A. J. ALAN
[RADIO APPEARANCES]
A. J. Alan, the microphone nom-de-plume of British civil servant Leslie Harrison Lambert, was
the premier teller of ghost and “shaggy dog” stories in the earliest days of the BBC. “In his very
first broadcast,” noted announcer Stuart Hibberd, “Alan made such a hit that whenever his name
appeared in the Radio Times thousands of listeners noted the date and time in their diaries.” An
A. J. story, whether it concerned a ghost, a murder, or something stranger, was truly an event to
anticipate. “Whenever A. J. Alan told one of his preposterous stories in the early days of the
wireless,” reminisced Times writer Leonard Buckley in 1971, “you always listened. Everybody
did.”
The fact that the listening public knew nothing about the man behind the voice only heightened
the anticipation. “His name carried an aura of mystery about it,” explained Hibberd. “In fact, A. J.
Alan was the mystery man of radio. ‘Tell me, who is this fellow Alan? What does he look like? Is
Alan his real name? (How many times had I been asked such questions!)” Radio Times humorist
A. A. Thomson remarked, not altogether facetiously, that “the identity of A. J. Alan is one of the
major mysteries of the century.” But the true identity of Alan was a closely-guarded secret which
was known only to, as Eric Partridge expressed it, “a very narrow circle at Broadcasting House,”
and was not revealed until after his death. “He was known to cut even his friends for fear that they
might reveal his identity,” remembered Freddy Grisewood. “As it happened, I knew him quite
well, but when later I joined the B.B.C. and had the job of announcing him he showed not the
faintest sign of recognition.”
But even those who were acquainted with him as Lambert in the 1920s knew next-to-nothing
about his earlier years, and reportedly the man himself would close up like a clam whenever the
subject was broached. Latter-day research has uncovered the fact that he achieved a modicum of
celebrity in his mid-twenties as a professional magician. He was, Eric Partridge revealed, “a
member of ‘The Magic Circle’ in its early days and later a polished, very skilful, original performer
with Maskelyne at St. George’s Hall…”
George Facer
[According to The Times:
[June 10, 1907] “The Belgrave Hospital for Children… Summer Fair and Spanish Market at
Prince’s Skating Rink, Knightsbridge… Mr. Leslie Lambert gave exhibitions of conjuring.”
[June 14, 1907] “The Queen’s Fete, at the Mansion-house, organized by the Lord Mayor for the
care and treatment of crippled children… The large company assembled in the Egyptian Hall…
During the afternoon an entertainment was given in the old ballroom, in which…Mr. Leslie
Lambert…took part.”
[February 27, 1908] Ad for “MASKELYNE and DEVANT’S MYSTERIES, St. George’s-Hall… Mr.
Leslie Lambert… Mr. Maskelyne’s ‘Spectres of the Sanctum’…”
[April 1, 1909] “The Prince and Princess of Wales gave an Afternoon Party in honour of Prince
Henry of Wales’ birthday… A selection of songs were rendered by the Metropolitan Police
Minstrels…and Mr. Leslie Lambert gave an exhibition of conjuring.”
[December 3, 1909] “The Duchess of Albany was present yesterday afternoon at an entertainment
organized to celebrate the jubilee of the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic…
Among the artists who contributed to it were…Mr. Leslie Lambert.”
[July 22, 1913] “Princess Alexander of Teck will be present at a concert at Margate Pavilion in aid
of a scholarship fund of the Imperial Service College… The following are giving their services:
…Mr. Leslie Lambert…”
[November 3, 1913] “…at the Coliseum this week… Mr. Lionel Atwill will produce an illusionary
sketch, founded by Mr. Cyril Twyford on Mr. H. G. Wells’s story, ‘The Invisible Man,’ the illusions
being by Mr. Leslie Lambert.”
[November 10, 1913] In a bill that also featured W. C. Fields… Ad: Messrs. Cyril Twyford and
Lionel Atwill present…”THE INVISIBLE MAN,” a Farce suggested by the Story by H. G. Wells…”
There are missing years in Lambert’s chronology during and after the Great War, and it is
speculated that he was heavily involved in secret intelligence work for the British government. He
had a rank of naval commander and an appointment at the Admiralty.
