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This blog is in the process of moving to a new location to be combined with other Calfkiller blogs in a central location. You can find it by clicking here.

Times Past



Here is recent post:



"If you’ve listened to the dramatisations recorded by the Old Court Radio Theatre Company on TimesPast or on the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s website at www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk, you’ll recognise the name of Dennis Rookard, whose expertise as producer and technician gave them a professional polish. No more, alas, because Dennis died on 2 March aged sixty-eight. A radio man through-and-through, he had worked as a journalist, presenter and producer for the BBC, LBC, Essex FM, the Forces Broadcasting Service and others. Hosiprog, the name under which he made and provided original drama for hospital radio throughout the world, was just one of his many, mostly unpaid, retirement activities.

The Old Court Company and Essex Audio Theatre are continuing to produce and record original material for Hosiprog, with John Rhodes as recording engineer. For extremely practical reasons - plus the fact that we love TimesPast - we're moving the Hosiprog archive to this site. It will take some time, so please be patient.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the recordings, or to download them, and they may be broadcast freely by voluntary and community-run radio stations.

Enjoy!" by Magersfontein

You can follow the posting in the new group "HOSIPROG" on our sister site TimesPast. The group is open to the public.



Sample Post


"In recent years, plays about the Master have abounded. Roger Johnson’s “The Great Detective” is, however, far superior to most of these efforts because it is firmly grounded in Canonical and Doylean reality. Instead of putting words in Holmes and Watson’s mouths that they would have never said or turning Holmes into a 20th century neurotic, Johnson constructs his play primarily from Watson’s and Doyle’s own words -- an ingenious interweaving of portions of several cases and excerpts from Doyle’s writings.

"While experienced Sherlockians will find no surprises in the script, they will appreciate its clever construction and delight in the magic of Holmes, Watson, and Doyle. For novices, the play is a superb introduction to the joys of the Canon and should motivate them to delve more deeply into the Sacred Writings."

[from a review in "The Serpentine Muse", journal of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes]

The prolific American actor David Ian Davies (no relation to the the eminent British Sherlockian David Stuart Davies) asked me if he could record "The Great Detective", which I wrote and directed for Chelmsford Theatre Workshop in the late 1990s. The idea of adapting the play for audio appealed to me, so of course I said yes. Then David asked if I knew anyone who could act as sound engineer...

This production, in which David Ian Davies plays every character, is a transatlantic collaboration. David recorded the script in California, Dennis Rookard edited the recordings, adding music and sound effects, and I performed some of the functions of a director.





older post


Huffduffer: calfkillerotr Links tagged BBC

Here is links from across the web added to Huffduffer I tagged with BBC.
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Grazr
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Thriller: Michael Jackson's Masterpiece

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Captured from a Free-To-Air broadcast from BBC Radio 2

Trevor Nelson tells the story of Michael Jackson's classic album Thriller.

In December 1982, two of the music industry's biggest stars - artist Michael Jackson and producer Quincy Jones - came together to produce what would become the biggest-selling album in history.

The album would turn Jackson into the world's biggest superstar and the elaborate, accompanying music videos would become a world-wide phenomenon.

Twenty-five years after this album first went on sale, Trevor Nelson discovers how the album tracks came to be, what role MTV played in the process and how it all nearly fell apart.

This special program features all nine album tracks and exclusive interviews with Quincy Jones, MTV founder Bob Pittman and Moonwalker Jeffery Daniel.


(right click and "save as")


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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Big Audio Drama

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Big Audio Drama
is a blog I truly enjoy and thought would pass along the link for others who might like to visit. It has a great selection of BBC content from the past available for download, and I am sure you will find something of interest.

Below is a preview of of some of the content Big Audio Drama has available. Just click on the page ## to view and look over the selections. Click on a selection title to go to download page. Some pages have at the top a download link and password for the selections on that particular page.





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Monday, June 1, 2009

Secrets of Scotland Yard (OTRR Certified)

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In an earlier time, just prior to and following the Second World War, the general public was fascinated by the subject of crime. Numerous magazines of "True Crime Stories" filled the newsstands. Radio also helped fill the need with fictional heroes such as Johnny Dollar and The Saint. Few true crime dramas, other than Gangbusters or Dragnet, sustained long term success on radio.

The Secrets of Scotland Yardwas a successful crime drama series, initially airing internationally between 1949 and 1951. Selected episodes finally came to a US radio network for a brief run much later in 1957 over the Mutual Broadcasting System.

The series boasted well over 100 episodes, one of which, "The Bone From A Voice Box", apparently served as the prototype for another well remembered Towers Of London dramatic series, The Black Museum. In both series, well known actors were employed as host / narrator, Orson Welles in The Black Museum and Clive Brook here. In fact, the shows were so similar that some of the same actual Scotland Yard cases were dramatized for both series (with totally different scripts, and casts).

The Secrets of Scotland Yard was an independent production of the Towers of London syndicate in England for world wide distribution. Each week, an audience of anxious radio-listeners tuned in to hear these true crime stories of the London Metropolitan Police unfold, as the detectives at the Yard investigated some of England’s most famous criminals. Their trials have become legendary.

Stories presented in the series include the theft of the British crown jewels by Colonel Thomas Blood; the story of a man who finds an armless and legless body wrapped in ribbons and lace; or the strange story of two close brothers who love one another enough to contemplate the murder of a brother’s affluent, yet unsightly and ignorant, wife.

Murders, forgery, and robberies all get a through review on the program. Each time, Scotland Yard detectives are afoot to solve the crime mystery!

The Secrets of Scotland Yard was initially hosted by Clive Brook, probably for the first year or so. To add to the air of authenticity, Brook sometimes discusses matters with Percy Hoskins, a 1950s crime expert and reporter for the London Daily Express. Hoskins knew every nook and cranny in London’s seedier districts and personally reported on many of the major crimes of the day. A student of crime, Hoskins was also one of the founders of the Saints and Sinners Club of London, an educational organization dedicated to true crime investigation methods and results.

Brook had his own Scotland Yard experience previously when he played retired naval commander Stevenson in the 1936 film, "Scotland Yard Commands". American audiences will however probably more familiar with Brooks’ portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in the 1932 film of the same name. Brook was eventually replaced by an actor portraying the character Superintendent X of Scotland Yard.
(From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group)

Download Secrets of Scotland Yard (OTRR Certified) here.
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