Saturday, October 15, 2022

Weird Circle 15 - The Great Plague

(New voice, now with some reverb) "The Weird Circle. In this cave by the restless sea we are met to call out of the past stories strange and weird. Bell-keeper - toll the bell, so that all may know that we are gathered again in The Weird Circle!" (Bell tolling) (Old voice) "Out of the past phantoms of a world gone by speak again the immortal tale: The Great Plague."

This episode, first broadcast on December 5, 1943, is an adaptation of A Tale of the Great Plague by Thomas Hood, first published in 1840. To the original was added a sympathetic protagonist - a poor transient pulled into a monstrous crime through the company he keeps - who drives some of the transitions with his monologues, while the Great Plague of London itself as background is not properly established until later. A bit of humor mixed with the gruesomeness of the planned deeds makes for an entertaining twenty minutes of radio.

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