Sexton Blake and the Time Killer (1967)

[Richard Bignell]

A few years ago, a website was set up dedicated to Sexton Blake. The site featured MP3s of all 13 episodes of the 1967 radio series transmitted by the BBC, Sexton Blake and the Time Killer, starring William Franklyn as Blake.

The website has long since been taken down, but I wonder if anyone here currently has copies of these episodes?

Likewise, if anyone has copies of Radio Times for 1967, I would love to know what information they contained on this serial.

Thanks,

Richard

[Alan Jeffries]

Hi Richard,
I found a site that may have the serial on it.

www.audiobooksforfree.com

It has the files there and I'm assuming it's the right ones as there are 13 files, but it is not absolutely free. The prices vary - but there are a lot of files there. I've not really been able to browse as yet as I've not long found it.

Hope this helps

Alan

[Richard Bignell]

'Fraid not, Alan!

The audio book is widely available from a number of sites, but it's just a reading of the story by Robert Donald.

Thanks for trying though!

Richard

[Stuart Monk]

Hi, Richard.
Glad to see it's not just my memory that plays little tricks - assuming that we're talking about the same Blake website (Blakiania?), I sent him some info on the 1967 radio series in the hope that he'd send me some of his PDF scans of old Blake novels, but my interest persuaded him to try selling them of his site and whilst I didn't got what I was after, he didn't get round to uploading my information.
Anyway: there was a series of 17 seperate stories broadcast weekly during 1967 on the Home Service and Radio 4 with William Franklyn, of which only three are meant to be 'lost'; I seem to recall that the surviving episodes were available for download on the site, in very low bitrate, but maybe he was missing one of them and only had 13.
It's a long time since I looked at the details in Radio Times at Manchester's Central Library, but I don't recall there being that much information.
The 'Time Killer' serial was also available to download from the site, again in very low bitrate files, and this seems to correspond with the audiobook previously mentioned - it was certainly a reading of a single story but of such bad audio quality that I stopped downloading it!
I don't have my files close to hand at the moment (surrounded by the after-effects of a week in Tunisia), but consider it a promise to post the info or at least a web link in the near future.
Stuart

[Stuart Monk]

As promised (sorry it's a long message):

Sexton Blake's Radio Appearances.

Series 1.
" Enter Sexton Blake "
Broadcast on the Regional Service during Lucky Dip at 3.15pm on Thursdays ; the programme was repeated on the National Programme at 7.30pm, except for the second and eleventh programmes which were repeated on the Regional Service at 8.35pm and 8.30pm respectively.
1. 26.1.39. The Quitter.
2. 2.2.39. The Clue In Wax.
3. 9.2.39. Mr. Brant Gets A Shock.
4. 16.2.39. Count Otto Strikes.
5. 23.2.39. The Telephone Tappers.
6. 2.3.39. The Last Laugh.
7. 9.3.39. Sexton Blake Is Warned.
8. 16.3.39. The Secret Of Rock Island.
9. 23.3.39. The Harbour Light.
10. 30.3.39. Count Otto Is Cornered.
11. 6.4.39. The Iron Boot.
12. 13.4.39. Fight To A Finish ! ( Rpt. National 8pm. )

Series 2.
" A Case For Sexton Blake "
Broadcast on the Home Service during Crime Magazine at 6.25pm on Thursdays, with programmes five and six broadcast at 6.30pm.
1. 12.3.40. ( Episode untitled in PasB )
2. 19.3.40. ( Episode untitled in PasB )
3. 26.3.40. Menace At The Mill.
4. 2.4.40. The Man In The Iron Mask.
5. 9.4.40. Prelude To Murder.
6. 16.4.40. The Case Is Closed.

