.
“This is another of those excellent BBC transcriptions that seem to be the backbone of the ABC.
“It is a series of stories described as tales of imagination, mystery, and fear.
“This is something of an understatement for the two I have heard were both calculated to make
ever [sic] Dracula look under his bier before tucking himself into his coffin of a night.
“The rich, smoothly ominous voice of the Man in Black, who is the narrator, is an ideal vehicle
for these macabre tales.
“Last Monday’s offering was called ‘Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad.’
“It told of a harmless professor on holidays—and of the fearful visitor who came when he blew a
little whistle he found in the ruins of a Knights Templar church.”
ORIGINATION: Home Service (1943-1944), Manchester (BBC); The Light Programme (1945-1957), London
(BBC).
DURATION: September 11-November 18, 1943 (first series), January 6-February 10, 1944 (second series),
April 13-May 18, 1944 (third series), October 5-December 28, 1944 (fourth series), September 11-October 16,
1945 (fifth series), October 30-December 4, 1945 (sixth series), March 26-June 11, 1946 (seventh series),
December 25, 1946 (Christmas special), February 25-April 29, 1947 (eighth series), December 4, 1947
(Command Performance), January 31-March 21, 1949 (The Man in Black series), July 26-August 30, 1955
(ninth series), August 12-September 16, 1957 (repeat broadcasts of the 1955 series).
PERSONNEL: Laidman Browne (scriptwriter), John Dickson Carr (scriptwriter, producer), John Keir Cross
(scriptwriter—1949, The Man in Black), Franklin Dyall (voice of “The Man In Black”—second series; April
20, 1944), Valentine Dyall (voice of “The Man In Black”—1943-1957), Cleland Finn (producer—1949, The
Man in Black), Val Gielgud (producer, 1943), David H. Godfrey (producer—1949, The Man in Black; 1955),
Walter Goehr (music, 1944), Charles Hatton (scriptwriter), Monckton Hoffe (scriptwriter), Mileson Horton
(scriptwriter), Lester Powell (scriptwriter), T. J. Waldron (scriptwriter), Martyn C. Webster (producer, 1943-
1955).
CAST [9/11/43, “Cabin B-13”]:
CASTS: Laidman Browne, Heron Carvic, Vivienne Chatterton, Belle Chrystall, Frank Cochrane, Ann
Codrington, Anne Cullen, Constance Cummings, John Dodsworth, Graham Doody, Franklin Dyall, Valentine
Dyall, Richard George, Marius Goring, Stanley Groome, Grizelda Hervey, Basil Jones, P. Leaver, Eric Lugg,
W. Lloyd, Duncan McIntyre, Harry Morris, Esme Percy, Eric Portman, Hartley Power, Molly Rankin, Eddy
Reed, Arthur Ridley, Sehri Saklatvala, Alexander Sarner, John Slater, Gladys Spencer, Marian Spencer,
Ronald Squire, J. Stone, Lewis Stringer, William Trent, Ralph Truman, Rita Vale, Harry Welchman,
Marjorie Westbury, Richard Williams, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “The Pit And The Pendulum” (9/18/43), “Into Thin Air” (9/21/43), “The Speaking
Clock” (4/13/44), “The Clock Strikes Eight” (5/18/44), “And The Deep Shuddered” (11/20/45).
[OG-NOTE: The Lester Powell-scripted “The Bell Room” (based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia”), which originally ran
on Appointment With Fear on March 25, 1947, is extant from a January 2, 1957 broadcast on the BBC program Thirty
Minute Theatre. Also extant from a September 17, 1959 broadcast of the same series is the Laidman Browne-scripted
version of Poe’s “The Cask Of Amontillado,” which aired originally on Appointment With Fear on April 9, 1946.
The National Sound Archive has episode no. 18 from the series BBC Close Up which was broadcast on September
29, 1943, the title “How a Radio Play Is Produced.” This show has an re-enactment of a rehearsal session for “Cabin
B-13,” the first play performed on Appointment With Fear, with Val Gielgud giving direction to Belle Chrystal and
Laidmain Browne. An excerpt from this “rehearsal” was included in the BBC’s radio horror retrospective The Return
of the Man in Black.]
Recordings of some of the episodes of The Man in Black were re-broadcast on Washington station WOL in 1949
and on Australian radio station 2FC in Sydney from January 20 to ????, 1952.]