The saga of the fourteen-year stint of A. J. Alan on the air really began in December of 1923. On
the 19th of the month Lambert tuned in to London station 2LO to hear Sir William Bull, a former
director of the original B.B.C., Ltd., give a talk entitled “Western Stories in an Eastern Fashion.”
During the course of his broadcast Sir William decried the death (or, at least, the dearth) of the
art of story-telling in the modern age. Lambert was inspired on the spot to rise to the challenge,
and the following morning he rang up his next-door neighbor, Rex Palmer, who happened to be
the managing director of the London station (as well as being a microphone performer, both as a
baritone vocalist and as “Uncle Rex” of the Childrens’ Hour). Lambert, who was only casually
known to Palmer, explained that he had some ideas for stories and would like, if possible, to have
an audition to try them out.
“More clearly than anyone else,” noted British broadcasting historian Asa Briggs, “Alan realized
that radio offered completely new possibilities of communication. He realized also that radio
could make a broadcaster into ‘a mystery man,’ a topic of universal conversation.”
HIBBERD: “He took the very greatest care in the presentation and rehearsal of the manuscripts,
and having written and timed a story—he was most meticulous about timing—he would record it,
play it back to himself, noting where to put in the little asides which always seemed so
spontaneous. Then he would ask one or two trusted friends to come to his house to listen and
criticize, adding a pause here, altering a downward inflection of the voice there, until he himself
was reasonably satisfied.”
HIBBERD: “When broadcasting he used to sit on a high stool close to the microphone—
originally the old meat-safe magnetophone type—with his manuscript, pasted on to sheets of
cardboard, in a pile on his knees. He spoke very quietly at the microphone. (If you fidgeted or
creaked your chair you got a black look!)… The idea of the sheets of cardboard was to eliminate
any possibility of paper-rustle, which would have destroyed the illusion he was out to create—
namely, that he was sitting by his own fireside, relating some incredible adventure that had just
happened to him.”
GRISEWOOD: “…his mystery stories, …though rehearsed in such detail that he even pasted his
script on cardboard to prevent the paper rustling, always sounded absolutely spontaneous and
ended at the perfect psychological moment with such remark as: ‘Curious, wasn’t it?’”
Alan further fostered this notion of spontaneous storytelling in the preface to his book Good
Evening, Everyone! “Everything I say over the microphone,” he baldly stated, “is taken down in
shorthand and transcribed afterwards…”
[David Wade] “…with his slightly clipped, almost prim speech and calculated intimacy, he
sounded like a caricature of The Clubman, deep in his armchair in a hushed and lofty room off
Pall Mall, hypnotizing his neighbour with never-ending anecdotes.”
HIBBERD: “Once, in the late nineteen-twenties, he saw in the paper that the lights had gone out
while I was reading the News, but that I managed to carry on with the aid of matches and a
candle, until the bulletin ended. The next time he came to the studio he insisted on having the
candle lit in the reading-lamp beforehand. The electric light did not go out, but the candle did—
suddenly with a loud click, for there was only a stump of it—and the spring in the reading-lamp
jerked it out, throwing grease all over him, but A. J., unperturbed, carried on as if nothing had
happened. After that experience he decided never again to trust B.B.C. candles, but always
brought his own candle in a candlestick, and solemnly lit it before he began. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m
taking no chances’.”
GRISEWOOD: “A society conjurer, a naval commander with an appointment at the Admiralty,
A. J. Alan, whose real name was Leslie Lambert, enshrouded himself with an air of mystery as
effectively as his stories—so much so Everybody knew perfectly well that his name was not really
Alan, and consequently many attempts were made to unmask him. One day, while talking to the
announcer at the end of a broadcast, he chanced to hear that a battery of Press photographers
were waiting outside the studio with this intent; so Alan, a match in cunning for any man, left the
studio by another door and brazenly joined the photographers as an interested spectator. In due
course the announcer emerged by the correct door—and was immediately photographed in his
stead.”
SNAGGE & BARSLEY: “…as one listened it was the voice and the style which mattered as much
as the stories themselves: a voice entirely distinctive, defying imitation, with an urbanity which
reflected the appearance of the real man.”
