Beyond Midnight
Beyond Midnight was a South African radio horror anthology series that ran from 1968 to 1970 on Springbok Radio. The program "was a replacement series for SF'68. Michael McCabe served as producer, and adapted stories for both series'. Unlike its sci-fi predecessor, Beyond Midnight served up stories with a supernatural bent."[1]
Episodes
As the recordings of several episodes have been lost (especially towards the end of its run) their plots are not available.
| Episode | Title | Adapted by / based on story by | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Marble Knights" | E. Nesbit | November 1, 1968 |
| Newlywed couple Laura and Harry move to the country. Their housekeeper, who knows much of the local lore, says that the marble knights beside the altar of a Norman church nearby used to be fierce, wicked marauders and they come to life every All Saints' Eve and roam the land. | |||
| 2 | "The Paxton's House (House At Brickett Bottom)" | Amyas Northcote | November 8, 1968 |
| A pair of sisters accompany to a rural parsonage, where they become fascinated of an old brick house in a narrow glen named Brickett Bottom. The house has been occupied by Colonel Paxton and his wife for many years. When Alice (the younger daughter) hurts her ankle, Maggie (the elder) visits the Paxtons and strikes up a friendship with the very charming Mrs Paxton. However, none of the locals have ever seen the house or heard of the Paxtons. | |||
| 3 | "The Monkey's Paw" | W. W. Jacobs | November 15, 1968 |
| An Indian Fakir, a very holy man, put a spell on a desiccated monkey's paw years ago in order to show that Fate rules our lives and those who interfere with it do so to their sorrow. The spell allows three different men to each have three wishes from it. The monkey's paw has now come into the possession of Mr. White and his family. | |||
| 4 | "The Phantom Coach" | Amelia B. Edwards | November 22, 1968 |
| Lost on the lonely moors of Northern England, a hunter seeks shelter in the manor of an eccentric recluse. The recluse, a long-forgotten scientist, begrudgingly welcomes the hunter for supper and then for the evening of philosophical ramblings. However, the hunter is eager to reach his wife who is waiting for him at home, so he interrupts the recluse's rant and seeks the Crossroads where he might catch a lift on the mail coach. | |||
| 5 | "Spider-Phobia" | Elizabeth Walter | November 29, 1968 |
| Returning home late one night, Justus Ancorwen is confronted by his greatest fear—a giant spider lurking beside his drawing-room door. He makes a run for it and barely escapes to the corridor outside his flat, but doesn't know where to turn for help in the middle of the night. He chooses Isabel Bishop—a woman who lives just upstairs. Justus had a relationship with Isabel, but has been ignoring for the past several months...This turns out not to be the best idea. | |||
| 6 | "The Late Mr. Elsham" | H.G. Wells | December 6, 1968 |
| A young, ambitious medical student is approached by a wrinkled old man with a yellow face who claims he is looking for someone to leave his fortune to upon his death. There are conditions, though: the young man must be in fine health and have strong personal morals... he must be of sound mind... and he must agree to take the old man's name, Egbert Elvesham, when the time comes. | |||
| 7 | "Harry" | Rosemary Timperley | December 13, 1968 |
| A young, adopted girl with few friends copes by talking and playing with an imaginary older brother. | |||
| 8 | "A Beautiful Viper" | Mary Elizabeth Braddon | December 20, 1968 |
| Out beyond the church of Saint-Germain des Prés, a duel of honour pits Hector de Brissac against his first cousin, André. André is slain, and in his dying breath, he delivers his deathbed curse: "My shadow shall shut the sunlight from your life!" | |||
| 9 | "Smee" | A.M. Burrage | December 27, 1968 |
| Christmas season—a season for large gatherings and childish games in sprawling country houses. Fourteen young adults decide to play a game of smee (a variation on hide-and-seek, played in the dark) with unexpected results. The house is large; the hiding places, obscure. Has everyone been found? | |||
| 10 | "Short Circuit" | Charles Eric Maine | January 3, 1969 |
| A reclusive millionaire builds an isolated mansion to secure his privacy and keep the world out... complete with laminated steel floors, ceilings, and walls; polarized glass windows with steel shutters which can repel armour-piercing bullets; sealed fuses; and a self-contained, emergency backup generator... but his high-tech security backfires when he himself becomes trapped within. | |||
| 11 | "No-Name Baby" | Ray Bradbury | January 10, 1969 |
| Alice is convinced that her newborn baby is trying to kill her: the baby lies awake all day long, staring at her and plotting against her, and at night he cries constantly, depriving her of sleep and rest. Day after day this goes on. Sometimes Alice can hear him moving about the house, but when she looks in on him, he is always in his crib, staring and staring. It's enough to drive anyone mad. | |||