[CHRONOLOGY]
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (HOME SERVICE)
[Saturday—10:30-11:00 PM]
September 11, 1943 “Cabin B-13”
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr.
CAST: Laidman Browne, Belle Chrystal, et al.
September 18. 1943 “The Pit and the Pendulum”
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr (adapted from the story by Edgar Allan Poe).
CAST: Marius Goring, et al.
EXTANT RECORDING
[Tuesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
September 21, 1943 “Into Thin Air” (JDC)
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr.
EXTANT RECORDING
B.B.C. CLOSE-UP (HOME SERVICE)
[Wednesday—9:25-9:40 PM]
September 29, 1943 “How a Radio Play Is Produced”
[“…No. 18 in a series of programmes showing various aspects of the
B.B.C. at war…”]
EXTANT RECORDING—NSA
[OG-NOTE: An archival copy of this program is held by the National Sound Archive.]
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (HOME SERVICE)
[Thursday—10:30-11:00 PM]
September 30, 1943 “The Body Snatchers” (JDC)
October 7, 1943 “The Customers Like Murder” (JDC)
October 14, 1943 “Will You Make a Bet with Death?” (JDC)
October 21, 1943 “The Devil’s Saint” (JDC)
October 28, 1943 “Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble” (JDC)
November 4, 1943 “The Phantom Archer” (JDC)
[Thursday—9:40-10:10 PM]
November 11, 1943 “The Man Who Died Twice” (JDC)
November 18, 1943 “Menace in Wax” (JDC)
[Thursday—9:35-10:05 PM]
January 6, 1944 “Vex Not His Ghost” (JDC)
January 13, 1944 “The Tell-Tale Heart” (Edgar Allan Poe; JDC)
[Thursday—9:40-10:10 PM]
January 20, 1944 “The Room of the Suicides” (JDC)
January 27, 1944 “The Sire de Malatroit’s Door” (Robert Louis Stevenson; JDC)
February 3, 1944 “The Dragon in the Pool”
[BBC TITLE CARD: “Father kills himself with glass knife and makes it look
like murder so his children get insurance money—told how to by his son.
Daughter suspects and puts the knife in swimming pool where the
brother dives on it and gets killed.”]
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr.
February 10, 1944 “The Man Who Was Afraid of Dentists” (JDC)
April 13, 1944 “The Speaking Clock” (JDC)
EXTANT RECORDING
April 20, 1944 “Death Flies Blind” (JDC)
April 27, 1944 “A Watcher by the Dead” (Ambrose Bierce; JDC)
May 4, 1944 “The Pit and the Pendulum” (Edgar Allan Poe; JDC)
May 11, 1944 “Vampire Tower” (JDC)
May 18, 1944 “The Clock Strikes Eight” (JDC)
EXTANT RECORDING
[Thursday—9:30-10:00 PM]
October 5, 1944 “I Never Suspected” (JDC)
October 12, 1944 “The Devil’s Manuscript” (JDC)
October 19, 1944 “Death Has Four Faces” (JDC)
October 26, 1944 “The Purple Wig” (G. K. Chesterton; JDC)
November 2, 1944 “He Who Whispers”
[BBC TITLE CARD: “Young man is haunted by mysterious voice which
threatens and an attempt was made on his life one night by gassing him.
Father pooh-poohs his story—he goes to police who meet them in
Victorian music-hall. Turns out father had hired ventriloquist to frighten
boy in Whispering Gallery of St. Paul’s—the rest his nerves supplied—he
tried the gas himself. Father kills himself by dashing on to stage with
blind folded knife thrower. He was only step-father and wanted boy’s
money.”]
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr.
