Adventures by Morse was originally broadcast during 1944-45 and was written and directed by it's namesake Carlton E. Morse. It comprised a total of 8 different stories with a varying number of episodes. In total there were 52 30-minute shows done.

Described on the Wikipedia page:

"Captain Bart Friday was a globe-trotting San Francisco-based private investigator portrayed on various shows by Elliott Lewis, David Ellis and Russell Thorson. Jack Edwards played Skip Turner, Bart's sidekick from Texas. The tales covered such areas as espionage, kidnapping, and murder, along with secret Nazi bases, snake worshipers and voodoo."

I think the one that truly stood out amongst the rest was the series titled "The City of the Dead" which was without a doubt the creepiest. It was the first to be broadcast, and one of the longest coming in at 10 episodes (5 hours). It involves a broken down car, a cemetery, a couple of criminals and a seriously elaborate plan that would have been fitting for Scooby Doo if it weren't so eerie.

You can download all of the different series, this one being the most highly recommended from Archive.org here:

Archive.org: Adventures By Morse (Complete)

Permalink    Labels: Audio Drama, Archive.org, Mystery

The Dark Island was originally produced as a 6 part television series by the BBC in 1962, from what I understand no copies of the show actually exist at this point. The BBC produced this radio version in 1969 - and the book to the right appeared a few years later. It was referred to as a "story of espionage in the remote islands of the Outer Hebrides".

The basic premise is described fantastically in the Wikipedia entry as this:

"The plot involves the discovery of a mysterious torpedo found on the shore of Benbecula. A Naval team descends on the area to deal with the torpedo accompanied by Nicolson, an intrigued security officer. Further investigation of the torpedo reveals an international spy kit, the contents of which include a Finnish passport, British and Swedish currency, and most intriguing of all, a fragment of sheet music.

This is an absolutely brilliant piece of radio drama and a great story. It's got everything: remoteness, islands, intrigue, mystery, murder...

You can download all 6 parts, roughly 3 hours total from TimesPast here:

The Dark Island - BBC Radio 1969

Permalink    Labels: Audio Drama, Mystery, The Ocean, Islands

This is a comedy drama done for BBC Radio 4 in 2002 and was written by Nick Frost (Spaced, Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz...) and comedian Matt King. To quote Wikipedia, since this is some pretty strange stuff:

"Milford (King) and Parker (Frost) get sacked from their jobs in a soft furnishings factory in Crouch End. As they are clearing out their lockers, they fall into the magical world of Gravy. Frost described Gravy as a 'Tolkien-esque world with supermarkets and banks'."

Pretty much everyone from the TV series Spaced is amongst the cast including Julia Deakin, Peter Serafinowicz, Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon, Daisy Jones, Joseph Marcell and Mark Heap as Marmite the Dwarf. That in itself makes it amusing to listen to.

The series only ran one season, 6 shows of 30 minutes a piece, and would have garnered a second season but Matt King decided to move back to Australia instead.

I'd give you a plot synopsis but it's all over the board, but it does have a lot of Tolkien elements involved. Let it be said if you like the characters from other shows or movies it's worth a listen and is quite funny at times. You can download all 6 episodes from the Zombie Astronaut (who I am greatly indebted to for offering so much great audio over the years). The post is about half way down here:

The Sofa of Time by Nick Frost and Matt King

Permalink    Labels: Audio Comedy, Audio Drama, Tolkien, Science Fiction, Fantasy

John Wyndham, probably best known for The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (ie Village of the Damned), wrote a number of lesser known works that are of no less value in the world of speculative/science fiction. One of them, The Kraken Wakes (published in 1953), has been broadcast in a number of different versions through the years as a full cast audio play. This particular one, done by the CBC out of Vancouver, is available in all 5 parts - roughly 150 minutes - on Archive.org.

As like a number of Wyndham's apocalyptic tales you get to follow along and unravel a mystery that brings the world to near destruction. Loaded with the author's great ability to bind science with the impossible it really is an entertaining story. The 40+ year old broadcast does the book justice, and the age of it gives it something that a modern adaptation would lose.

You can download the MP3 files, 131 MB for all 5 in a zip file here:

The Kraken Wakes - Full Cast Audio - CBC 1965

Permalink    Labels: Audio Drama, Science Fiction, Archive.org, The Ocean