Radio Recap: Whitehall 1212

Whitehall 1212 was an NBC radio program which aired from the fall of 1951 until the fall of 1952. It was a crime series which dramatized cases from the files of Scotland Yard.

Whitehall 1212 was produced by Wyllis Cooper, best-remembered for creating the horror programs Lights Out and Quiet Please. However, you'd hardly know it was he based on this program. The first-person style of his horror plays isn't present here, nor is his idiosyncratic dialogue or purpley prose. A few early episodes feature transitions with the same gong sound heard in his Lights Out plays, but that's the only time I really felt his presence as producer.

Whitehall 1212 invites obvious comparisons to the Black Museum, Harry Alan Towers' syndicated program with Orson Welles which also dramatized Scotland Yard cases. But I must say, Whitehall 1212 looks pretty anemic next to the Black Museum. I'd never call the Black Museum one of radio's best, but it featured strong narration by Orson Welles, crisp dialogue and some decent audio effects. Whitehall 1212 is very dry; audio effects are minimal and unlike the dramatic recreations of crimes heard on the Black Museum, Whitehall 1212 is concerned strictly with the criminal investigation. I never thought I'd rank a Wyllis Cooper production beneath Harry Alan Towers, but here we are.

Whitehall 1212 came out at a time when there was strong interest in police procedurals due to the success of Dragnet. But Dragnet, again, featured very strong audio effects and crisp dialogue. People in Whitehall 1212 drone on and on.

Much is made by the series' claim that it features "an all British cast," which is an achievement for a program made in the USA. The show features almost the same cast every episode, but in different roles. So a man might be a detective one week, the killer the next. It sounds to me like Ramsay Hall was in a number of episodes but I don't see him credited in the program. There's also a recurring character called John Davidson who describes objects from the Black Museum, but he has an unfortunate lisp that makes listening to him an irritation.

If I had to pick a favourite, I found the show from January 6, 1952 was pretty good - it actually dramatized the crime being investigated, making it an oddity. But for that reason it held my interest.

You can hear Whitehall 1212 at the Internet Archive.