You see, Appointment with Fear is essentially the BBC's version of Suspense. Just as Suspense began largely as a series driven by scripts written by author John Dickson Carr, Carr was also the driving force behind the start of Appointment with Fear. The first several years were made up entirely of scripts by John Dickson Carr and the majority of them were originally written for Suspense.
I can't draw a fair picture of what Appointment with Fear was like because there's very little surviving from the series. I found only four episodes online - three by John Dickson Carr ("The Clock Strikes Eight," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Speaking Clock") plus a non-Carr, "And the Deep Shuddered." All three Carr episodes were originally done on Suspense.
As a Suspense, Appointment with Fear is certainly of interest - the quality of the BBC versions are more-or-less equal to that of CBS. As well, Appointment with Fear was hosted by "the Man in Black," who likewise hosted the first few years of Suspense. Suspense seemed to evolve past the character, but now I wonder if Carr had some ownership of the character which required CBS to phase him out after Carr stopped working on their show.
If you've read this blog before, you might have read one of my gripes against Carr. To put it briefly, I don't think he was a very good radio writer (I can't judge him as a prose author); his stories were very talky, didn't make good use of audio effects and have (to me) an unpleasant odour of smugness.
But I'm a Suspense fan, so Carr is an important part of that show's history (and he did write some episodes I quite like). So, I'm happy to have heard what little there is of Appointment with Fear and if more episodes emerge I'll certainly check them out!
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