HIBBERD: “What was the secret of his art—for art it certainly was? In the first place, I should
say that he was a born raconteur, with ideas, imagination and a keen sense of humour, and, being
a first-class radio technician, saw in a flash the great possibilities of radio as a medium for his own
particular line. He also thoroughly understood the intimate nature of the microphone, and made
each listener think that he was telling the story to him, and to him alone; it was done in such a
natural, detached and effortless way.”
Times reviewer David Williams held his style up as a standard of horror: “One thinks of A. J.
Alan’s broadcast stories long ago—so airy, and yet so chill… A casual, improvisatory ease of
manner somehow heightens uncanniness.”
“Another intriguing quality of the stories,” noted Snagge and Barsley in Those Vintage Years of
Radio, “is that, right from the first one, ‘An Adventure in Jermyn Street,’ they tend to have no real
solution, almost like ghost stories –and indeed, the mysterious Captain Lambert, candle and all,
has almost a ghost-like quality himself…”
Alan’s 1924 Boxing Day broadcast presented his first full-fledged supernatural tale (probably
either “The Hair” or “The Dream”) and in doing so inaugurated an Alan Yuletide tradition of
spectral storytelling for many years to come. The following year he told the story of “The Diver”
on Christmas night, prefacing his performance with some appropriately facetious jibes at the
broadcasting company. “For some reason or other, the B.B.C. are always asking me to tell a ghost
story,” he mock-complained. “At least, they don’t ask me, they tell me I’ve got to. I say, ‘What kind
of a ghost story?’ and they say, ‘Any kind you like, so long as it’s a personal experience and
perfectly true’.”
In 1927 the Radio Times declared: “Four years of broadcasting have produced no microphone
personality more distinctive than that of Mr. A.J. Alan. His gift defies definition as it frustrates
imitation; like the charm of Lily Elsie and the humour of Grock, it is inimitable and unique… [I]t
is his way of telling rather than what he tells that counts.”
As an example of Alan’s particular stylistic touch of relating the horrific with a matter-of-fact
conversational approach (peppered with sardonic humor), a passage from the story “Cuthbert”
will certainly suffice. The narrator has been taken into the confidence of an acquaintance who
lives in “a dark, gloomy house which backed on to the Regent’s Canal.” This man, a brilliant
mathematician, fears that he may have accidentally killed a tramp while taking a potshot out his
back window at a yowling feline. He begins to have horrible nightmares fomented by his belief in
his own guilt:
“He dreamt that he was sitting in his study waiting for something to happen. Presently the
water-level of the canal began to rise, and it went on rising until his house was completely
submerged, right over the roof. None of the water came in, but it made everything dark and
cold, and looking out of the window was exactly like looking into a vast tank in an aquarium.
Various things were floating about in the dull, greenish light—dirty weeds and dead dogs and so
on—and it was all most eerie and unpleasant. The wall at the far end of the garden was just
visible through the gloom, and gradually there floated up over it a ghastly shape. This ‘Thing’
swam very slowly and clumsily towards the window, from which, of course, Christopher was
quite unable to tear himself away, and when it got near enough he saw that it was a man. He
was rather bald and had straggling wisps of grey hair hanging down over his face….
Christopher knew instinctively, as one does in dreams, that this was his victim.
…[Unable] to stir a finger…he was obliged to watch Cuthbert’s ineffectual attempts to open the
window. (I’m afraid it was I who christened him Cuthbert, but one had to call him something.)
At any rate, he finally drifted away, disappointed, the waters gradually subsided back into the
canal, and Christopher woke up feeling like nothing on earth.”
A number of Alan’s best stories have nothing of the supernatural about them (even in dreams),
but nevertheless strike a macabre and unsettling note. In “Wottie,” for example, he relates…etc.
etc.
The extent to which Alan’s mixture of the macabre and the sardonically understated may have
influenced the public persona latterly assumed by Alfred Hitchcock has never really been
examined, but certainly there are Alan stories which might very well be labeled Hitchcockian.
