Nostalgic Mystery Radio

Respected as one of the greats of modern crime writing, Phyllis Dorothy James (1920-2014), known as P. D. James, came to fame for her mystery series starring New Scotland Yard Commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh. She was also the author of a number of stand-along novels including The Children of Men , which was the basis for the movie Children of Men , and Death Comes to Pemberly , which was adapte...

Sherlock Holmes , fictional character created by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The prototype for the modern mastermind detective, Holmes first appeared in Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet , published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. As the world’s first and only “consulting detective,” he pursued criminals throughout Victorian and Edwardian London, the south of England, and continen...

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or e...

Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. Philip Marlowe was Los Angeles's toughest detective in the groundbreaking series by Raymond Chandler that helped establish the "hard-boiled" detective subgenre. The Headless Peacock : A woman hires Marlowe to help her fiancé who has a gambling problem....

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. A Caribbean Mystery : Miss Marple is drawn into a case of int...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. A Caribbean Mystery : Miss Marple is drawn into a case of int...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. A Caribbean Mystery : Miss Marple is drawn into a case of int...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. A Caribbean Mystery : Miss Marple is drawn into a case of int...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. A Caribbean Mystery : Miss Marple is drawn into a case of int...

Rough and tough Hard-boiled detectives grab a lot of attention, but who would have a better insight on the nature of human evil than “a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins”? Where could you find a more “soft-boiled” character than the parish priest. Mutual brought The Adventures of Father Brown to the air in 1945. Father Brown was the antithesis of the more celebrated soft-b...

Dragnet ran from June 3rd,1949 to February 26th,1957 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show's run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander). Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possib...

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a suspense/detective radio show starring Howard Duff (in the colorful title role along with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie.  It was based on the private detective character created by Dashiell Hammett, well-known from the book and movie The Maltese Falcon.  The show ran from 1946 to 1951.  Duff was replaced by Steve Dunne in later episodes. The Wheel Of Life C...

Broadway is my Beat is a love affair with noir and hardboiled radio detective series blossomed during the 1940's. The golden age of radio had found a new following in the crime drama genre, and managed to churn out several note-worthy serializations. One of the more popular old time radio shows of the period was Broadway is my Beat which featured the talented Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clo...

A Man Called X was a CBS/NBC spy radio series that aired from July 10, 1944 to May 20, 1952. The lead character, Intelligence Agent Ken Thurston, was portrayed by Herbert Marshall. His sidekick, Pagan Zeldchmidt, was played by Leon Belasco. Together, they took various cases, all of which were extremely dangerous, and had happened at different exotic places in the world. The background music was su...

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or e...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side : Miss Marple investigat...

Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. Philip Marlowe was Los Angeles's toughest detective in the groundbreaking series by Raymond Chandler that helped establish the "hard-boiled" detective subgenre. The Grim Hunters : Marlowe is lured to a party as a human item in a scavenger hunt. Things t...

Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. Sleeping Murder : Spinster sleuth Miss Marple probes a woman&...

Dragnet ran from June 3rd,1949 to February 26th,1957 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show's run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander). Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possib...

Sherlock Holmes , fictional character created by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The prototype for the modern mastermind detective, Holmes first appeared in Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet , published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. As the world’s first and only “consulting detective,” he pursued criminals throughout Victorian and Edwardian London, the south of England, and continen...

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a suspense/detective radio show starring Howard Duff (in the colorful title role along with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie.  It was based on the private detective character created by Dashiell Hammett, well-known from the book and movie The Maltese Falcon.  The show ran from 1946 to 1951.  Duff was replaced by Steve Dunne in later episodes. The Biddle Riddle C...

Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to hi...

A Man Called X was a CBS/NBC spy radio series that aired from July 10, 1944 to May 20, 1952. The lead character, Intelligence Agent Ken Thurston, was portrayed by Herbert Marshall. His sidekick, Pagan Zeldchmidt, was played by Leon Belasco. Together, they took various cases, all of which were extremely dangerous, and had happened at different exotic places in the world. The background music was su...

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: the world-renowned, moustachioed Belgian private detective, unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe. Since his inception over 100 years ago, Poirot has stolen the hearts and minds of audiences from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and his celebrated cases have bee...

The Crime Club aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System as a half-hour weekly radio series, beginning on December 2, 1946 and continuing until October 16, 1947, a run of 47 episodes. It aired on Mondays at 8 p.m. through December and then on Thursdays at 10 p.m. It was also heard on Wednesdays and Sundays on some stations. Each installment was introduced by the series host, The Librarian, portrayed...