Radio Recap: Agatha Christie's Poirot

Prior to World War II, the conventional wisdom on radio seemed to be that audiences liked mystery programs but they adored comedy programs. Although mystery programs were part of radio very early on, it was only really in the post-war era that radio was flooded with mystery shows as detective programs brought in big ratings.

In an earlier Radio Recap I looked at the Mutual 1942-1943 anthology series Murder Clinic, whose ranks included various famous sleuths by world-famous authors - such as Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie. Mutual weren't the leader in radio (far from it) but, while lacking in comedy stars, they put a lot of effort into their mystery programs. In 1945, during the start of the detective boom, Mutual returned to Poirot, this time in his own series!

Agatha Christie's Poirot aired on Mutual from February 22, 1945 to February 17, 1946. Harold Huber starred as Poirot (he also produced the show). After the Mutual run ended, Huber brought the series to CBS as a daily 15-minute program and it ran in that format 'til the end of 1947 - but I'm concerned with the Mutual run here.

The fussy little Belgian detective and his "little grey cells" is now known to have been something of a love/hate figure to his creator, Agatha Christie. In fact, by the time this radio program began in 1945 she was getting tired of writing about him, even though he was her most popular creation. She'd already written what would 30 years later be published as the final Poirot novel (Curtain) but certainly sponsoring Poirot for a US radio program could have only served to make him more famous. And indeed, Agatha Christie did sponsor the program, in fact she appears in the premiere episode!

The first episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot features Poirot relocating to the USA, where he'd spend his run on Mutual (meaning Mutual could cast local actors without worrying about passable British accents). He took on a new secretary, Abbie Thresher (who had a bit of Miss Marple's personality) and Inspector Stevens to be the reliably confounded police official. At the close of the broadcast Mutual made an attempt to link up to England so that Agatha Christie could appear over the airwaves and give her blessing to the new show. Unfortunately, the link up didn't pan out but Mutual instead played a recording they'd wisely made in advance, in which Agatha Christie wishes Poirot well in the USA (probably not good riddance).

Agatha Christie's Poirot only really stands apart from other post-war detective heroes because of the stature of Christie's stories. Huber definitely sounds appropriately accented and fussy in the lead role but the mysteries themselves are not too different from what other radio shows of the time provided. Huber's performance and lingering affection for Christie's work are the best reasons for revisiting this series - otherwise it's about as good as other Mutual detective shows of the era (ie, Charlie Chan, Crime Club, Nick Carter, Murder Is My Hobby).

You can hear episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot at the Internet Archive.

Escape Episode Guide Follow-Up

Having recently completed my episode guide to the old-time radio series Escape I think it would be beneficial to look at the series as a whole, having already examined it episode-by-episode.

I rated every episode out of 5 stars; breaking them down by seasons here's how the averages came out:

• 1947-1948 Season: (episodes #2-54) 4.32 average
• 1949 Season: (episodes #55-76) 4.57 average
• 1959-1950 Season: (epsiodes #77-122) 4.08 average
• 1950-1951 Season: (episodes #123-148) 4.42 average
• 1952-1953 Season: (episodes #149-195) 3.76 average
• 1954 Season (episodes #196-219) 3.32 average

It isn't too surprising to see the last season's average is the lowest, but I think 3.32 is still a good ranking for an old-time radio series. There were still some very good episodes in that season. What's a bit more surprising is that the 1949 season (which lasted just half of a regular season) had the best average - probably because in that season there were a number of new versions of the best scripts from the previous season.

I also kept track of where in the world episodes were set. Here's how the settings break down by percentage:

• Asia and the Pacific: 26%
• USA and Canada: 25%
• The "high seas": 22%
• Mexico, South America and the Caribbean: 20%
• England: 12%
• Other European Settings: 11%
• Africa: 7%
• The Middle East: 1%
• Other Planets: 1%

So Asia had a significant impact on this series, being the most common part of the world to appear. Note as well that "the high seas" rank very high. When you think of Escape, I think you do tend to think of William Conrad, a boat and a snake.

Although the USA ranks high, that doesn't diminish the exotic settings of the series; even stories set in the USA could involve nightmarish department stores ("Evening Primrose"), New Orleans at Mardi Gras ("The Man Who Stole the Bible"), historical adventures ("Command") or the end of the world ("Earth Abides"). Escape promised to bring its listeners into a world of high adventure and they did so, even amidst the everyday world.

Throughout its 7 years on the air, Escape demonstrated its versatility, offering tales from the espionage genre, westerns and science fiction. There were stories of pirates and smuggling alongside wartime exploits, comedic misfortunes and surviving the wrath of nature. You never knew exactly where in the world or what kind of adventure each episode of Escape brought but you could always count on the series to deliver a steady script with able performers and sound technicians. There are only a handful of episodes I don't recommend and that's against a multitude of episodes that I believe can be called among radio's greatest ("Leiningen versus the Ants"; "Taboo"; "Bloodbath"; "A Shipment of Mute Fate"; "Red Wine"; "The Fourth Man"; "Three Skeleton Key"; "A Study in Wax"; "Earth Abides"; "S.S. San Pedro"; "Confession"; "The Young Man with the Cream Tarts"; "Present Tense"; and more).

Escape has long been considered a sibling series to Suspense because they shared so many creative talents (including swapping scripts between the shows). Suspense ran 20 years so never managed the consistency of Escape (I'm certain if I created a Suspense episode guide there would be multiple seasons with averages under 3.32). I believe Escape holds up extremely well among old-time radio series and will continue to be enjoyed for as long as there is interest in audio drama.

Radio Recap: This Is My Best

This Is My Best was a radio anthology series that ran from September 5, 1944 to May 28, 1946 on CBS. Less than half of the series' episodes are in existence now, and that's a real shame.

For This Is My Best was, for a time, produced by Orson Welles. Welles made a few appearances as a performer in the series' early months, but as of March 13, 1945 and a radio adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," Welles took control of the program. Under his guidance, the series basically became another Mercury Theater on the Air. In fact, as the first episode of the series I heard was "Heart of Darkness" I mistakenly thought it was the first episode of the series and that the program was (and had always been) Welles' program. It looks like Welles left the series at the 1945 summer break so he wasn't really involved for very long.

The series was sponsored by Cresta Blanca wines, who had an appealing commercial jingle. Post-This Is My Best they briefly teamed up with Roma Wines to sponsor Suspense, which is where I'm most familiar with their advertisements.

Looking at what remains of the series, what stands out? There's a terrific production of Norman Corwin's comedic "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas." We have most of an adaptation of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" starring Thurber's fellow New Yorker author Robert Benchley - it's extremely funny. Welles crafted an odd adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" that doesn't really retain the easy humour of Fitzgerald's work nor is as faithful to the text as the Escape adaptations I've written about on this blog. Welles adapted Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Master of Ballentrae" but with just a half-hour the story can't really breathe. Jack Benny starred in a comedic program called "Babes in the Woods" but the style of comedy is quite different than what he perfected on his own show.

The series is, like most dramatic anthologies, inconsistent. But the best of the series ("Heart of Darkness" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty") really stand out and suggest that we old-time radio fans are poorer for the absence of so many other episodes in existing collections. Here's an incomplete collection at the Internet Archive.