“The 19 Club”…
[with an unwanted corpse (ala The Trouble With Harry) creating an embarrassment for the
members of the dining society…]
Toward the end of his life, as war loomed on the European horizon in 1939, Lambert added yet
another layer of mystery to his persona as he became part of the top-secret team of codebreakers
that were assembled at the MI6 War Station in Bletchley Park, the unit that was eventually
responsible for cracking Nazi Germany’s reputedly unbreakable Enigma cipher. The
accomplishment of this feat was crucial to Allied victory, according to Michael Smith, author of
Station X: Decoding Nazi Secrets, and ended up “saving thousands of lives and cutting up to
three years off the length of the war.” One of the youngest recruits to the Naval Section of the
station was eighteen-year-old Barbara Abernethy, who was astounded when she realized exactly
who she was working with. “There was this man in the Naval Section called A.J. Alan,” she told
Michael Smith. “He was a BBC commentator, his real name was Leslie Lambert… He told funny
stories in a very sort of blasé accent… There was nothing I was able to tell my mother [about the
station’s operations]. But I said: ‘You’ll never guess who I work with, A.J. Alan.’ From then on my
stock went up.”
In the years following his death there has been confusion as to the exact date of Lambert’s final
broadcast as “A. J. Alan.” This confusion started immediately post-mortem with the Times
obituary stating erroneously that his last BBC appearance had been on March 21, 1940. But this
author’s research has identified the Christmas Day, 1938 re-telling of “Wottie” as the Alan
swansong.
It is entirely possible that he may have been too ill to broadcast after that date—or too absorbed
in his MI6 responsibilities. It is known that he had been having medical problems since 193?,
when he was off the air for ?? months. In the summer of 1940 he underwent an operation from
which he never fully recovered, and eventually he passed away in a Norwich convalescent home
on December 14, 1941.
“When he died,” relates Eric Partridge, “there was, even in those dark days, a general wave of
regret, a sighed ‘To think that we’ll never hear him again!’”
[The Times, Wednesday, December 17, 1941] “…the death of ‘A. J. Alan’ at a Norwich nursing
home on Saturday… He broadcast at most five times a year…the last occasion was on March 21,
1940.”
[PHS, “Alan’s Candles”, 1970] “The Alan recordings are frequently revived but devoted listeners
may have been surprised to hear Alan stories read recently on Monday mornings on Radio 2 by a
skilful but quite different performer, Peter Tuddenham. The reason is that they come from scripts
delivered by Alan, but never recorded in those more haphazard days.
“Some half dozen were found by a retired B.B.C. engineer, Norman Duret (an Alan fan like
Tuddenham) in the Norfolk depository of the firm which published some of Alan’s stories, and the
B.B.C. got Tuddenham to record five.”
[David Wade, 1976] “Ian Carmichael has been reading a group of five stories by Alan in the gap
left at 8:45 am on Radio 4… Carmichael is no Alan, but it was plain that he had been studying the
Alan style with some care.”
During his lifetime two collections of his stories were published by Hutchinson & Co.—Good
Evening, Everyone! (1928) and A. J. Alan’s Second Book (1932). In 1954 a retrospective Best of A.
J. Alan pulled together selections from the two earlier books plus a handful of tales which he had
related after 1932. Unfortunately, there is currently no collection of his stories still in print, and
several of his later stories remain unpublished.
As to his actual broadcasts, there are surviving recordings in the BBC archives, but it is
uncertain how many. A 1949 article in the Radio Times commented: “Nobody who heard him can
forget the subtle voice of A. J. Alan and from time to time listeners express a wish to hear his
stories again. Fortunately a great many of them were recorded. Some of the discs show signs of
age, for the recording of programmes had not then reached the technical level of today, but the
quality is good enough to justify revivals.” However, the “great many” appeared to have
substantially dwindled somehow by 1970 when a Times article declared that “the B.B.C.’s sound
archives have five of the original recordings in stock, as well as an account by the veteran
announcer Stuart Hibberd of Alan’s meticulous methods.” In 1976 David Wade said: “I only
became aware of A. J. Alan when recordings of him were resurrected for the Corporation’s
Jubilee.” [1972?]
