Radio Recap: Pursuit

Pursuit was a CBS police program featuring the adventures of Inspector Peter Black of Scotland Yard. The series ran from October 27, 1949 'til March 25, 1952. Despite a lengthy run it appears there are only about 20 episodes that still exist.

Among what remains of the series is the pilot episode (dated November 28, 1948), where the series was instead called the Hunters. The format was much the same, although the lead character was called Inspector Harvey then and was portrayed by Victor Jory (Jory didn't make it to the series). Strangely, the pilot episode is an adaptation of the Cornell Woolrich story "You Take Ballistics." It's a terrific police drama but hardly a story of Scotland Yard - Woolrich's story was an American one, so it was altered to fit the UK setting. You can also hear "You Take Ballistics" as adapted earlier on the excellent series Suspense on March 13, 1947, meaning Pursuit is something of a cousin series to Suspense.

Looking at the talent who produced the series you'll also see a lot of familiar CBS names, particularly from Suspense and Escape: William N. Robson, Elliott Lewis, Norm MacDonnell, Antony Ellis, Morton Fine, David Friedkin, John and Gwen Bagni; originally Inspector Black was portrayed by Ted DeCorsia, later by John Dehner and finally by Ben Wright; Black's sidekick Constable Moffett was sometimes portrayed by Raymond Lawrence; Bill Johnstone also appeared in many episodes in various roles.

For some reason, there was a post-war interest in Scotland Yard stories on the radio; I've already written about Whitehall 1212; the best program was in my opinion the anthology series the Black Museum but Pursuit is just one of several other examples. Pursuit had the advantage of the terrific CBS radio professionals working behind it; the series was even sponsored by Ford for a brief period in 1950. The music was usually very restrained, mostly performed on organ with a piano accompanying.

Early on, in episodes written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, there's a slight comedic tone to the series, similar to how they wrote for Broadway Is My Beat. In one episode, Inspector Black has to obtain intelligence from the British army and is confronted by a number of different bureaucrats who keep sending him off to different departments. There's also an episode set at Loch Ness (yes, the monster is brought up) where some humour is had from the laid-back nature of the local Scottish policemen.

The series was, at times, a very strong adventure program. One episode dubbed "Pursuit in the North Sea" (July 22, 1950) featured Dehner's Inspector Black battling the black market and going to extreme lengths to get at men smuggling illicit goods. It's my pick for the best of the series.

You can find what remains of Pursuit on the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.