November 9, 1944 “The Curse of the Bronze Lamp” (JDC)
November 16, 1944 “The Great Cypher” (Melville Davisson Post, JDC)
November 30, 1944 “Vex Not His Ghost” (JDC)
December 7, 1944 “The Curse of the Bronze Lamp” (JDC)
December 14, 1944 “The Gong Cried Murder” (JDC)
December 21, 1944 “Lair of the Devil Fish” (JDC)
December 28, 1944 “The Oath of Rolling Thunder” (JDC)
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
September 11, 1945 “Into Thin Air” (JDC)
September 18, 1945 “Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble” (JDC)
September 25, 1945 “The Man Who Died Twice” (JDC)
October 2, 1945 “The Clock Strikes Eight” (JDC)
October 9, 1945 “Cabin B-13” (JDC)
October 16, 1945 “Will You Make a Bet with Death?” (JDC)
October 30, 1945 “He Wasn’t Superstitious”
[BBC TITLE CARD: “Young man comes to blackmail wife of doctor who
keeps snakes—he is scornful of the power of snakes to attract—but when
he imagines he sees one in his bedroom he is drawn towards it—imagines
it strikes him and dies of shock. It was a stuffed voodoo snake put there
by native servant.”]
SCRIPT: John Dickson Carr (adapted from the story “The Man and the Snake” by
Ambrose Bierce).
November 6, 1945 “The Man with Two Heads” (JDC)
November 13, 1945 “The Case of the Five Canaries” (JDC)
November 20, 1945 “And the Deep Shuddered” (Moncton Hoffe)
SCRIPT: Moncton Hoffe.
EXTANT RECORDING
November 27, 1945 “The Case”
SCRIPT: John Slater, Roy Plomley.
December 4, 1945 “Death at Midnight” (Robert Barr)
March 26, 1946 “The Nutcracker Suite” (E. Crawshay-Williams; J. Leslie
Dodd)
April 2, 1946 “Black Mamba” (Hugh Barnes, A. R. Ramsden)
April 9, 1946 “The Cask of Amontillado” (Edgar Allan Poe; Laidman
Browne)
April 16, 1946 “A Watcher by the Dead” (Ambrose Bierce; JDC)
April 23, 1946 “The Man Who Knew How” (Dorothy Sayers; Robert
Cunliffe)
April 30, 1946 “Dead Men’s Teeth” (Richard Fisher; Charles Hatton)
May 7, 1946 “Experiment with Death”
[“…A doctor experimenting with hypnosis and ‘astral wandering’ sends
his subject—a young medical student—to see into the Unknown. He sees
curious people there who won’t let him come back. He nearly dies, and is
told to tell the doctor never to try again, for he has been dabbling with
the Evil One…”]
SCRIPT: Harry Bunton.
May 14, 1946 “Death Takes a Honeymoon” (Mileson Horton, W. L.
Catchpole)
May 21, 1946 “Renovations at Merret’s” (Honore de Balzac; Rankine Good)
May 28, 1946 “The Monkey’s Paw” (W. W. Jacobs; Louis N. Parker)
June 4, 1946 “Cottage for Sale” (T. J. Waldron)
June 11, 1946 “A Mind in Shadow” (Kenneth Morgan)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
December 25, 1946 “Escape to Death”
[Tuesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
February 25, 1947 “Mrs. Amworth” (E. F. Benson; )
March 4, 1947 “Sink or Swim Together”
March 11, 1947 “The Last Pilgrimage” (T. J. Waldron)
March 25, 1947 “The Bell Room” (Edgar Allan Poe; Lester Powell)
April 1, 1947 “The Diary of William Carpenter” (John Atkins; Patrick
Dickinson)
April 8, 1947 “The Treasures” (Gilbert Frankau; Charles Hatton)
April 22, 1947 “The Hands of Nekamen”
[BBC TITLE CARD: “Hilary Talbot, an Egyptologist, steals the 3000-years-
old mummified Hands of Nekamen from a secret Egyptian temple. The
priest places a curse on him; and, 40 years later, the hands leave their
casket in Talbot’s private museum, come into his bedroom through the
fanlight over the door, and kill him.”]
SCRIPT: Lester Powell (adapted from a story by Kathleen Hyatt).
[OG-NOTE: Spelling on BBC card is “Hyett.”]
[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]
April 28, 1947 “All Cats May Snarl”
SCRIPT: J. Vernon Basley.
