2 BBC Radio crime dramas

Detective Galbraith: The King of Diamonds & The Midas Touch

Ex-policeman Galbraith is caught up in mystery and murder in these two gripping, fast-paced detective dramas 
 
After a long career in the Flying Squad, veteran copper Bill Galbraith is hanging up his truncheon and saying goodbye to the police force. He's looking forward to a quiet life on civvy street - but his best friend, private investigator Tommy Evans, has other ideas... 
 
In The King of Diamonds, Galbraith's enjoying a peaceful retirement in the countryside when Tommy calls him up with a job offer. Adamant that he's done with detection, Bill refuses, but Evans persists - and soon, Galbraith is embroiled in murky goings-on involving a beautiful blonde, a missing diamond courier and a criminal mastermind. 
 
The Midas Touch sees Bill accosted once again by his old PI pal, who shows him a mysterious photograph of a party on a lawn, with circles drawn round the heads of three people. The photo was part of a parcel addressed to a retired criminal lawyer, which also contained bearer bonds, a list of jewellery worth £750,000 and a letter threatening the life of a man named Paul Carson. The crime the package tells of has yet to be discovered - can Galbraith root it out? 
 
Created by the award-winning writer of Z Cars and Softly Softly, Robert Barr, these two suspenseful full-cast dramas star Bernard Hepton as the reluctant investigator, with Richard Davies as Tommy Evans. 
 
Production credits 
Written by Robert Barr 
Produced by John Browell 
Starring Bernard Hepton as Galbraith 
 
Cast 
The King of Diamonds 
Tommy Evans/Paul - Richard Davies 
David Cater - Tom Watson 
Gelder - Peter Dyneley 
Anne-Marie - Eva Haddon 
Cornell/Commander - Hector Ross 
Mary Galbraith - Katharine Page 
Milne - Bruce Alexander 
Lindemanns - Cyril Shaps 
Dykers - Trader Faulkner 
Brent - Peter Williams 
Jacobus - Stephen Greif 
Betty van Druten - Frances Jeater 
Lander - Peter Hawkins 
Gunman - Robert Gillespie 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 August-19 September 1975 
 
The Midas Touch 
Tommy Evans - Richard Davies 
Bernie Finch - Garard Green 
Sailor/Andreas - Kevork Malikyan 
Nick Tully - Clive Merrison 
Bavister - Eric Richard 
Mrs Palmer - Margery Withers 
Doc McDowall - Robert Gillespie 
Thorn - David Ryall 
Chief Inspector Collins/Inspector Burridge - Michael Kilgarriff 
Rita - Rosalyn Slater 
Carson - Matthew Francis 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 October-8 November 1977 
 
©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

16 BBC Radio full-cast dramas

The Rivals: Tales of Sherlock Holmes’ rival detectives

The complete collection of all 16 episodes from this gripping BBC Radio crime series 
 
Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he gets his own back, introducing sixteen tales of detectives whose abilities rival that of the great Sherlock Holmes. 
 
Starring James Fleet (Series 1, 3 and 4) and Tim Piggott-Smith (Series 2) as Lestrade, with casts featuring Andrew Scott, Paul Rhys, Anton Lesser, Honeysuckle Weeks, Rupert Vansittart, John Sessions, Marcia Warren and Tim McInnerny. 
 
Dramatised for radio by Chris Harrald, these stories are written by masters of the crime and thriller genre, all contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle. 
 
They include: 
The Murders on the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe 
The Problem of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle 
Murder By Proxy by Matthias McDonnel Bodkin 
The Mystery of Redstone Manor by Catherine Louisa Pirkis 
The Problem of the Superfluous Finger by Jacques Futrelle 
The Clue of the Silver Spoons by Robert Barr 
The Intangible Clue by Anna Katharine Green 
The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah 
The Kinght's Cross Signal Problem by Ernest Bramah 
A Snapshot by Matthias McDonnel Bodkin 
Seven, Seven, Seven - City by Julius Chambers 
The Moabite Cipher - by R Austin Freeman 
The Clairvoyants - by Arthur B Reeve 
The Stanway Cameo Mystery - Arthur Morrison 
The Secret of Dunstan's Tower - Ernest Bramah 
The Mystery of the Scarlet Thread - Jacques Futrelle 
 
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko (Series 1) and Liz Webb (Series 2, 3, 4) 
 
 
(c) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 2021 
(p) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 2021

The complete collection of all 16 episodes from this gripping BBC Radio crime series 
 
Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he gets his own back, introducing sixteen tales of detectives whose abilities rival that of the great Sherlock Holmes. 
 
Starring James Fleet (Series 1, 3 and 4) and Tim Piggott-Smith (Series 2) as Lestrade, with casts featuring Andrew Scott, Paul Rhys, Anton Lesser, Honeysuckle Weeks, Rupert Vansittart, John Sessions, Marcia Warren and Tim McInnerny. 
 
Dramatised for radio by Chris Harrald, these stories are written by masters of the crime and thriller genre, all contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle. 
 
