Murder For Christmas - 1986
1. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (A Holiday for Murder, Murder for Christmas)
by Agatha Christie
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 24 December 1986 - Murder for Christmas Season
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
Christmas Eve. Tyrannical millionaire Simeon Lee is found lying in a pool of blood with his throat cut, in a room locked from the inside. It seems an impossible case, but luckily for Superintendent Sugden, the Chief Constable has his old friend Hercule Poirot staying with him.
Hercule Poirot - Peter Sallis
Supt Sugden - Edward de Suza
Col. Johnson - Manning Wilson
Simeon Lee - Cyril Luckham
Alfred - Richard Durdan
Lydia - Rachel Gurney
George - Gordon Reid
Magdalene - Avril Clark
David - George Parsons
Hilda - Sheila Grant
Harry - Nicky Hanson
Stephen Farr - James Good
Pilar Estravados - Deborah Makepeace
Aubrey the Man Servant - Stuart Organ
Willy the Footman - David Goodland
Tressilian - The Butler - Derek Guyler
Dramatised by Michael Bakewell
Directed by Enyd Williams
The first in a series of nine crime dramas broadcast under the banner, Murder for Christmas:
Murder for Christmas 86-12-24 Programme 1. Hercule Poirot's Christmas [A. Christie]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-25 Programme 2. The Nine Tailors [D.L.Sayers]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-26 Programme 3. The Valley Of Fear [A.C. Doyle]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-27 Programme 4. Death And The Dancing Footman [Ngaio Marsh]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-28 Programme 5. Unto The Grave [John Penn]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-29 Programme 6. The Smiler With The Knife [Nicholas Blake]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-30 Programme 7. More Work For The Undertaker [Margery Allingham]
Murder For Christmas 86-12-31 Programme 8. Trent's Last Case [E.C.Bentley]
Murder For Christmas 87-01-01 Programme 9. Appleby's End [Michael Innes (J. I. M. Stewart)]
Many thanks to Norfolk Apple for his original Murder for Christmas recordings with introductions. Also thanks to Norman and Aunt Daisy for the fantastic radio clippings. Thanks to Katydidit for the set.
2. The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy L Sayers
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast 1986.12.25 - Murder For Christmas Season
Re-Broadcast: SNT-1987-08-29
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
On his way to visit friends at Walbeach, Lord Peter Wimsey's car lands in a ditch and he and Bunter are forced to take shelter at Fenchurch Street, St Paul's. Here they learn of the theft of the Wilbraham emeralds...
Lord Peter Wimsey - Gary Bond
Supt Blundell - Terry Molloy
Rev. Venables - Jeffrey Dench
Mary Wimbush - Taylor Paul
Hedli Niklaus - Batty Thomas
Will Thoday & Harry Gotobed - Peter Tuddenham
Mary Thoday - Elizabeth Proud
Mrs. Venables - Joyce Gibbs
Jack Godfrey & James Thoday - Andrew Branch
Hilary Thorpe - Moir Leslie
Bunter - William Eedle
Cranton - Edwin Richfield
Dr. Baines & "Potty" Peake - David Learner
Coroner/Edward Thorpe/M. Rozier - Gordon Reid
Suzanne Legros & Mrs. Coppins - Patricia Gallimore
Deacon & Ezra Wilderspin - Graham Padden
PC Priest/Arthur Cobley - Manning Wilson
Mrs. Gates/Mrs. Tebbutt - Shirley Stelfox
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor
Directed in Birmingham by Vanessa Whitburn
3. The Valley Of Fear
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
BBC Radio 4
Original Broadcast: 1986-05-24 - Murder for Christmas Season
Repeat Broadcast: SNT-1986-12-26
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1Khz - stereo
A full BBC dramatisation starring Tim Pigott-Smith as Sherlock and Andrew Hilton as Dr. John H. Watson. This was a one-off programme dramatised by Roy Apps and directed by Brian Miller.
One drab January morning in the year 1889, Holme's attention is taken up by a strange message in code which leads him to the scene of a bizarre murder at Birlstone Manor in Sussex ......
