Author:Victor Pemberton,Full Cast,Vincent Price,Roger Delgado,Maurice Denham,Honor Blackman,Nigel Anthony,Coral Browne,Bessie Love
A trio of terrifying radio tales starring Roger Delgado, Vincent Price and Honor Blackman
Author, playwright and TV producer Victor Pemberton was probably best known as a script editor and writer for Doctor Who, and as the inventor of the Doctor's trademark sonic screwdriver. But he also created numerous dramas for radio, among them the three cult classics included here.
The Slide - In the Kent new town of Redlow, the residents are shocked by a sudden earthquake. But a worse subterranean threat is still to emerge. When a torrent of mud oozes from the fissure and the local wildlife begins to die, expert seismologist Professor Gomez is called in. His analysis reveals the awful truth: the mud is sentient, intelligent - and lethal... Roger Delgado and Maurice Denham star in this thrilling seven-part sci-fi serial.
Night of the Wolf - March, 1883, and a monster is on the loose in the East Anglian Fens... Concerned about his missing son, Robert, Judge Mathew Deacon travels from Pennysylvania to Cambridge to find out what has become of him. His inquiries lead him to the remote Northcott Manor, deep in the marsh country, where he finds a family hiding dark secrets - and comes face to face with a werewolf... This Gothic horror play stars Vincent Price and Coral Browne.
Dark- Virginia's lover was murdered and her husband hanged. Then, years later, inexplicable events occur in the room where the murder took place. Summoned to investigate, medium Simon Elliott becomes possessed by people from the past. Can the dead really return to exert control over the living? Honor Blackman, Bessie Love and Nigel Anthony star in this suspenseful paranormal thriller.
Produced by John Tydeman
The Slide
Professor Josef Gomez - Roger Delgado
Hugh Deverill MP - Maurice Denham
Janet Marshall - Elisabeth Proud
Dr Ken Richards - David Spenser
Anna Deverill - Marion Mathie
'Tug' Wilson - Stephen Jack
Mrs Wilson - Miriam Margolyes
Sergeant Johnson - Wilfred Babbage
Inspector Baxter - Geoffrey Matthews
Constable/First Journalist/Pilot - Anthony Jackson
Professor Landers - Rolf Lefebvre
Professor Lippert - Allan McClelland
Newscaster/AC2 Gibbons - Nigel Graham
Mrs Luke - Noel Hood
Nursing Sister - Eva Haddon
Sorensen - Fraser Kerr
RAF Corporal - Anthony Hall
Barry - Glyn Dearman
Nurse - Patricia Leventon
Dr Robeson - Michael Kilgarriff
Second Journalist - Hector Ross
Third Journalist/Policeman/Ground Control - Brian Hewlett
American Journalist - Peter Marinker
Vicar - Noel Howlett
Margaret Griffiths MP - Joan Matheson
TV Interviewer - Henry Stamper
Special effects: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop
First broadcast BBC Radio Light Programme, 13 February-27 March 1966
Night of the Wolf
Judge Mathew Deacon - Vincent Price
Robert Deacon, his son - Peter Whitman
Mrs Northcott - Coral Browne
Sybil, her daughter - Sheila Grant
Dorothy, Sybil's daughter - Elizabeth Proud
Nicholas, Sybil's son - John Rye
Griffin, an undergraduate - Michael Cochrane
Professor Forrester - Hugh Manning
Sir Richard Burnett - Haydn Jones
Morris - Paul Gaymon
Jessie - Norma Ronald
Technical assistants Jock Parrell, Marsail MacCuish, David Bitchinson and Alister Wilson
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 August 1975
Dark
Virginia Preston - Honor Blackman
Mother - Bessie Love
Simon Elliott - Nigel Anthony
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 February 1978
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Like lying back in a hot bath with a large malt whisky - absolute bliss ... The plotting in Faith is masterly, the atmospheric descriptions superb.
—— Sunday TelegraphA string of brilliantly mounted set-pieces ... superbly laconic wisecracks.
—— The TimesDeighton's outstanding achievement is the nine-volume series chronicling the life and times of Bernard Samson ... Deighton's Samson trilogies are as much about the elusiveness of human interactions as espionage. Spying is not a secret world sealed off from ordinary life but an extension of the world we all live in.
—— John Gray , New StatesmanThe self-conscious cool of Deighton's writing has dated in the best way possible; bear in mind that the man was almost single-handedly responsible for brinfging coffee culture to the British Isles. Stone-cold Cold War classic.