[Friday—4:15-4:45 PM]
July 4, 1947 “The Hands of Nekamen”
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (HOME SERVICE)
[Thursday—9:45-10:15 PM]
December 4, 1947 “The Clock Strikes Eight” (JDC)
[“…When the King and Queen visit Broadcasting House this evening they
will spend over two hours inspecting the activities of the B.B.C…. The
King and Queen will hear the news read at 9:00 and afterwards they will
attend a performance of The Clock Strikes Eight, a play in the
‘Appointment with Fear’ series…”]
January 14, 1948 “The Clock Strikes Eight” (JDC)
THE MAN IN BLACK (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[Monday—8:30-9:00 PM]
January 31, 1949 “Markheim” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
February 7, 1949 “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You, My Lad” (M.R. James)
February 14, 1949 “The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” (Ambrose Bierce)
February 21, 1949 “Our Feathered Friends” / “Thus I Refute Beelzy” (John Collier)
February 28, 1949 “The Judge’s House” (Bram Stoker)
March 7, 1949 “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Charlotte Perkins Gillman)
March 14, 1949 “The Beast with Five Fingers” (W.F. Harvey)
March 21, 1949 “The Little House”
(LIGHT PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[
December 27, 1949 “The Night of the Twenty Seventh”
[“…A real special, featuring the BBC’s most popular detectives in one big
show, first broadcast as a Christmas special in 1949…”]
From the almost legendary Pat Hetherington scrapbooks, here is her
(typed) transcription of this radio oddity: no recordings of this radio
show seem to have survived, but her marvellous efforts allow us another
glimpse into the Golden Age of BBC Radio Thrillers!
As always, I have not attempted to edit Pat's work to any degree, apart
from obvious typing errors.
THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH.
Dr. and Mrs. Dale are sitting over the fire at their home at Virginia
Lodge, Parkwood Hill, London, when there is a knock at the front door.
Dr. Dale gets up to answer it; a man comes into the room.
"My name is Walter Leesham", he says, "and I represent a well-known
firm of solicitors, Messrs. Croxford, Croxford, Featherdale & Croxford. I
am here to carry out a will of a Mr. Silas Ephraim, who died a month
ago."
"How can we help?" asks Dr. Dale, "We have never even heard of the
man."
"Ah, but he has heard of you", continues the visitor, "you see, he was a
keen radio fan and one of his wishes is to hold a dinner party in his
memory, and that you and Mrs. Dale should be host and hostess.
The party has to be held on the night of the 27th at Hallows Court, the
home of the late Silas Ephraim."
"Who are going to be invited?" asks Mrs. Dale.
"Let me see", answers Leesham, "there are Dick Barton, Paul and Steve
Temple, P.C.49 and Joan Carr, Philip Odell and Heather Macmara, the
Man In Black and Miss Dangerfield. Each guest will receive £500 for
attending, and you and Dr. Dale will receive £750 for being host and
hostess."
On the night of the 27th, the Man In Black is walking along the road in
the direction of Hallows Court, when a car pulls up and the driver offers
him a lift; it turns out to be none other than Paul Temple who, with
Steve, is on his way to the party.
They are greeted by Dr. and Mrs. Dale - just then, they hear a noise in the
sky: looking up, they see a helicopter which gradually loses height until it
comes to a stop on the lawn.
"There is only one person who would come like that!" says Steve.
Yes, it is Dick Barton, Special Agent.
"Why did you choose that kind of transport?" asks Paul, curiously.
"Well, my car broke down," answers Dick, "and as there are no buses in
this part of the country, I thought a helicopter was the next best thing. I
used to play around here when I was young - that is how I know the
country so well".
As they are talking, a police car comes up the drive; it is driven by P.C.49.
"Good evening, all", he greets them.
"Where did you get the car?" asks the Man In Black.
"I borrowed it from Inspector Wilson", answers P.C.49.
"It's a pity he wouldn't give you any promotion", says Paul.
"Oh, I don't know," says P.C.49, "'The Adventures Of Chief Inspector
Berkley-Willoughby' wouldn't sound right, would it?"
"No." agree the others.
"Well, I think we are all here now," says Mrs. Dale, as she leads the way
into the front room. As they approach it, they hear strains of the 'Harry
Lime Theme' from "The Third Man" being played on a gramophone.
"That is the four hundredth time I have heard that," sighs Steve.
"Good evening, everyone," says Philip Odell, switching off the
gramophone.
"There is a telegram from Miss Dangerfield, saying she can't come," says
Dr. Dale, presently.
"Was there anything peculiar on the telegram?" asks Paul.
"Oh, don't start now, dear," pleads Steve.
"Yes, there was," says Dr. Dale, " and it rather puzzled me: it was 'Be
careful, the Borgias were always having dinner parties, too'."