Sherlock Holmes .... Tim Pigott-Smith
Dr. John H. Waterson - Andrew Hilton
Douglas - James Aubrey
McGinty .... Lee Montague
Insp MacDonald .... Bob Docherty
Mrs. Hudson ..... Val Lorraine
White Mason .... Edward De Souza
Constable .... Jared Morgan
Barker/Marvin .... Trevor Nichols
Mrs. Douglas .... Natasha Pyne
Baldwin ..... Andrew Branch
Morris .... Ronald Herdman
Ettie ... Adeen Fogle
Shafter ...... John Church
Other parts played by Tom Karol, Ronald Herdman and Jared Morgan.
Directed by Brian Miller
4. Death And The Dancing Footman
by Ngaio Marsh
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 1986-12-27 - Murder for Christmas Season
Re-broadcast: SNT-1987-08-08
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
The party's over when murder makes an entrance...
With the notion of bringing together the most bitter of enemies for his own amusement, a bored, mischievous millionaire throws a house party. As a brutal snowstorm strands the unhappy guests, the party receives a most unwelcome visitor: death. Now the brilliant inspector Roderick Alleyn must step in to decipher who at the party is capable of cold-blooded murder...
A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster.
Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn - Nigel Graham
Laurence Payne - Jonathan Royal
Steven Pacey - Aubrey Mandrake
Avril Clark - Sandra Compine
Stuart Organ - William Compine
Stephen Hattersley - Nicholas Compine
Jane Lennon - Florence Wynn
Alan Darner - Dr. Francis Hart
Natasha Pine - Madame Lisser
Margaret Ward - Lady Hercy Allington
Elaine Clackston - Troy Elaine
Peter Tottenham - James Bulland
Sean Prendergast - Rev. Walter Copeland
Brian Hewitt - Thomas
Dramatized by Alan Dunn
Directed by David Johnston.
5. Unto The Grave
by John Penn
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 1986-12-28 - Murder for Christmas Season
Re-broadcast: Afternoon Theatre (see below)
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
In Unto the Grave, a body floating in the pool of a luxury Cotswold hotel leads to a hunt for a dangerous killer.
Det Supt Thorne - John Castle
Miranda, his wife - Tessa Worsley
John Kempton - Stephen Thorne
Rose Kempton - Diana Bishop
Tom Latimer - Jonathan Tafler
Polly Raven - Karen Ascoe
Vern Raven - James Goode
Mrs. Fowler - Pauline Letts
Mr. Fowler - Alan Dudley
Mrs. Blair - Sheila Grant
Mr. Blair - Tim Reynolds
Paul Kempton - Kim Wall
Helen Dearden - Eve Karpf
Roy Mortlake - John Hollis
Cassandra Gray - Jennifer Piercey
Canon Hurley - Peter Howell
Mrs. Hurley - Rachel Gurney
Alice Hurley - Deborah Makepeace
Det. Sgt. Abbot - Andrew Branch
Dr. Band - Gordon Reid
Margery Swinson - Jo Manning Wilson
Dramatised by Melville Jones
Director Martin Jenkins
6. The Smiler With The Knife
by Nicholas Blake
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 1986.12.29 - Murder for Christmas Season
Re-Broadcast: SNT-1987-08-15
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
A thieving magpie and a rather fussy Surveyor of Highways cause Nigel Strangeways and his wife to stumble upon an organisation which has close links with Fascist Germany and some very odd ideas about the future of this country.
Georgia Strangeways - Jackie Smith-Wood
Nigel Strangeways - Simon Cadell
Other parts by Jack May, John Rye, Susie Brann, Christopher Douglas, Avril Clark, Tim Reynolds, Deborah Makepeace, David Sinclair, Richard Durden, Jill Balcon, Peter Howell, Pauline Letts, Andrew Branch, John Church, Elaine Claxton, Steven Harrold, Shaun Prendergast, Natasha Pyne, Gordon Reid, Eric Stovell and Jonathan Tafler.
Dramatised by Barry Campbell.
Directed by Jane Morgan
7. More Work for the Undertaker
by Margery Allingham
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 1986.12.30 - Murder for Christmas Season
Re-broadcast: SNT-1988-08-13
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
The Palinode family are relics of a gracious past, and not the sort to get themselves poisoned. But this is what seems to be beginning to happen, and Campion, as an old friend of the family, decides it is time to look into the matter...
