Agatha Christie's radio plays

   

BBC radio have produced over 70 full cast adaptations of Agatha Christie’s beloved crime stories, including Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Hercule Poirot is one of the most famous fictional characters of all time, known for his Belgian accent, waxed moustaches, perfectionism and “little grey cells”. Poirot would be the first to call himself a great man – he has never been known for his modesty – but with such success in his career, it is difficult to argue with him. Miss Marple doesn’t look like a detective. But looks can be deceiving… this apparently unassuming woman from the small village of St Mary Mead is surprisingly worldly and uses the fact people underestimate her to full advantage when investigating.

Agatha Christie's works have been adapted for radio numerous times, with BBC Radio being a prominent producer of these adaptations. These include full-cast dramas featuring characters like Hercules Poirot or Miss Marple.

John Moffatt notably portrayed Hercule Poirot in 25 BBC Radio productions, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1985 and 2007. These adaptations include full-cast dramatizations of Poirot novels and short stories, written by Michael Bakewell.

Miss Marple also features in radio adaptations, including "Miss Marple Tells a Story". The BBC Radio 4 series also includes a variety of other Christie adaptations, such as "The Pale Horse", "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", and "4.50 from Paddington". A series titled "Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries" features twelve BBC Radio 4 dramatizations. 

BBC Radio 4 Extra offers an episode guide with various Agatha Christie dramas, including "The Sittaford Mystery" and "The Pale Horse". 

More info here.

Pete Kelly's Blues

Pete Kelly's Blues book cover

Pete Kelly's Blues was an American crime-musical radio drama which aired over NBC as an unsponsored summer replacement series on Wednesday nights. It was broadcast from July 4 through September 19, 1951.

It was the creation of Jack Webb. Webb got his start as a late night disc jockey playing Jazz records in San Francisco. His move to radio drama in a series of crime dramas based in San Francisco. In 1949 he found lasting fame when he created and starred in Dragnet. It is a little jarring during the first few minutes of Pete Kelly to hear Sgt. Joe Friday's voice looking for more than "Just the facts, Ma'am."

Webb was a life-long enthusiast of Dixieland Jazz, and with his well known insistence on realism in his productions, it isn't surprising the Pete Kelly's Blues would be filled with Jazz powerhouses. Cornet player Dick Cathcart became friends with Webb during WWII, and was his musical stand-in. Other members of the Big Seven were Matty Matlock on clarinet, brothers Ray and Moe Schneider on piano and trombone, Morty Corb on bass, and Bill Newman's guitar.

Pete Kelly is a jazz man who just wants the chance to play his kind of music. The world that he plays in isn't always the kindest, and the stories on this short lived show won't always end happily. "…it's about the blues; Pete Kelly's Blues."

The series was produced during three months, but inspired a 1955 film version of Pete Kelly's Blues, in which Jack Webb produced, directed and starred. It used many of the same musicians, including Cathcart, and Ella Fitzgerald was cast as Maggie Jackson. A  television version, still produced and directed by Webb but with William Reynolds in the lead, aired in 1959, using scripts originally written for the radio version.

Two albums were released, a soundtrack recording and Pete Kelly Lets His Hair Down, an instrumental album using the musicians from the series with songs arranged by tempo - "blue songs" and "red songs".

Jane Wyatt

Jane Waddington Wyatt was born in Mahwah, New Jersey, on August 12, 1910,  was a three-time Emmy Award-winning American film and television actress.

Wyatt was born in Campgaw (now part of Mahwah), Bergen County, New Jersey, but moved to New York City at three months old. Her father was Christopher Billop Wyatt Jr., a Wall Street investor, and her mother Euphemia Van Rensselaer Waddington, a theater critic for the Catholic World. She was educated at The Chapin School and then Barnard College. After two years, she dropped out and entered the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she performed for six months in various roles.

