Journeys into Darkness part 3: the Terrifying World of Audio Drama

I am bringing you on a journey into a world of the sinister and macabre, previously discussing 1973 classic The Exorcist and some other horror films that have crossed my path. But now I bring you to the particularly unnerving world of horror audio drama, where the mind's eye can create terrors far more horrific than anything that can appear on screen.

The Woman in White is a 2001 BBC adaptation of a novel by Wilkie Collins. It is not a supernatural story although there are moments when you think it could go in that direction. Rather it is a gothic sensation novel and an example of the heiress-in-danger subgenre. This radio adaptation follows the shifting points of view of the novel by changing its focus over the four episodes from square-jawed hero Walter Hartright (played by Toby Stephens) to indomitable and resourceful heroine Marian Halcombe (Juliet Aubrey) and back again, with Jeremy Clyde and Philip Voss playing the villains Sir Percival and Count Fosco. The drama follows the basic outline of the plot, with its mysterious woman in white showing up at opportune moments together with its sinister villains whose dark secrets threaten to undo them and the resourceful heroes working to thwart them. The real stars are Aubrey's Marian (capturing well the qualities that had 19th century correspondents writing to Wilkie Collins asking if the character was based on a real woman and if so would she be open to a proposal of marriage) and Voss's Fosco (ever-so-polite, ever-so-sinister). Maybe you should read the book first but if you have already done that or couldn't be arsed the drama is available on archive.org.

Dead Air is an audio drama from an Irish podcast factory, part of their Petrified strand of horror dramas.To be honest, it is not great. It features an Irish talk radio host working the graveyard shift who starts finding himself talking to an increasingly creepy caller, with things getting increasingly edgy. The drama uses sound well but the plot seemed a bit woolly. And Dead Air featuring intrusive ads for another non-drama podcast in which two excitable blokes go on about how much they love their mammies did rather wreck the buzz. But if you want to find out for yourself, check it out here.

The Haunter of the Dark meanwhile is the latest of the Julian Simpson loose adaptations of H. P. Lovecraft stories made for the BBC and packaged together as the Lovecraft Investigations. I may need to listen to this again, but my initial feeling with this was that it was a bit weak compared to its predecessors. Its plot in particular seemed overly complicated plot, while the narrative featured some odd leaps of logic. That said, it did have one of the best depictions of Mythos related sanity deterioration I have come across in a dramatic presentation. It can be downloaded or streamed from the BBC here, but if you haven't listened to any of the other Lovecraft Investigations yet don't start with this one: go to the first one, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (which is also the best).

images:

The Woman in White (archive.org)

Petrified (SoundCloud)

The Haunter of the Dark (BBC)

More BBC Audio Drama: "Broken Colours", "Who Is Aldrich Kemp?", "Siege"

These BBC audio dramas all came out earlier in 2022.

Broken Colours This one was written by Matthew Broughton, who wrote the brilliant Tracks, which ran for five series. This one begins with Jess (Holli Dempsey) suffering an injury when a demonstration turns into a riot. A passer by named Daniel (Josef Altin) brings her in for medical treatment. A romance blooms between them, despite their very different backgrounds, but Jess starts thinking there might be something a bit sketchy about Daniel. And then he disappears from her life and stops returning her calls. Obviously people are ghosted all the time, but there's a bit more to it here. The depiction of the shady world Daniel inhabits is fascinating, but so is Jess's own descent into problematic moral compromises. It's also good on how Daniel and Jess are attracted to each other, despite being from completely different worlds. All in all this is a strong piece of drama that I recommend engaging with.

You can listen to it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014p7z

Who Is Aldrich Kemp?

New drama from Julian Simpson, who wrote those Lovecraft Investigation dramas. And an exciting whammy at the end of an early episode reveals that this actually overlaps with those. But unfortunately it is more like another episode of those not great Mythos-Glamis-Albion spy dramas than proper Lovecraftian spookiness. It's not really to my taste but I suspect I will still download the sequel when it comes out.

Don't believe the rumours: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014gtt

Siege Now this is good. Written by Katherine Jakeways, Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell, it is presented as a series of interviews with people who found themselves being held as hostages when a small-time crook's attempt to rob a convenience store goes badly wrong. The former hostages all have axes to grind and records to set straight, with the way they were previously presented in the media being a particular bone of contention; they also have their problems with each other. Thanks to a great ensemble cast and impressive direction from John Norton the format works really well. Siege is a great example of what can be achieved with audio drama.

Listen to it or download it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00146bz

Podcast: "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (2018)

This is a dramatisation by Sweet Talk Productions' Julian Simpson of HP Lovecraft's popular short novel of the same name. It is available to stream or download from BBC Radio 4. It is made in the style of one of those true crime podcasts that are popular with the young people, with the set-up here being that the Mystery Machine podcast people are investigating the eponymous character's mysterious disappearance from a locked room in a secure psychiatric institution.

I think this would be fun to listen to if you if were unfamiliar with the source material, as the true crime podcast stuff is done so straight that even I at the start found myself about to look up the previous cases the Mystery Machine had been involved in investigating. But even having read the original a number of times, I found myself gripped by this. Partly the narrative takes some twists and turns that bring it along different paths to the original, with Lovecraft aficionados noticing that it increasingly draws from another of his works. Partly also there is the power of the audio drama format. Being able to hear but not see is an extremely effective device for horror, as the mind's eye draws in the blanks in a way far more terrifying than any film's special effects could manage. And there are some truly terrifying moments in this, like in the first episode when an old house is being explored or in particular the later episode where one of the investigators is poking around in an abandoned trailer home. The cast are also excellent, as is the appealing music by Tim Elsenburg that ends each episode.

I therefore recommend this work highly and will be keeping an eye out for future productions by Sweet Talk and Mr Simpson.

Sadly The Case of Charles Dexter Ward failed to be nominated in the Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) category in the Hugo Awards.

images (Sweet Talk Productions)