Albert Campion - Francis Matthews
Lugg - Geoffrey Matthews
Detective Inspector Luke - Tim Meats
Other parts by Renee Roper, Jennifer Piercey, Jas Bowels, George Parsons, Rachel Gurney, Sheila Grant, Manning Wilson, Philip Manikum, Howard Goorney, Paul Nicholson, Stuart Organ and James Goode.
Dramatised by Margarget Etall.
Directed in Bristol by Brian Miller.
8. Trent's Last Case
by E.C.Bentley
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 1986-12-31- Murder for Christmas Season
Rebroadcast: SNT-1987-08-01
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
Written in reaction against the solemnity ofthe Sherlock Holmes stories, "Trent's Last Case" (1912) with its ingeniously twisting plot and cheerfully self-mocking hero, is a classic of the golden age of English detective fiction.
A powerful and ruthless American capitalist is found dead in the garden of his English country house. But why is he not wearing his false teeth? Why is his young widow so relieved at his death? The artist and amateur detective Philip Trent arrives to find that there is more to the case than the solving of a puzzle: he must also accept his own fallibility, in detection and in romance.
With Martin Jarvis as Philip Trent, Helena Beck as Mabel Mandereon, Simon Hewitt as Marlowe & Manning Wilson as Cupples.
Dramatised by Alan Dana & Directed by Jerry Jones
9. Appleby's End
by Michael Innes
BBC Radio 4
Original Broadcast: Saturday Night Theatre, 10th April 1982 @ 8:00 p.m.
Re-Broadcast: 01 January 1987 - Murder for Christmas Season
90 minutes @ 128k - 44.1kHz - stereo
In 1987 the critic H.R.F. Keating included Michael Innes' APPLEBY'S END (1945) among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published.
This two-hour BBC adaptation sees Inspector Appleby entangled with the members of an artistic family, the Ravens, in snowbound rural England. A series of deaths occurs, bearing similarities to short stories by gothic horror writer the late Edward Raven.
Dramatised by Michael Blakewell from Innes' 1945 novel
With John Hurt [Detective Inspector John Appleby], John Le Mesurier [Everard Raven], Christopher Benjamin [Heyhoe / Inspector Mutlow], Joyce Redman [Clarissa], Pippa Guard [Judith Raven], Lewis Stringer [Luke], Anthony Newlands [Robert], Richard Derrington [Mark], John Sharp [Rainbird], Christopher Douglas [Billy Bidewell / Mr. Hoobin], Jack May [Colonel Pike], Hugh Dickson [Sir Mulberry Farmer / Liddell], Pauline Letts [Lady Farmer / Mrs. Ulstrup / Hannah Hoobin], David Gooderson [Gregory Grope], Trevor Baxter [Mr. Smith], Stephen Garlick [Hannah Hoobin's Boy], and John Livesey [Brettingham Scurl / Scott].
Directed by Jane Morgan
Replies
Thank you. You are making me lag behind in my listening.
Kurt, I am doing it on purpose because i am a latent psychopath as Bob said. I freely admit it. LOL
Thanks for sharing
Ummh! I'm starting to have my doubts about you, Rick. All this murder and mayhem- you might be, what we in the land of Oz call, a digger deviant. Keep up the diggerdeviancy and thank you for all your hard work. Cheers, Dave.
In the States, we call that type "latent psychopath." :>P
Just got these 9 plays from the torrent site: radioarchive.cc.
There are also seven more plays from Xmas 1987 collected as: Crime At Christmas
Hi Michael,
I know, I have them to post later also, unless you want to post them. ---------------------------------- Rick
I see you have posted them already. No worries.
I forgot that i even said that. I planned to do it today anyways. I told Katy i would when she gave them to me just after Christmas. I haven't been feeling well and I just had to get up the energy to undertake it. I do have a question though Michael, you live in Australia if I am not mistaken and I read your saying that you emigrated there. From where? ----------------------- Rick
I emigrated to Australia from England, (Leeds, Yorkshire) in 1999.......... Michael
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