Sir John Reith, the first General Manager of the BBC, wrote in appreciation of Alan: “An old-
time story-teller…found his way into the twentieth century from those days before the invention
of printing, when the art of story-telling was honoured by court, castle and cotter’s ben…. As
printing became established in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the art gradually died out,
and several centuries have had to pass before Broadcasting has afforded the long-delayed
opportunity for a revival. It is no exaggeration to say that A. J. Alan has been a pioneer. No story-
teller before him ever had so many listeners: no listeners a better story-teller.”
ORIGINATION: 2LO (1924-1930) and National Programme, etc. (1930-1938), London (BBC).
DURATION: January 31, 1924-December 25, 1938 (sporadic appearances during these years).
PERSONNEL: John Cardy (producer—1975, Good Morning Everyone), Ian Carmichael (voice of “A. J.
Alan”—1975, Good Morning Everyone), Freddy Grisewood (announcer), Stuart Hibberd (announcer), Leslie
Harrison Lambert (voice of "A. J. Alan"—BBC), Peter Tuddenham (voice of “A. J. Alan”—1970, Radio 2),
Ronald Waldman (producer).
An excerpt from "Wottie" was played on the horror retrospective program The Return of the Man in Black,
A recording of “The Photograph” (catalogued as “My Photograph”) resides in the Vincent Voice Library at
Michigan State University.
Two recordings exist of a dramatization of "My Adventure in Norfolk,” narrated by Sir Ralph Richardson.
The first is from its original run as part of the Theatre Royal series, and the second from the repeat of this
show on the ?/?/58 broadcast of ABC Mystery Time.]
[CHRONOLOGY]
A. J. ALAN (2LO, LONDON)
[Thursday—9:40-10:00 PM]
January 31, 1924 “My Adventure in Jermyn Street”
[Wednesday—9:45-10:?? PM]
March 5, 1924 “The Dream” [probably]
[LONDON TIMES: “…Mr. A. J. Alan will answer a few letters and tell a
story…”]
[Friday—10:15-10:40 PM]
July 11, 1924
[LONDON TIMES: “…A. J. Alan on ‘My Jermyn Street Adventure’…”]
[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]
October 30, 1924 “My Adventure on Dartmoor”
[Friday—10:30-10:40 PM]
December 26, 1924 “The Hair” [probably]
[LONDON TIMES: “…Christmas Ghost Story…”]
[Wednesday—10:00-10:30 PM]
April 8, 1925 “A Foggy Evening”
[Friday—10:30-11:00 PM]
June 12, 1925 “My Adventure in Jermyn-street”
[Wednesday—10:15-10:45 PM]
September 9, 1925 “The B.B.I.”
[Saturday—8:30-9:00 PM]
November 7, 1925 “A Coincidence”
[LONDON TIMES: “…Mr. Thorpe Bates…Luvaun and his ukulele…Mr. A.
J. Alan in ‘A Coincidence’…”]
[Friday—9:35-10:00 PM]
December 25, 1925 “The Diver”
[Monday—8:10-8:50 PM]
April 12, 1926
[LONDON TIMES: “…A. J. Alan on the B.B.I….”]
[Tuesday—10:10-10:30 PM]
June 29, 1926 “The First of April”
[Friday—10:20-10:40 PM]
October 1, 1926 “The Voice”
[Friday—8:25-9:00 PM]
December 24, 1926 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
[Friday—8:35-9:00 PM]
April 1, 1927
[LONDON TIMES: “…A. J. Alan; London Radio Dance Band…”]
[Wednesday—9:35-11:00 PM]
April 20, 1927 “My Programme”
[Monday—10:10-10:25 PM]
June 13, 1927 “The Suit-Case”
[LONDON TIMES: “…Tonight he will tell of some adventures that befell
him in connection with a mysterious suit-case in a train…”]
[Saturday—10:15-10:30 PM]
August 27, 1927 “Charles”
[Friday—10:20-11:00 PM]
October 7, 1927 “An Impromptu Dance”
[Friday—10:20-11:00 PM]
November 18, 1927 “The Photograph”
EXTANT RECORDING
[Wednesday—10:35-11:00 PM]
December 21, 1927 “The Visitors’ Book”
[OG-NOTE: The entire text of this unreprinted Alan story can be found
here.]
[Wednesday—10:15-11:00 PM]
April 25, 1928 “The B.B.I.”
