Saturday 19 June 2010

Strange (Radio) Tales

For me, the old wireless is a good medium for weird stories because it leaves more to the imagination. TV and film spookery can fall flat because you really don't agree with the way a story has been  visualised. So I'm always searching for audio stuff, particularly old time radio stories of terror and the supernatural.

If you agree, or indeed if you don't, pop over to Strange Tales on Old Time Radio. There are some familiar stories there, notably 'All Hallows' by de la Mare and Kipling's 'The Phantom Rickshaw'. There are also a lot of other stories, some of them supernatural. They've been selected by enthusiasts from a huge range of old American radio shows. Wish I'd had that sort of thing to listen to when I was a lad.

4 comments:

Kai Roberts said...

Thanks very much for drawing my attention to these. The existence of a dramatisation of All Hallows is very gratifying indeed.

valdemar said...

My pleasure, Kai. I'm a radio addict of long standing and find OTR tremendously reassuring, somehow. The 'All Hallows' drama isn't bad. It's certainly faithful to de la Mare's story. Often the original story is the first thing to go in TV/film adaptations.

Unknown said...

Since giving up the dubious pleasure of watching television, I've started to enjoy OTR.

What a blast.

Now if only I can find some adapations of M.R. James.

valdemar said...

M.R. James is out there, in small doses admittedly. On OTR there's 'Casting the Runes' here:
http://www.archive.org/details/Escape19471948

'The Ash-Tree' is here:
http://www.archive.org/details/OldTimeRadio-TheBlackMass

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