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Algernon Blackwood: BBC Radio Collection

by: BBC Radio 4

Publication date: 1956-06-05

Topics: Radio, Drama

Language: English

A BBC Radio collection of strange and fantastical tales from Algernon Blackwood.

Described by H P Lovecraft as 'the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere', Algernon Blackwood was the acclaimed and prolific author of numerous ghost stories and horror tales. Throughout his lifetime, he wrote 14 novels, several children's books, a number of plays, and over 200 short stories.

This anthology opens with a selection of stories featuring his most influential character, occult detective Dr John Silence. The inspiration for the famous horror movie Cat People, 'Ancient Sorceries' (read by Philip Madoc), sees a timid tourist becoming enchanted by a sleepy French town whose residents have an oddly feline manner. It is followed by four chilling dramatisations starring Malcolm Hayes as Dr John Silence. In The Nemesis of Fire, the psychic doctor investigates eldritch events at an English manor house; while Secret Worship is a chilling tale of haunting and evil in a Bavarian forest. A wilderness trip turns terrifying in The Camp of the Dog, and in The Empty Sleeve, a virtuoso violinist's desire for a rare instrument has dire consequences.

Next up are three gripping standalone dramas: The Decoy (starring George Baker and Susan Jameson); Keeping His Promise (starring Eric Deacon and Christopher Neame) and The Human Chord (starring Philip Skale).

Also included here is Violet Pearn's captivating fantasy play The Starlight Express which was adapted from Blackwood's imaginative children's novel A Prisoner in Fairyland, The play stars Denis Dowling, Patrick Barr and Cecile Chavreau. This is followed by The Willows, read by Roger Allam: a claustrophobic tale of suspense and terror, as two companions camp on a remote island and become convinced they see a body in the water.

Seven eerie supernatural stories are narrated by Blackwood himself in long-lost gems from the BBC Archive. The first three centre around mysterious encounters with a depressed Englishwoman ('The Occupant of the Room'), a man who was frightened to death ('The Woman's Ghost Story'), and the spectral presence of a town ('The Destruction of Smith'), and are followed by a quartet of short strange stories ('Algernon Blackwood Tells a Strange Story').

First published 1906 ('Keeping His Promise'), 1907 ('The Willows', 'The Woman's Ghost Story'), 1908 ('Ancient Sorceries', 'The Nemesis of Fire', 'Secret Worship', 'The Camp of the Dog'), 1910 ('The Human Chord'), 1911 ('The Empty Sleeve'), 1912 ('The Destruction of Smith'), 1916 ('The Starlight Express'), 1917 ('The Occupant of the Room'), 1921 ('The Decoy'), 1948 ('A Japanese Literary Cocktail')