[Friday—10:25-11:00 PM]
June 1, 1928
[Thursday—10:15-10:35 PM]
November 15, 1928 “Wottie”
[Monday—10:35-10:50 PM]
December 31, 1928 “A Surprise Item”
[Tuesday—10:20-10:40 PM]
March 5, 1929 “A Sea Trip”
[LONDON TIMES: “…A. J. Alan will describe his recent voyage to Central
America…”]
[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]
June 13, 1929 “The Cabmen’s Shelter”
[Tuesday—10:15-10:35 PM]
September 3, 1929 “The 19 Club”
A. J. ALAN (5GB, DAVENTRY)
[Wednesday-9:55-10:15 PM]
September 4, 1929 “The 19 Club”
A. J. ALAN (2LO, LONDON)
[Wednesday—10:40-11:00 PM]
November 20, 1929 “A Joy Ride”
[Thursday—10:15-10:30 PM]
December 26, 1929 “17:45”
[OG-NOTE: This story was reprinted in Best of A. J. Alan (1954) as “The
White Bungalow”]
[Wednesday—10:40-11:00 PM]
March 5, 1930 “The Diptych”
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Monday—10:30-10:50 PM]
June 16, 1930 “The Dream”
A. J. ALAN (LONDON REGIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—8:30-9:00 PM]
December 2, 1930 “The Well”
[Thursday—8:35-9:05 PM]
May 21, 1931 “Mr. Pappas”
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—9:40-10:10 PM]
June 16, 1931 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
EXTANT RECORDING
A. J. ALAN (REGIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[Saturday—8:35-9:00 PM]
June 20, 1931 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—9:20-9:45 PM]
November 24, 1931 “Wottie”
A. J. ALAN (LONDON REGIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Saturday—8:35-9:00 PM]
November 28, 1931 “Wottie”
[Monday—9:45-10:15 PM]
June 13, 1932 “My Adventure at Chislehurst”
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]
June 16, 1932 “My Adventure at Chislehurst”
[Tuesday—10:35-11:00 PM]
November 15, 1932 “The Zoo Tickets”
[Thursday—8:40-9:00 PM]
March 2, 1933 “A Joy Ride”
A. J. ALAN (LONDON REGIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Friday—9:55-10:15 PM]
March 3, 1933 “A Joy Ride”
AN EVENING WITH THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION (4QG,
BRISBANE)
[Monday— PM]
October 23, 1933 “My Adventure at Chislehurst”
[BRISBANE WHATEVER: “…A humorous story…told by A. J. Alan…”]
[OG-NOTE: Alan’s recording of his story was broadcast as part of a night of
BBC show transcriptions which were run on the Brisbane station.]
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—10:00-10:?? PM]
March 6, 1934 “Settled out of Court”
A. J. ALAN (EMPIRE SHORTWAVE SERVICE)
[Wednesday—4:45-5:15 PM]
March 7, 1934 “Settled Out of Court”
[Broadcast on Empire Transmission 4]
[Tuesday—4:05-4:35 PM]
July 3, 1934 “Henry”
[Broadcast on Empire Transmission 4]
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—10:05-10:25 PM]
July 3, 1934 “Henry”
A CHRISTMAS PARTY (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Tuesday—7:30-9:30 PM]
December 25, 1934 “The Visitors’ Book”
[LONDON TIMES: “…Comedians; dance music; ghost stories; chorus
songs; charades and musical games; all kinds of happy-go-lucky
entertainment… At some stage of the proceedings someone will tell a
ghost story…”]
[MANCHESTER GUARDIAN: “…a programme packed with the best of the
broadcasters… A. J. Alan told one of his rare stories…”]
A. J. ALAN (EMPIRE SHORTWAVE SERVICE)
[Wednesday—4:00-4:20 PM]
June 5, 1935
[KINGSTON GLEANER: “…a short story by A.J. Alan.” Broadcast on
Empire Transmission 4]
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Wednesday—10:00-10:?? PM]
June 5, 1935 “Fifty to One”
A. J. ALAN (EMPIRE SHORTWAVE SERVICE)
[Tuesday—10:00-10:15 AM]
December 24, 1935 “The Visitors’ Book”
[KINGSTON GLEANER: “…a creepy story, by A.J. Alan, told by the
Author.” Broadcast on Empire Transmission—5.]
