The Maltese Falcon (BBC Radio Crimes)

Tom Wilkinson, Jane Lapotaire, Peter Vaughan and Nickolas Grace star in this stylish dramatisation of Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective story.

in this terrific adaptation of Hammett's gangsters-and-molls classic, Tom Wilkinson as the macho, cynical, ruthless private eye Sam Spade is better than Humphrey Bogart

Dashiell (Samuel) Hammett was born in 1894 in Maryland, USA. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore, leaving school at 14 and taking a variety of jobs including messenger boy, clerk, yardman and machine operator. A move to San Francisco saw him enrolling as an operative in the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the experience of which would feed his story writing. After being discharged from duty during the First World War for health reasons, Hammett began writing short stories for publication in literary magazines such as Black Mask. He then turned to novels, rapidly publishing some of his most notable work - Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Glass Key (1931). A new life of celebrity in Hollywood and New York led him to meet the playwright Lillian Hellman; they subsequently lived together until Hammett's death. Heavy drink would blight the rest of Hammett's writing career. A further novel, The Thin Man (1934), became a famous film, as had most of its predecessors. He earned a living from scriptwriting; and many of the short stories he had written for Black Mask were collected in three books, The Adventures of Sam Spade (1944), The Creeping Siamese and Other Stories (1950) and The Continental Op (1974). Hammett enlisted in World War II before being discharged with emphysema. In 1948 his drinking became so heavy that he suffered an attack of delirium tremens, which frightened him into abstention. During America's period of McCarthyism in the 1950s, Hammett refused to testify about 'un-American activities' in Hollywood. For this he was sent to prison for six months. He died in 1961; a collection of short stories, The Big Knockout and Other Stories, was published in 1966. With his creation of Sam Spade, and the distinctive style in which he wrote, Hammett had created a sub-genre of detective fiction which has since been christened 'hard-boiled'.

It’s San Francisco, 1928, and Sam Spade is a wisecracking, womanising Private Investigator. Missing husbands and unfaithful wives are his usual stock-in-trade, but when the beautifully distressed Miss Wonderley calls he gets involved in a dangerous caper most people would run a mile from.   Miss Wonderley asks Sam’s partner, Miles Archer, to shadow Floyd Thursby, whom she maintains has kidnapped her sister. But then Archer is shot dead, and Miss Wonderley’s story turns out to be a lie – just like her name, which is actually Brigid O’Shaughnessy.   And Miss O’Shaughnessy keeps on lying. But one thing’s for sure: she does know about the Maltese Falcon, an ancient statuette which has attracted more than one interested party.   With a bunch of heavies at his elbow and the police on his tail, Sam needs to think fast if he’s to outlive the person who killed his partner...

BBC Audio

Stuart Milligan

Connie Booth

Tom Wilkinson

Jane Lapotaire

William Hootkins

Full Cast

A BBC Radio Collection

The godfather of the hard-boiled detective novel, Dashiell Hammett is widely acknowledged as one of America's greatest mystery writers. This collection brings together the BBC radio adaptations of his works for the first time, including the iconic The Maltese Falcon featuring his most famous character: Sam Spade. 
 
The Maltese Falcon 
San Francisco, 1928. When his partner is murdered on an assignment, private detective Sam Spade is drawn into a dangerous case involving a treacherous femme fatale and the priceless black statuette of a falcon... Tom Wilkinson and Jane Lapotaire star in this thrilling dramatisation of Hammett's most famous novel. 
 
Secret Agent X-9 
New York, 1934, and Secret Agent X-9 is about to embark on his most deadly mission yet. Falsely accused of murder, he struggles to stay one step ahead of the law in his relentless pursuit of his arch enemy, 'The Top'. Dramatised from a comic strip co-created by Dashiell Hammett, this tale of mystery, murder and mayhem stars Stuart Milligan, Connie Booth and William Hootkins. 
 
Nightmare Town 
Arriving in the desert boom town of Izzard, Arizona, sharp-edged tough guy Steve Threefall meets the beautiful, terrified Nova Vallance - and encounters danger, intrigue and a dark mystery... Read by Stuart Milligan. 
 
The Man Who Killed Dan Odams 
An escaped killer fleeing cross-country stumbles upon an isolated farm in Montana, inhabited by a woman and her young son... This mysterious and brooding noir western is read by Stuart Milligan. 
 
 
The Maltese Falcon 
Sam Spade - Tom Wilkinson 
Brigid O'Shaughnessy - Jane Lapotaire 
Mr Gutman - Peter Vaughan 
Joel Cairo - Nickolas Grace 
Effie - Mia Soteriou 
Miles Archer - William Hope 
Iva - Liza Ross 
Wilmer - Peter Acre 
Tom Polhaus - Norman Jones 
Lt Dundy - Harry Towb 
DA Bryan - Don Fellows 
Newspaperman - Robin Summers 
Taxi driver - Keith Edwards 
Man with key - Arnold Diamond 
Dramatised by Michael Bakewell 
Directed by Jane Morgan 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 December 1984 
 
Secret Agent X-9 
X-9 - Stuart Milligan 
Grace Powers - Connie Booth 
The Top - William Hootkins 
Evelyn Powers - Rachel Power 
Deacon/Alden Powers - Peter Marinker 
Matthew/Steward/Luke - Michael John Paliotti 
Captain Brady/Bartholomew - John Guerrasio 
Jude - Bruce McGregor 
Cop 1 - Clive Rowe 
Harper-Carp - Kerry Shale 
Waitress/Sister Agnes - Miranda Pleasance 
Other parts played by the cast 
Dramatised by Mark Brisenden from the comic strip created by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond 
Produced by Chris Wallis 
First broadcast BBC Radio 5 Live, 1-22 January 1994 
 
Nightmare Town 
Read by Stuart Milligan 
Abridged by Neville Teller 
Produced by Elizabeth Allard 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5-8 November 2001 
 
The Man Who Killed Dan Odams 
Read by Stuart Milligan 
Abridged by Neville Teller 
Produced by Elizabeth Allard 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 November 2001

BBC Audio

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