It is then that Dick realises that the Borgias were used to finding poison
in drinks and food...
"Talking of drinks, what about handing some round?" says Dr. Dale, "I'll
make sure that they aren't poisoned first."
"Yes, I could fancy a drop of scotch," says Philip, "and I'll bet Paul and
Steve have a gin and tonic."
"How do you know that?" asks Paul.
"In all your adventures, you always have a gin and tonic!" answers Philip.
"Do you realise, Steve," says Paul, "he must be one of our fans!"
"Why didn't you bring Snowey and Jock, Dick?" asks P.C.49.
"Well there was only room in the helicopter for one, and if I had brought
Jock, Snowey would have sulked, and if I had brought Snowey, Jock
would have sulked, so I left them both at home," replies Dick.
"What is the matter with your face, Dick?" asks Philip, "it's all scratched."
"That's what I got from the tiger I met on the way." says Dick.
"I'll bet the tiger's face is ten times worse!" laughs Paul.
"You know," says Dick, turning to Philip, "I suggest we all say what we
are thinking."
"I always do say what I think," says Philip, "that's why nobody loves me."
"But, seriously," says Dick, "why, for example, didn't you bring Heather?"
"For the same reason that P.C.49 didn't bring Joan, I suppose," says
Philip, "I guess we suspected danger."
"I expect you are wondering why I brought Steve, under those
circumstances," interrupts Paul. "After all, Steve is my wife; P.C.49 isn't
married to Joan and neither is Philip married to Heather, but Steve
would not stay at home when she received the invitation."
"As you know, I am familiar with this part of the country," says Dick,
"and I knew that this house had been bought two months ago, by a Mr.
Brown. I checked up about Silas Ephraim and discovered that nobody
has died in this house for years and, what is more, the firm of Croxford,
Croxford, Featherdale & Croxford do not employ a clerk named Walter
Leesham."
Just then, a servant comes into the room with some coffee.
"I should watch that coffee, sir" he says, "all the other food is home-
made, but the coffee was supplied by someone else."
He leaves the room and Dick notices that the coffee has a funny smell.
"Who is going to prove that it is poisoned?" says Philip.
"By Jove, it is prussic acid!" exclaims Dr. Dale.
"Now who would want to poison us?" queries Philip.
"I don't think Inspector Wilson is very fond of me, but I don't think he'd
try to poison me," says P.C.49.
"Perhaps J. Arthur Rank is trying to make some money out of us." says
Dick.
"It's more likely that somebody is angry with us for not listening to
'Faust' on the Third Programme," says Philip.
"I feel awful about this," says Mrs. Dale, "we asked you to come."
"It isn't your fault," Paul assures her.
"Generally, we have work before play," says Philip, "but this time things
are reversed: we've had our play - what about doing a spot of work?"
"That's just what I was thinking," says Dick. "Come on, let's see what is
going on in the kitchen."
They all enter the kitchen and find it empty; as they are about to go into
the hall, they discover that someone has locked them in.
"Has anyone got a pack of cards?" asks Philip.
"Stop wasting time," says Dick, irritably.
"It's better than doing it," argues Philip.
They then hear for the first time the voice: "I am Silas Ephraim and I am
not dead, but very much alive. I propose to kill you all, but first there will
be some fun and games. I am going to enjoy this. I am talking through a
hidden loudspeaker and I can hear every word you say; YOU are now the
slaves to the loudspeakers, just as I have been for years."
Mrs. Dale begins to cry: "Oh, Jim!" she sobs.
"Never mind, Mary, love," says Dr. Dale, trying to comfort her.
"We'll have to get out of here," says Dick, picking up a chair with the
intention of breaking down the door.
"It's no good doing that," says the voice, "the door is barred with steel."
"I never saw such a guy as you, Barton," scolds Philip, "you are always
wanting to break something."
"Anyway," says Paul, "it's Silas Ephraim's neck you want to break, not his
chair."
"Anyone want a game of pontoon?" says P.C.49.
"You can escape by pressing the ornamental panelling round the
fireplace," says the voice.
"I wish you'd send up a bottle of scotch, or send it down, as the case may
be. You don't drink, do you, Barton?"
"No, I don't," answers Dick.
"You don't know what you're missing," says Philip.