—— Toby Litt , The GuardianA superb example of le Carré's enduring and exquisite genius
—— Daily Mail, Books of the YearGripping and involving, an elegant farewell by a much missed writer
—— Siân Phillips , Daily Express, Books of the YearSilverview has many of le Carré's characteristic virtues . . . engaging characters and three or four splendid set scenes in which veteran spooks stir the embers of old fires
—— Scotsman, Best Books of the YearSilverview is a cat-and-mouse chase from an East Anglian seaside town to the Eastern Bloc. Published ten months after he passed away, it marks a fitting final work by the master of spy fiction
—— Irish Times, Books of the YearA taut, thrilling spy novel. Read it as a tribute to a master
—— Stella, Books of the YearSilverview has all the old magic . . . it offers a rewarding post-script to the long-distance spell-binders The Little Drummer Girl and Absolute Friends
—— David Bromwich , Times Literary Supplement, Books of The YearHis publisher is promoting it as a great literary event - the final book by one of postwar Britain's finest writers. That seems fair enough to me . . . [Silverview has] enough reminders of the old magic to please his most ardent aficionados
—— Dominic Sandbrook , Sunday TimesLe Carré at his finest, revealing character and backstory through dialogue with an economy and grace beyond most writers . . . le Carré's greatness has its roots in his mastery of spy fiction; a genre he augmented with novels notable for their craftsmanship and humanity, and writing for its stealth and sophistication. With the publication of Silverview, it's clear these virtues remained intact to the end
—— Mick Herron , GuardianThematically, this is classic le Carré: an exploration of how people do the wrong thing for the right motive. The prose is as unshowily superb as ever
A fitting coda to the work of our greatest spy novelist
—— John Williams , Mail on SundayIt is written with elegance and often pungency, the pitch-perfect dialogue ranging from the waggishly epigrammatic to the bluntly outraged
—— New York TimesLe Carré's ability to inhabit the deepest recesses of his characters' lives is once again on sparkling display . . . It leaves no doubt that le Carré believed good literature could help make the world a better place. His own contribution to that edifice was by no means negligible
Textbook le Carré and a pleasing coda to a brilliant career: a short, sharp study of the human cost of espionage
—— Daily TelegraphThe first page hooks you in . . . John le Carré has lost none of his power to draw the reader straight into his world
—— The TimesThere is a retro charm about proceedings . . . as well as a welcome array of familiar le Carré tropes, from sharply drawn characters to stimulating interviews and debriefings, plus a compelling denouement involving a wanted man on the run . . . a worthy coda, a commanding farewell from a much-missed master
—— EconomistArguably the greatest English novelist of his generation
—— GuardianCrisp prose, a precision-tooled plot, the heady sense of an inside track on a shadowy world . . . all his usual pleasures are here
A lyrical, poignant portrait of betrayal in a family that lives in a world submerged in subterfuge, and resonates with le Carré's exquisite genius. It is to be savoured gently rather than devoured
—— Daily MailA diverting if slender coda to one of the boldest writing careers of the 20th century . . . In this posthumous farewell, le Carré is still showing us how literary fiction and the spy narrative can coexist in the same book
A poignant story of love and loyalty
—— IndependentA fitting conclusion to the long career of a writer who redefined an entire genre with the deceptive easy of pure genius . . . Silverview is filled with joy in the resilience of the human spirit, and with love . . . It's also deeply thrilling, in the best way
—— Irish TimesPacked with cherishable details and intriguingly ambivalent about the role of the Secret Intelligence Service, John le Carré's last novel brings his career to a close in fine style
A very fine finale . . . for writing of subtlety, cadence and strength, with a special aptitude for the revealing particular, [le Carré] is virtually unequalled . . . Time and again, le Carré was able to weave an entrancing, haunting world of his own, a feat repeated in Silverview. There are few writers to match him, and fewer who are still alive
—— SpectatorIn his trademark lucid prose, le Carré sets the scene for an atmospheric tale of betrayal, deceit and secret service malpractice . . . John le Carré, one of the great analysts of the contemporary scene, has left us a minor masterpiece of secrets and lies in spy land
—— Evening StandardA winner with fans of the master spy-writer
—— OldieA piercing portrait of moral ambivalence
—— iIt is classic le Carré . . . If this is the quality le Carré was producing in the last years of his life, we can be certain there are further posthumous delights coming our way
—— HeraldI gobbled up Silverview . . . Here le Carré is on more familiar territory - what was once known as Mitteleuropa, with its shape-shifting double agents, scarred idealists on the prowl for lost causes
—— SpectatorIt has often been said that le Carré is a novelist, not a mere thriller writer. Yet the thing is that, for all his protests that his creations were always more fictional than credited, what he excels at is giving us a plausible peek into the spy's world
—— The Times[Le Carré's] prose is as quietly impressive as ever and it's a thoroughly enjoyable read. It makes for bittersweet reading - the final work of a master, on fine form
—— Daily ExpressPromises to be filled with intrigue, surprises and timely meditations on the relationship between individuals and nations
—— iOne of the great moral writers of recent times
—— MetroFirst-rate prose and a fascinating plot . . . a fitting coda to a remarkable career
—— Publishers Weekly