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:25 PM]
July 1, 1936 “Charles”
EXTANT RECORDING
A. J. ALAN (REGIONAL PROGRAMME)
[Friday—9:00-9:20 PM]
May 14, 1937 “The Firebell”
EXTANT RECORDING
[Wednesday—9:20-9:35 PM]
January 5, 1938 “A Talk in the Train”
[Friday—8:00-8:15 PM]
January 7, 1938 “A Talk in the Train”
A. J. ALAN (NATIONAL SERVICE, LONDON)
[Friday—8:10-8:30 PM]
December 23, 1938 “Wottie”
[“…A. J. Alan’s ‘Wottie’ has quite a touch of horror, if you haven’t heard it
before… If you cannot hear the story tonight you will have another
chance on Christmas Day…”]
EXTANT RECORDING
[Sunday—5:00-5:20 PM]
December 25, 1938 “Wottie”
[“…A. J. Alan will again tell the story of ‘Wottie’ which he first broadcast
in 1928…”]
THE BEST OF YESTERDAY (THIRD PROGRAMME)
[Monday—7:10-7:30 PM]
November 25, 1946 “The Firebell”
[RADIO TIMES: “…Instead of one of the best talks of past years, the
broadcast tonight in this weekly series is a recording of the late A. J. Alan
reading… (First broadcast in May, 1937…”]
THE WEDNESDAY STORY (HOME SERVICE)
[Wednesday—10:25-10:45 PM]
March 26, 1947 “Wottie”
[RADIO TIMES: “…One of the many popular short stories specially written
for broadcasting by the late A. J. Alan and read by him. (BBC
recording)…”]
[Wednesday—10:10-10:30 PM]
May 21, 1947 “Charles”
[RADIO TIMES: “…a story by A. J. Alan and read by him (recording)…”
[Wednesday—10:10-10:35 PM
November 12, 1947 “Wottie”
[RADIO TIMES: “…a story by A. J. Alan (recording)…”]
A. J. ALAN (MIDLAND HOME SERVICE)
[Thursday—10:40-11:00 PM]
August 11, 1949 “The Firebell”
[RADIO TIMES: “…Beginning on Thursday with ‘The Firebell,’ which ‘A.J.’
broadcast in May 1937, a selection from the BBC’s archives will be
broadcast weekly on the Midland Home Service wavelength for late-
evening listeners. Denis Morris, who directs Midland Regional
programmes, is convinced that Alan was the finest storyteller of radio’s
first twenty-five years…”]
[Wednesday—10:35-11:00 PM]
August 17, 1949 “My Adventure at Chislehurst”
[Tuesday—10:30-10:50 PM]
August 23, 1949 “Charles”
[Tuesday—7:00-7:20 PM]
August 30, 1949 “Wottie”
THE BEST OF YESTERDAY (HOME)
[Monday—4:10-4:25 PM]
May 14, 1956 “The Firebell”
RADIO PORTRAITS (HOME)
[Wednesday—7:00-7:30 PM]
October 1, 1958 “A. J. Alan”
A STORY BY A. J. ALAN (HOME)
[Monday—10:45-10:59 PM]
January 18, 1965 ”Wottie”
April 19, 1965 “The White Bungalow”
[Wednesday—9:40-10:00 PM]
June 9, 1965 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
(HOME)
[Saturday—8:50-9:00 PM]
October 1, 1966 “A. J. Alan and Stuart Hibberd: recordings”
STORIES BY A. J. ALAN (RADIO 2)
[Monday thru Friday—10:30-10:45 PM]
July 13, 1970
July 14, 1970
July 15, 1970
July 16, 1970
July 17, 1970
(RADIO 4)
[Thursday—8:45-9:00 AM]
October 14, 1971 “A Foggy Evening”
[Friday—8:45-9:00 AM]
October 15, 1971 “The Suitcase”
THE RADIO SPELLBINDERS (RADIO 4)
[Sunday—10:10-10:55 PM]
December 24, 1972
[“…recordings of J. B. Priestly, A. J. Alan and James Stephens…”]
THE BEST OF A. J. ALAN (RADIO 4)
[Wednesday—10:45-11:00 PM]
December 4, 1974