"At each corner of the ceiling, some vapour is escaping," continues the
voice, "you'll have to press the panelling."
"Come on, Dick," says the Man In Black, "this is more in your line."
After a quick search, "I have discovered the secret," says Dick, "it is a
wooden carving of a lion's head on the right of the fireplace."
"Press it," says Silas Ephraim.
Dick presses it and the door opens; at the same time, the machinery pulls
the trigger of a gun: a hail of bullets is fired but no one is hurt, as the
bullets go into the ceiling. They then proceed into the hall and walk
towards the stairs.
"Mind the stairs, and remember your 'Bulldog Drummond'," warns the
voice.
They rack their brains and finally recall an incident when someone had to
climb stairs: on one step, something came out of the wall and hits them
for six.
"We'll have to get up there," says Barton.
"Don't go and commit suicide, Barton" warns Philip, "a hole in the Light
Programme from 6.45 to 7pm would be ghastly!"
Under Dick's orders, they leave Paul Temple downstairs with Steve and
Mrs. Dale and make their way up by way of the stair rail; when they
arrive at the top they throw down a flowerpot, which rolls down the
stairs, step by step. When it touches the fifth stair from the top, the trap
works as they expected.
"There are times when your methods pay dividends," says Philip,
admiringly.
They warn Paul, Steve and Mrs. Dale to come up, avoiding the fifth step
from the top.
When they have safely travelled upstairs, everyone goes into the first
room; they find a corpse in a chair, which Dr. Dale recognises as Walter
Leesham.
"He died of heart failure," assures Ephraim.
Suddenly, they discover they are locked in again; Dick, noticing no steel
grill on the window, breaks it, hoping to escape onto the balcony.
"You needn't have done that," says Philip, "the window wasn't locked!"
Just as Dick gets on to the balcony, it gives way under him, but he
manages to hold on to the window frame and get back into the room.
"This is my lucky day," says Dick, "first, I find a half crown in the turn-up
of my trousers, and then I manage to save myself going with the
balcony."
They then find a coil of rope in the room, which Paul throws out of the
window and climbs down.
"Goodbye, Steve, and don't forget to tell your mother that my last
thoughts were for her!" he shouts to his wife.
Steve goes to the rope, with the intention of joining her husband.
"I am used to this kind of thing, as I used to do a lot of mountaineering,"
says Steve.
"I bet you found a corpse in every crevice," says the Man In Black.
Suddenly, Paul sees some wolves coming near to the house. He manages
to give the alarm and Steve manages to get out of the way.
Philip takes out his pistol and, after assuring P.C.49 that he has a licence,
shoots the wolves.
"I wouldn't have liked Paul to be the wolves' Christmas dinner. Why don't
you carry a pistol, Barton? They're very useful," says Philip.
"I am expected to do everything with my fists," replies Dick.
"I wonder what will happen next week... I mean, next?" sobs Mrs. Dale,
"and when is it going to end?"
"I don't think the author himself is sure," says Philip.
Suddenly, snakes appear down the chimney! The voice very kindly
pushes a button, opening another door; they are confronted by a lift gate,
but, before they can open it, a rat scuttles past and is killed when it
touches the gate.
"I'm afraid one of your relations has been killed by your electric fence,"
shouts P.C.49 to Ephraim.
"The Light Programme is closing down as far as you are concerned,"
shouts Paul, who has just had an idea.
"If we all keep quiet, Ephraim may stop playing cat and mouse with us,"
says Paul in a whisper, and they all proceed to speak in hushed tones.
Suddenly, they see the shadow of a man with a gun, but this proves to be
only a dummy, which they ignore; however, Philip suddenly raises the
alarm: "His trigger finger is moving!" he yells.
"Get down, all of you!" shouts Dick, and they dive to the floor, managing
to avoid all the bullets from the mechanical dummy.
Dick sees a gap in the wall at the top of another flight of stairs: it is a door
from which the reflection of a light shines.
"This looks like the finale," says the Man In Black.
"That is where Ephraim is hiding," says P.C.49.
"Don't come in, or you will be sorry," warns Ephraim.
They ignore this remark and Philip threatens him with his pistol.
"I hate you all," says Silas Ephraim, "for years I have been chained to my
radio, craving to know what would happen next, but I always had to wait
until next week. I broke my radio, only to discover that I can't live
without you! For all I care, you can go to hell, all of you!"
