This original play for radio by Lord Dunsany, broadcast in 1937, starred Ernest Thesiger as an
escaped lunatic. Thesiger’s character is not a garden-variety looney—he’s radio-crazy, convinced
that his brain is a receiving set for vagrant airwaves, particularly those emanating from
bloodthirsty Himalayan deities.
Manchester Guardian] “…the author…knows how to get the full dramatic
possibilities out of a situation…”
[Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1926] “‘Radio hallucination’ is a new malady which has made
its appearance in England and is puzzling doctors. There have been at least a dozen cases in the
last six months.
“Sufferers from it imagine they are human receiving sets and are able to receive radio messages
through their ears and mouths.
“A variation of this malady is the claim of other sufferers that their sensitiveness is so keen they
can hear the throbbing of orchestras and the sound of strange far-away voices.”
Described as “the most eccentric gay actor around in the 1930s,” Ernest Thesiger was also one of
the most memorable screen villains, creating indelible characterizations in James Whales’The
Old Dark HouseandBride ofFrankenstein, and as a serial-killer inThey Drive byNight(1938).
He also enjoyed a long stage career, much of it in light comedy, but he also excelled in the sinister
parts, playing everything from Captain Hook inPeter Panto Mephistopheles inDoctor Faustus.
As a radio personality Thesiger was frequently heard on the BBC, most memorably as the
airwaves-crazed lunatic of Lord Dunsany’s radio original,Atmospherics(1938).
followed by: 29 January 1924 2LO First broadcast mock trial arranged by Ernest Thesiger…
Thesiger (1879-1961) was soon to publish his autobiography,Practically True(Thesiger 1927) at
the age of forty-eight… Thesiger has been described as: ‘Witty, skeletal Ernest Thesiger…by far the
most eccentric gay actor around in the 1930s and 1940s…’ (Bourne, 1996, 17).
the lovely house in Cheyne Walk…where the Conders gave their famous masked ball. This was the
precursor of all the big fancy-dress balls that soon became the fashion at the Albert Hall and
Covent Garden… I went as Death, in black draperies, with a skull-mask wreathed in scarlet
poppies. On the many fans that Conder afterward painted representing the ball, there is nearly
always to be found my macabre figure in the corner.”
clairvoyant, and certain people become, as it were, completely transparent to me; when I am once
attuned to them there seems to be nothing about them that I cannot read.” [p. 182]—“…I acquired
a certain reputation as a wizard.” [p. 186]—“…it rarely happens to me that I foresee the future. But
on one occasion I had a queer taste of what was to come.” Dinner-party—sitting next to man, a
stranger—“sudden attack of faintness”—“I got the sensation that he was being mauled to death by
some wild animal”—“Many years later—“Are you any relative?”—“He fell over a tree-trunk while
shooting in India, and was attacked and killed by a tiger.”
June 15, 1937“Atmospherics” / “Little Ena”
passenger and a fugitive from an asylum possessing a large knife, who is
the only other occupant of the compartment…”]
Lord Dunsany (scriptwriter), Felix Felton (producer).
Frederick Piper (Dick Smith), Ernest Thesiger (The Escaped Lunatic),
William Trent (The Stationmaster), Brember Wills (The Guard).
June 17, 1937“Atmospherics” / “Little Ena”
July 5, 1938“Atmospherics”
Marcus Barron (A Station-master), Carleton Hobbs (An Escaped Lunatic),
Frederick Piper (Dick Smith), Horace Sequeira (A Guard).
November 8, 1940“Atmospherics”
December 4, 1940“Atmospherics”
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June 15, 1944
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June 2, 1959
Dunsany, Lord.Plays for the Air???.
Thesiger, Ernest.Practically True. London: William Heinemann, 1927.
Lord DunsanyErnest Thesiger