She had three siblings: Christopher III, Elizabeth, and Monica. She was also a distant cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt and the poet Harry Crosby, all of whom were descendants of Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Although one of her first suitors was John D. Rockefeller III, on November 9, 1935, Wyatt married investment broker Edgar Bethune Ward. The couple had met in the late 1920s, spending a weekend as guests of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park. They had three children and the marriage lasted until his death on November 8, 2000.

One of her first Broadway theater jobs was as an understudy to Rose Hobart in a production of Trade Winds. With favorable reviews on Broadway and known for her understated beauty, Wyatt moved from theater to film, where she played her most famous role at the time in the 1937 Frank Capra film, Lost Horizon, opposite Ronald Colman. Other notable films that same year included Gentleman's Agreement (opposite Gregory Peck), None but the Lonely Heart (with Cary Grant), and Boomerang (with Dana Andrews).

Her film career suffered due to her outspoken opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy, a leading figure in the McCarthy era. Her career was temporarily damaged by her hosting a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet during World War II, despite having done so at the request of President Roosevelt. As a result, she returned to her theatrical roots in New York for a time, appearing in plays such as Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden, alongside Fredric March.
From 1954 to 1960, she co-starred with Robert Young in Father Knows Best, a TV series about the life of the Anderson family in Springfield, a Midwestern city. She won the Emmy for Best Actress three years in a row for this performance.

Jane Wyatt is known for her role as Margaret Anderson in the television series "Father Knows Best," but the series also began as a radio show in 1949. Additionally, Wyatt appeared on the radio show "Family Theatre," where she played a mother struggling to raise her children properly, in an episode titled "Violets for Courage."

In short, Jane Wyatt had a radio role, both with "Father Knows Best" and "Family Theatre."
The television version of "Father Knows Best" was based on a radio show that first aired in 1949, where Jane Wyatt played Margaret Anderson.

Wyatt was also a part of this show, appearing in the episode "Violets for Courage," where she played a mother facing trials over her children's upbringing, alongside Robert Ryan.

Wyatt died on October 20, 2006, in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, of natural causes at his home in Bel-Air, California, at the age of 96. His funeral was held at St. Martin of Tours Church in Brentwood, California.

Howard Duff

Howard Duff was born in Bremerton, Washington on November 23, 1913. His first film role was as a prisoner in Brute Force (1947). His notable films include The Naked City (1948), All My Sons (1948), Panic in the City (1968), In Search of America (1971), A Wedding (1978), and No Way Out (1987).

He appeared in numerous films with his first wife, actress and director Ida Lupino. One of Duff's last and best performances was as Dustin Hoffman's lawyer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

On radio, Duff worked locally in Seattle-area theater until entering the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was assigned to their radio service, and announced re-broadcasts prepared for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). In this role, he served as the announcer for the drama Suspense, dated March 16, 1943. Duff's most memorable radio role was as Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade in The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946–1950). Due to accusations of Duff being a communist and with his TV and film career starting to take hold, he ultimately left the program in 1950 at the start of its final season; Stephen Dunne took over the voice role of Sam Spade.

On television, he had several roles, including an episode of the television series Climax! titled "Escape From Fear" in 1955. Duff also appeared alongside Ida Lupino on the CBS sitcom "Mr. Adams and Eve" from January 1957 to September 1958. From October 1960 to April 1961, Duff played the role of Willie Dante on the NBC adventure mystery series "Dante." In 1964, he guest-starred in the episode "Prodigy" on the NBC medical drama "The Eleventh Hour," alongside Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy.

From September 1966 to January 1969, Duff played Detective Sergeant Sam Stone on the ABC series "Felony Squad," on which he worked with Dennis Cole. In the 1980s, he appeared in dramas such as "Flamingo Road" on NBC and "Knots Landing" and "Dallas," both on CBS.
Duff had a stormy relationship with actress Ava Gardner in the late 1940s. He married fellow actress Ida Lupino in 1951. They had one daughter, Bridget Duff, born on April 23, 1952. They separated in 1966 and divorced in 1984. He later married Judy Jenkinson.

Duff died in 1990, at the age of 76, of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California. He was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family.