A NIGHT WITH A VAMPIRE
[RADIO-SERIES]
A BBC production… “David Tennant reads five disturbing Victorian Vampire stories.”
BBC: “Last year in the first series we concentrated on Victorian Vampire output but in these five
tales we enter the 20tth Century and introduce stories with a little twist from the UK and the
USA.”
ORIGINATION: Radio 4, London (BBC).
[NOTE: “A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.”]
DURATION: November 22-26, 2010 (first series), November 28-
PERSONNEL: Clive Brill (producer). David Tennant (reader).
A NIGHT WITH A VAMPIRE (RADIO 4, LONDON)
[Monday-Friday—10:45-11:00 PM]
November 22, 2010 [1] “Dead Persons in Hungary”
[BBC RADIO: “…David Tennant reads Antoine Calmet’s eye witness
accounts of real vampires… Antoine Augustin Calmet published an
apparently serious anthropological history of the Vampire throughout
Europe in the early 19 century called ‘The Phantom World.’ All the people
he spoke to were adamant about what they had witnessed. His account
therefore appears all the more disturbing and became the basis for the
flights of Vampiric fancy that took off in the Victorian age…”
November 23, 2010 [2] “The Family of the Vourdolak”
[BBC RADIO: “…Leo Tolstoy’s lesser known brother [Alexis] has written
this compelling story about a patriarch who sets off on a mysterious
mission but fears he may come back a Vampire. If he should return to
their village after 10 days—he begs his family to deny him access and
plunge a stake through his heart…”]
November 24, 2010 [3] “The Horla”
[BBC RADIO: “…After an unusual Brazilian ship enters the harbour—our
hero suddenly begins to feel unwell, and starts to have feverish and
disturbing visions. Only too late does he discovers the demonic nature of
the South American ship’s cargo…”]
November 25, 2010 [4] “Luella Miller”
[BBC RADIO: “…Luella Miller seems incapable of surviving on her own—
so she calls on friends, relatives and lovers to help her. And they all die—
one by one—until there is no one left to lift a finger to assist this most
demanding of women. An unusual tale—set in small town America…
Written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman…”]
November 26, 2010 [5] “Clarimonde”
[BBC RADIO: “…As a young man approaches his first moments as a priest
his eyes glance to heaven—and sees leaning over the sanctuary railing—a
young woman of extraordinary beauty. And so begins a sensational
struggle for his soul… Written by Theophile Gautier…”]
BOOK AT BEDTIME—“A NIGHT WITH A VAMPIRE 2” (RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)
[Monday—10:45-11:00 PM]
November 28, 2011 “The Lady of the House of Love”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…This wonderful retake on the Sleeping Beauty story first
appeared in [Angela] Carter’s 1979 volume ‘The Bloody Chamber.’ A
virginal English soldier, travelling through Romania by bicycle, finds
himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a
vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and
feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity
and virginity have a curious effect on her…”]
[OG-NOTE: Carter based the story on her 1976 BBC Radio 3 play, “Vampirella.”]
[Tuesday—10:45-11:00 PM]
November 29, 2011 “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…written by Fritz Lieber… This 1949 story has exerted its
grip on many an imagination and has been filmed several times. It
concentrates on the magnetic power of the Vampire and—in this case—
the utterly captivating and inescapable lure of a Vampiress-cum-glamour
model…”]
[Wednesday—10:45-11:00 PM]
November 30, 2011 “Bewitched”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…written by Edith Wharton… A tale of Vampire
possession written in 1925. Saul Rutledge had a girlfriend before he
married his current wife. Unfortunately, he still slips at night to see her.
Even though she died several years ago…”]
[Thursday—10:45-11:00 PM]
December 1, 2011 “Drink My Blood”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…Written in 1951 this is an unusually dark comic twist on
the Vampire tale about a young pasty-faced school kid, Jules, whose only
ambition in life is to become a Vampire. But will his dreams come true?
From Richard Matheson, author of ‘I am Legend’…”
[Friday—10:45-11:00 PM]
December 2, 2011 “A Lot of Mince Pies”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…[Robert] Swindells is a British author known mainly for
his children’s books and indeed, this tale first appeared in a collection of
haunted tales for the young adult. But it has a macabre and chilling
undertone—set at Xmas and focussing on a group of carolers who visit
the same cottage every year—and receive a special treat in return…”]
David Tennant
NIGHTMARE (3AW, MELBOURNE)
[Thursday—8:45-9:00 PM]
August 8, 1953
(referenced in Melbourne Age)
NIGHTMARE
April 21, 1954 “The Sky Hook”
[JANESVILLE DAILY GAZETTE: “…Looking for sky hooks is a gag from way
back, but being involved with ‘The Sky Hook’ is unlike any joke. Peter
Lorre tells this story tonight…”]
THE NUTCRACKER SUITE
[GRAND-GUIGNOL PLAY]
THE RADIO THEATRE GUILD (CRC,
[Monday—
July 16, 1934 “The Nutcracker Suite”
[WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: “…On Monday night, the CRC’s Radio Theatre
Guild offered the Cameron Matthews Players in a tingling melodrama
that sent cold shivers up and down our spine. Instantly we forgot the
sweltering outdoors as we heard unfolded an eerie—pardon the
superfluity of ‘e’s,’ but really, this thing was that weird—an eerie tale of a
madman. The Cameron Matthews players did it exceptionally well. It was
called ‘The Nutcracker Suite,’ the story opening as a lady and her male
friend are enjoying the former’s piano rendition of Tschaikowsky’s
composition, their favorite piece of music. The lady’s husband returns
home unexpectedly and her lover exits through the back door. The
husband senses the affair, exacts an admission from the maidservant and
plans a madman’s revenge. On the whole the performance reminded us
of Bill Cooper and his NBC thriller, ‘Lights Out.’”
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (LIGHT PROGRAMME—BBC)
[Tuesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
March 26, 1946 “The Nutcracker Suite”
SCRIPT: J. Leslie Dodd.
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