"The Hollow Man"

[Roger Sansom]

Checking the invaluable list of Saturday Night Theatres, the first I heard was the adaptation of John Dickson Carr's "The Hollow Man" in January 1959. I can still hear 'Pierre Fley' asking "Or shall I send my brother?" (My memory has plenty of help as I had read the book before that, and at least once since, and there is a later radio version that exists on cassette.) I was already devoted to Carr's detective fiction, and still am.

I was thirteen, and remember that my parents were out. They probably needed to be out for me to be able to hear a radio play in the evening, as I should think it was before we acquired small radios that could be used anywhere in the house. (Funny that leaving a thirteen-year-old alone for the evening would be shocking now - then it was an opportunity to do something they would have thought old-fashioned, hear a radio play.)

And I heard the following week's as well, which was "Mr Rowl" - a story that I rediscovered much more recently on finding the novel in a charity shop.
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Roger Sansom
<http://www.logostheatre.co.uk>
<roger@logostheatre.co.uk>
0208 500 2341 or 0775 480 2426

[Director_General]

Hi Roger

Sorry for the belated welcome to the forum.

As a point of interest i beleive the 1959 version has been found.

[Bengt Mettyl]

This is not the earliest, but the earliest I can recall off the cuff.
Like Roger's it is an adaptation of a John Dickson Carr story, in this case 'Fire Burn'.
Clever and memorable.

[Director_General]

Hi Bengt

Welcome to the forum.

One of the big problems with old SNT recordings in making sure you put the right version of the play in the correct time slot.
My version of the Hollow Man has Norman Shelly as Gideon Fell. I believe this is the 1959 version.

Fire Burn had Richard Handle as Cheviot. The announcement says it is a 'new' version therefore I think it is the 1963 version but perhaps not the 1958 broadcast.

[Raymond McCarthy]

With those versions mentioned above it may seem like heresy to mention the cassette version aluded to which featured Donald Sinden as Dr Gideon Fell.

That and "The House In Gallows Lane" were released in 1997 and they were 90 minute versions, though I must admit to be a bit lax in not checking if they were SNT broadcasts.

There were other Donald Sinden/John Dickson Carr plays that came along later, but it seems they may not grace Radio 4Xtra as that thorny issue of broadcasting rights may again rear its head.
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R.J. McCarthy