[NOT CONFIRMED; FOUND ON BBC INDEX CARD]
EARLY MORNING STORY—“GOOD MORNING EVERYONE” (RADIO 4)
[Monday thru Friday—8:45-9:00 AM]
August 25, 1975 “The 19 Club”
August 26, 1975 “My Adventure at Chislehurst”
August 27, 1975 “The Dream”
August 28, 1975 “My Adventure on Dartmoor”
August 29, 1975 “The White Bungalow”
[RADIO TIMES: “…Five stories from the master of the radio story in the
years between the wars, with Ian Carmichael as A. J. Alan…”]
A.M. WITH A. J. (RADIO 4)
[Monday-Friday—8:45-9:00 AM]
February 4, 1976 “The Zoo Tickets”
February 5, 1976 “The Visitors Book”
February 6, 1976 “Wottie”
February 7, 1976 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
February 8, 1976 “A Joy Ride”
April 19, 1976 “The Zoo Tickets”
[OG-NOTE: Notated on the BBC Title Card as “Two Zoo Tickets”]
April 20, 1976 “Wottie”
April 21, 1976 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
April 22, 1976 “A Joy Ride”
April 23, 1976 “The Visitors’ Book”
(RADIO 4)
[Monday—11:05-11:50 AM]
August 22, 1977 “Man of Mystery”
[LONDON TIMES: “…The story of A. J. Alan…”]
[Thursday—8:45-9:30 PM]
August 25, 1977 “Man of Mystery”
(RADIO 4)
[Tuesday—4:45-5:00 PM]
February 26, 1980 “My Adventure in Norfolk”
THE ARCHIVES HOUR (RADIO 4)
[Saturday—
??? ??, 200? “The Return of the Man in Black” [PART 1]
[OG-NOTE: An excerpt from the Alan recording of “Wottie” and an actor
reading the opening paragraph of “The Diver” were heard on this
programme.]
No broadcast dates were found for the following titles:
[printed in Good Evening, Everyone! (1928)]
“The Hair”
[printed in A. J. Alan’s Second Book (1932)]
“The Necessity of Invention Knows No Law”
“Wandering Minstrels, Limited”
“A Tale of Four Cocktails”
“Mr. Warbeck”
“H2, etc.”
[printed in Many Mysteries (ed. E. Phillips Oppenheim, 1933)]
“Cuthbert” (aka “A Shot in the Dark”)
“Private Water”
[audio] A. J. Alan tells the story of “The Photograph”
[audio] Excerpt from “Wottie” (A. J. Alan)
[audio] ABC Mystery Time: “My Adventure in Norfolk”
[audio] Reading of “The Dream” (Ogden)
[audio] Reading of “The Hair” (Ogden)
[audio] Reading of “The Diver” (read by M. Ogden)
[text] “The Visitors’ Book” by A. J. Alan (from Radio Pictorial, 1935)
[SOURCES]
ALAN, A. J. Good Evening, Everybody. London: ?????????, 1928.
ALAN, A. J. The Second A. J. Alan Book
ALAN, A. J. (ed. ??? ???). The Best of A. J. Alan
Facer, George. “Listeners Write to the ‘Radio Times’: A. J. Alan—Conjuror.” Radio Times (August 26, 1949).
Hett, H. A. “Listeners Write to the ‘Radio Times’: More About A. J. Alan.” Radio Times (September 16,
1949).
Lambert, P. “Listeners Write to the ‘Radio Times’: More About A. J. Alan.” Radio Times (October 7, 1949).
Partridge. Eric. The Shaggy Dog Story
“Radio’s Master Storyteller.” Radio Times (August 5, 1949).
SMITH, MICHAEL. Station X: Decoding Nazi Secrets.
PERIODICALS: The Daily Gleaner [Kingston]; The Times [London]; Manchester Guardian; Radio Times.
[GALLERY]
Leslie H. Lambert (c. 1909) Alan’s first story collection (1928) “He hastily put down his fiddle and
hung out of the window.” (“The Hair”)