Series 3.
30 minute, single episodes broadcast on the Home Service ( later Radio 4 ) at 7pm on Thursdays.
1. 24.8.67. Lilies For The Ladies.
2. 31.8.67. The Sin-Eater.
3. 7.9.67. Hag's Acre.
4. 14.9.67. Bluebeard's Keys.
5. 21.9.67. The Vampire Moon.
6. 28.9.67. The Beard Of The Prophet.
7. 5.10.67. The Fifth Dimension. ( Radio 4 from now on )
8. 12.10.67. The Black Widow.
9. 19.10.67. First Class Ticket To Nowhere.
10. 26.10.67. The Enchanted Editor.
11. 2.11.67. The Eight Swords.
12. 9.11.67. A Murder Of Crows.
13. 16.11.67. Double And - Quit.
14. 23.11.67. You Must Be Joking !
15. 30.11.67. Conjuror's Coffin.
16. 7.12.67. The Blood Of Ramases.
17. 14.12.67. No Trees For The Peke.

Anyone with copies of episodes 3, 6 or 8 of the 1967 series, or the earlier broadcasts, or further information, please get in touch!

Sexton Blake, Baker Street's other famous detective, first appeared in print in 1893, with regular appearances continuing, initially in "Union Jack" story weekly, from 4th May 1894 until 1970 without a noticeable break in his publishing schedule.

Many writers have brought us the thousands of episodes in the saga of Sexton Blake and his trusty assistant Tinker - a complete set of all Blake's appearances in print (not including reprints) would take up substantial shelf space.

It was inevitable with the development of Film, Radio and, later, Television, that Sexton Blake would move from the printed page ; in the mid-1930s a 78rpm record was released of "Murder On The Portsmouth Road", an eight minute adventure written by Donald Stuart, with Arthur Wontner as Blake ; Wontner played Blake at London's Prince Edward Theatre in 1936, and the disc (HMV C2044) valiantly attempted to create the right atmosphere in the time allowed, with an unusual thunder sound effect!

Three films followed with George Curzon in the title role ; he was a well-known stage and screen actor, described in a 1939 Radio Times as exactly fitting the Blake portrayed on the page.

In 1939 Curzon reprised his role as Blake in his (and Blake's) Radio debut ; a serial titled "Enter Sexton Blake" was featured during a programme called Lucky Dip, scripted by Ernest Dudley from a synopsis by Berkeley Grey and produced by William ('Bill') MacLurg. Each of the twelve episodes probably ran for no more than a maximum of fifteen minutes during the forty five allocated for the whole Lucky Dip programme. Tinker was played by Brian Lawrence.

The serial was in turn adapted in the pages of "Detective Weekly", one of the successors to "Union Jack", ensuring that Blake's fans missed nothing.

Blake returned to the airways in 1940, with Arthur Young as the hero and Clive Baxter as Tinker ; this six part serial appeared during Crime Magazine which also featured fictional series and true-life cases, such as the investigations of Barton of the Yard.

"A Case For Sexton Blake" was adapted by Francis Durbridge, who, of course, had been succesfully developing the Paul Temple serials since 1938 ; the story had been published previously in an issue of "The Sexton Blake Library" written by Edward Holmes.

Sexton Blake remained on the printed page until 1967, when Donald Stuart returned to the character, writing a series of adventures for broadcast on the Home Service (which transformed during the series’ run into Radio 4); these tales reflect the modernisation of Blake's world, and we see more emphasis on his female assistant Paula Dane (played by Heather Chasen) alongside Tinker (played by David Gregory).

A number of these episodes have survived in private collections, and so we can still appreciate William Franklyn's suave approach to the title role; instead of combatting a series of evil masterminds, Blake in the 1960s in print tended to fight organized crime, and this is often the case with the Franklyn series.

At almost the same time, a Television series appeared, which shared the same theme music as the Radio series – television took to Blake better than radio, continuing its run into 1971.

There have been just a few attempts to bring Sexton Blake to the airways, despite his enduring popularity in print - his willingness to get to grips, quite literally, with his cases, as opposed to Sherlock Holmes' more intellectual approach, may have caused him to be lost among a number of similar Radio detectives in the post-war days, a ‘fault’ which was well-suited for television, but on the page he ruled supreme against all challengers.