He screams hysterically and then bursts into evil laughter as he pulls a
lever: the whole house blows up, but, somehow, everyone except Silas
Ephraim is thrown to safety.
Their explanation is: "We are immortals!"
Then they see the damage: "My car," says Paul; "My helicopter," says
Dick; "My diary," says Mrs. Dale; "My Sunday helmet," says P.C.49.
As always, the final word comes from the Man In Black: "Villains may
come and villains may go - we go on forever. Goodnight."
"The Night Of The Twenty Seventh" was written by Edward J. Mason and
produced by Martyn C. Webster; it was first broadcast on 27th December
1949 on the Light Programme, between 8.30 and 9.30pm. It was
repeated in the 'Curtain Up' series at 8.30pm on 22.3.50.
SCRIPT: Edward J. Mason.
PERSONNEL: Martyn C. Webster (producer).
CAST: Max Adrian (Walter Leesham), Robert Beatty (Philip Odell), Douglas
Burbridge (Dr. Dale), Duncan Carse (Dick Barton), Valentine Dyall (The Man in
Black), Malcolm Hayes (Servant), Kim Peacock (Paul Temple), Ellis Powell (Mrs.
Dale), Leon Quartermane (Silas Ephraim), Brian Reece (P.C. 49), Marjorie
Westbury (Steve Temple).
[OG-NOTE: There was a recorded repeat of this show on Curtain Up, broadcast on
March 22, 1950.]
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
December 24, 1952 “Cabin B-13”
[Tuesday—8:45-9:15 PM]
July 26, 1955 “The Man Who Couldn’t Be Photographed” (JDC)
[“…Why should the screen idol of millions be prevented from seeing the
prints of a photograph he has had taken?...”]
CAST: Beth Boyd (Francine), Peter Claughton (Mullis), George Hagan (Tom
Sherwood), Roderick Lovell (Bruce Ransom), Annabel Maule (Nita Valdez), John
Serret (Monsieur du Lac), Gladys Spencer (Madame Vernet).
August 2, 1955 “White Tiger Passage” (JDC)
[“…How a number scrawled on the wall of a Brighton telephone kiosk led
to the arrest of a murderer, and the promotion of a junior reporter…”]
CAST: Margaret Butt (Jenny Holden), George Hagan (Derwent), Douglas Hayes
(Bill Stacey), Sarah Leigh (Mavis), Annabel Maule (Stella), Bryan Powley
(Monsieur Henri Duchene), James Thomason (Johnson).
August 9, 1955 “The Dead Man’s Knock” (JDC)
[“…The portrait of a beautiful lady… a strange meeting and the re-
enactment of a murder in a vast house called Widestairs… Harpsichord
played by Clifton Helliwell…”]
CAST: Terence Brook (Jack Lacy), Elizabeth London (Margery Kynaston), James
Thomason (The Rev. Frank Richards). John Turnbull (Doctor Marshall),
Manning Wilson (Edward Kynaston).
August 16, 1955 “The Sleuth of Seven Dials” (JDC)
[“…A visit to a lawyer by a strange Eastern gentleman…a seemingly
impossible murder, and an innocent man on the run from the police…”]
CAST: Allan Cuthbertson (James Vaughan), Edwin Ellis (Thompson), George
Hagan (Inspector Hammond), Sarah Leigh (Eleanor Prentice), Geoffrey
Matthews (Bellboy/Hassan El Moulk), Rudolf Offenbach (Schultz). Manning
Wilson (George Prentice).
August 23, 1955 “The Villa of the Damned” (JDC)
[“…A honeymoon couple find adventure—and terror—in a mysterious
villa in Italy…”]
CAST: Peter Claughton (Guard), Gordon Davies (Alan Stannard), Glen Farmer
(American tourist), Joan Hart (Angela Stannard), Megan Latimer (Bianca da
Carpi). Marjorie Mars (Brenda Stannard), Allan McClelland (Pietro), Edgar
Norfolk (The Rev. Septimus Goodlaw).