They include: 
 The Murders on the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe 
The Problem of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle 
Murder By Proxy by Matthias McDonnel Bodkin 
The Mystery of Redstone Manor by Catherine Louisa Pirkis 
The Problem of the Superfluous Finger by Jacques Futrelle 
The Clue of the Silver Spoons by Robert Barr 
The Intangible Clue by Anna Katharine Green 
The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah 
The Kinght's Cross Signal Problem by Ernest Bramah 
A Snapshot by Matthias McDonnel Bodkin 
Seven, Seven, Seven - City by Julius Chambers 
The Moabite Cipher - by R Austin Freeman 
The Clairvoyants - by Arthur B Reeve 
The Stanway Cameo Mystery - Arthur Morrison 
The Secret of Dunstan's Tower - Ernest Bramah 
The Mystery of the Scarlet Thread - Jacques Futrelle 
 
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko (Series 1) and Liz Webb (Series 2, 3, 4) 
 
 
(c) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 2021 
(p) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 2021

The complete BBC Radio 4 crime drama

Detective

All four radio series of Robert Barr’s gripping London-based police drama

All four radio series of Robert Barr’s gripping London-based police drama 
 
Originally broadcast as Detective: Stories of Crime and Detection in London, this BBC radio drama ran for four series between 1980 and 1985. Written by the award-winning creator of Z Cars and Softly Softly, Robert Barr, it comprised 39 thrilling stories set in London’s criminal underworld, all of which are collected here for the first time. 
 
DS Dave Brook is a long-serving, ducking-and-diving police officer who takes armed robberies and violent crime in his stride. But then he is teamed up with young 'grammar school boy' DC Blair Maxton from sleepy Epsom. How will Max cope with the mean streets of his new patch? 
 
Among the thrilling cases in these four series, the detectives tackle an armed gang, confront a notorious crime family, search for a missing wife, investigate a gruesome axe murder and the death of a reclusive young woman, and assist ‘The Sweeney’ flying squad. It’s all in a day’s work for Brook and his team... 
 
Ray Brooks stars as DS Brook, with Christopher Blake as DC Maxton, David Daker as Chief Inspector Roach, Peter Cleall as DC Harrison, Jacqueline Tong as Judy and Stephen Garlick as DC Tully. 
 
Written by Robert Barr 
Produced and directed by Martin Fisher 
Starring Ray Brooks as DS Dave Brook 
First broadcast 3 January-27 March 1980, BBC Radio 4 (Series 1), 16 March-18 May 1982, BBC Radio 4, (Series 2), 27 June-15 August 1984, BBC Radio 2 (Series 3), 24 June-12 August 1985, BBC Radio 2 (Series 4)

Robert Barr

Edward de Souza

Bryden Murdoch

Geoffrey Frederick

Full Cast

Two Full-Cast Classic BBC Radio Spy Dramas

A double serving of thrilling vintage spy drama featuring the tenacious Captain Jim Nicholson 
 
A treat from the archive: two classic dramas from the writer of Z-Cars, Robert Barr, set during the height of the Cold War. 
 
The Dark Island is a thrilling story of espionage set among the remote, mist-veiled islands of the Outer Hebrides. Two Intelligence Officers discover an escape route for defectors from Britain. The route, ending behind the Iron Curtain, involves the use of Russian trawlers plying outside territorial waters. Edward de Souza (Coronation Street, Doctor Who) stars as Jim Nicholson in this full-cast drama packed with unexpected twists and turns that will keep you gripped until the very end. 
 
In Return to the Islands, the indefatigable Captain Jim Nicholson heads back to the atmospheric islands of the north when a body is discovered near a secret training base. Things take a sinister turn when an elite trainee is taken hostage. An enemy agent is captured and interrogated but can Nicholson and his team solve the mystery in time? When tragedy strikes, the team are pushed to their limit and embark on a deadly endgame… 
 
Former BBC war correspondent Robert Barr is best remembered writing for BBC TV’s police dramas Z-Cars and Softly Softly. He also wrote the long-running radio series Detective. The Dark Island was originally made for TV in 1962 as well as being published as a novel in 1972. This is a gem from the archive, perfect for fans of espionage thrillers and vintage drama performed by a great cast. 
 
Cast and credits 
 
The Dark Island 
Written by Robert Barr 
Produced by Peter Titheridge 
Jim Nicholson - Edward De Souza 
Bill Grant - Geoffrey Frederick 
Ian McLeod - Bryden Murdoch 
Lieutenant Ritchie - Roy Spencer 
Major Williams - Peter Hawkins 
Brigadier - Michael Kilgarriff 
Mary Somers - Rosemary Miller 
Colonel Jamieson/Hotel Manager - Alaric Cotter 
Alec Thompson - John Graham 
Major Williams - Peter Hawkins 
First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19th September - 24th October 1969 
 
Return to the Islands 
Written by Robert Barr 
Produced by Peter Titheridge 
Jim Nicholson - Edward de Souza 
Ian McLeod - Bryden Murdoch 
Major Miller - John Graham 
Paul O'Donnell - Geoffrey Frederick 
Sergeant Finney - Clive Merrison 
Alan Shaw/Landlord - Andrew Neil 
Katy Evans - Gretta Gouriet 
Alec Rogers - Ian Dewar 
Doctor - Gerald Cross 
Prisoner - David Gooderson 
Miss Dalgliesh - Eva Stuart 
First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10th October - 14th November 1971 
 
©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Captain Jim Nicholson: The Dark Island & Return to the Islands

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