August 30, 1955 “Till the Great Armadas Come” (JDC)
[“…But for revelations given by Special Prisoner 24 the Fuhrer’s plot to
stamp his mark for ever on London would have materialized…
Harmonica played by Reg Damley…”]
CAST: Peter Claughton (Jones), Peter Howell (Captain Nichols), David King-
Wood (Colonel Fielding), Rolf Lefebvre (Trevis), Edgar Norfolk (Sir Guy Worth),
Christopher Rhodes (Charlie Siebold), Catherine Salkeld (Laura Sheldon), John
Turnbull (Lord Glenarvon).
[Monday—7:30-8:00 PM]
August 12, 1957 “The Man Who Couldn’t Be Photographed”
August 19, 1957 “White Tiger Passage”
August 26, 1957 “Dead Man’s Knock”
September 2, 1957 “The Sleuth of Seven Dials”
September 9, 1957 “The Villa of the Damned”
September 16, 1957 “Till the Great Armadas Come”
[Gallery]
John Dickson Carr Franklin Dyall Valentine Dyall Val Gielgud
BBCSHOP.COM description: “Four chilling episodes from the famous 1940s BBC radio series, introduced
by Valentine Dyall, AKA The Man in Black. These are the four sole surviving episodes from the BBC archive:
: ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ by Edgar Allan Poe (18/9/1943); ‘The Speaking Clock’ by John Dickson Carr
(13/4/1944); ‘The Clock Strikes Eight’ by John Dickson Carr(18/5/1944); ‘And The Deep Shuddered’ by
Monckton Hoffe (20/11/1945) . Amongst the cast are Marjorie Westbury, Marius Goring and Gladys
Spencer.
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR
[RADIO-SERIES]
The BBC World Service revived the series in the mid-Seventies, but (inexcusably) did not re-
instate Valentine Dyall as “The Man In Black,” despite the fact that he was still alive and actively
performing at that time (including several appearances on the Doctor Who television series).
The show made less-than-inspired use of music originally composed by Bernard Herrmann for
the films of Alfred Hitchcock, opening each show with music heard just after the shower murder
in Psycho and signing off with music from Marnie.
ORIGINATION: World Service, London (BBC).
DURATION: December 4, 1976-January 18, 1977.
PERSONNEL: Derek Haganoff (producer, director), Keith Perrin (technical presentation), Michael Robson
(scriptwriter), Bryan Stevens (technical presentation).
CASTS: Christopher Cantaloveve, Ursula Howells, Terence Longden, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “My Fate Cries Out” (12/4/76), “I’ll See You Next Friday” (12/11/76), “Target”
(12/18/76), “A Fine And Private Place” (12/25/76), “Morning Glory” (1/1/77), “Identikill” (1/8/77), “Dogs”
(1/18/77).
[CHRONOLOGY]
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (WORLD SERVICE, LONDON—BBC)
[Saturday—
December 4, 1976 “My Fate Cries Out” [EXTANT RECORDING]
December 11, 1976 “I’ll See You Next Friday” [EXTANT RECORDING]
December 18, 1976 “Target” [EXTANT RECORDING]
December 25, 1976 “A Fine and Private Place” [EXTANT RECORDING]
January 1, 1977 “Morning Glory” [EXTANT RECORDING]
January 8, 1977 “Identikill” [EXTANT RECORDING]
January 18, 1977 ? “Dogs” [EXTANT RECORDING]
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR
[RADIO-SPECIAL]
[Radio Drama Reviews Online: “This light-hearted look at the place of horror in contemporary
culture was recorded at London’s Sutton House (reputedly one of the capital’s oldest haunted
properties), and took the form of a discussion involving presenter Reeve Shearsmith and guests
Vic Reeves, Mark Gatiss and Yvette Fielding.”
(RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)
[
October 29, 2009 “Appointment with Fear”
[RADIO DRAMA REVIEWS ONLINE: “…Appointment with Fear proved a
pleasant surprise: the panel was quite candid about the ways in which
horror affected them…and the discussion was punctuated with clips from
a variety of programmes including The Man in Black with Valentine
Dyall, Griselda Harvey delivering a venomous laugh, an adaptation of
Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five (particularly
horrifying for young children) and Ghosthunters, a reality television
show presented by Michael Parkinson. The conclusions reached were far
from original (that horror not only has the power to shock but can appeal
to all types of viewer and/or listener, regardless of class, race or gender).
The panellists also suggested that horror has a certain cathartic quality,
which proved an interesting point: I wonder how we might differentiate
horror from tragedy in this respect?...”]