| 12 | "The Honeymooners (Honeymoon)" | MIchael McCabe | January 17, 1969 |
| Two soldiers on furlough share a compartment on a train to Edinburgh and become fast friends. Alex invites Major Peter Buckel home to stay with him and his sister, Angela, for a few days. The three get along very well. Angela and Peter fall in love and marry... and all three head off to Brightons for a honeymoon. | |||
| 13 | "Lanceford House" | Dennis Roidt | January 24, 1969 |
| A writer seeking solitude so he can finish his novel buys a remote house so he can have some peace and quiet! What he discovers however, is mystery: a locked attic room, a piece of paper warning that a certain green vase should not be moved... and rumours of previous owners dying horrible deaths. | |||
| 14 | "A Night In The Waxworks" | A.M. Burrage | January 31, 1969 |
| An aspiring journalist, Raymond Hewson, seeks to make a name for himself by successfully spending the night amongst the wax murderer's at Mariner's Waxworks and publishing the account. | |||
| 15 | "Vulture People" | Unknown | February 7, 1969 |
| The injured leader of an archaeological expedition into the Amazon gets jealous when his wife and their amorous Brazilian guide depart for help—so jealous that he brings a sports truck with murderous natives known as the 'Vulture People' to retrieve her. | |||
| 17 | "Insect Man [Insects]" | Ray Bradbury | February 21, 1969 |
| A tycoon, William Tinsley, obsessed with the notion that all insects are the agents of the Devil on Earth and are always watching him, devotes all his resources to wiping them out. However, he must keep his actions secret, for if they learn his plans they shall surely destroy him. | |||
| 18 | "All At Sea" | F. Marion Crawford | February 28, 1969 |
| A well-travelled businessman, on a routine steamer trip from England to America, runs into a spot of trouble when his roommate (in the upper berth of state-room 105) screams, dashes through the doorway, and is never seen again. The captain and crew encourage him to change rooms, but the businessman can't believe there isn't a rational explanation for the whole thing, and he's determined to get to the bottom if it. | |||
| 19 | "Eloise's Whereabouts [40th Birthday]" | MIchael McCabe | March 7, 1969 |
| A suspicious and peevish man, fast-approaching his 40th birthday, becomes discontented with his flirtatious young wife, Eloise, and decides his only option is to murder her [of course!]. When he learns about a secret room beneath his garage that once was used by bootleggers he decides to move ahead with his plan. After all, it's the perfect place to bury his wife, isn't it? | |||
| 20 | "The Dream" | Basil Cooper | March 14, 1969 |
| A doctor becomes concerned for a friend who claims that his dreams are transporting him to another time and place, where savage horsemen are bearing down on him, swords drawn to kill him. The dreams, or rather the different parts of the same progressive dream, become more complete each night. The friend is concerned that in a few nights the dream may reach its final, terrifying conclusion. | |||
| 21 | "The House Was A Sphinx" | Henry Slesar | March 21, 1969 |
| Handsome and penniless David Snowden marries a young and innocent heiress, Bonnie Daniels. Bonnie's wealthy mother seeks to have their marriage annulled. Davey and Bonnie concoct a plan to get mom off their backs... and all the while there's that locked door on the 4th floor of the run-down mansion that preys on Davey's mind. What's behind it? | |||
| 22 | "The Train" | Charles Dickens | March 28, 1969 |
| In times past, Signal-men manned outposts (signal boxes) along railways. Telegraph lines connected these signal boxes and provided a means of transmitting warnings up and down the line. Upon receipt of a warning, the signal-man would light a lantern and alert passing trains. Interestingly, one of the jobs of the signal-man was to verify that each passing train still had its caboose attached. If the caboose didn't arrive with the rest of the train, the signal-man knew the intervening section of track was NOT clear and he would sound the alarm. | |||
| 23 | "The Evil Face [Let Me See Your Face]" | MIchael McCabe / A. M. Burrage | April 11, 1969 |
| It's a queer, and rather terrible story... no one but he knows what the sight was that sent him off his head for six months, and turned his hair as white as snow. "This is a South African radio adaptation of A.M. Burrage's story, though he is not credited.[2]" ""One Who Saw" was first published in Jarrolds in 1931.[3]" | |||
| 24 | "A True Ghost Story" | Fielden Hughes | April 18, 1969 |
| Sevastopol Terrace, Crome Stratford. A writer staying at the widow Mrs Wane's house, finds himself the unwitting vehicle for her dead husband, Sidney, to reach back from the grave and deliver a final, parting message. | |||
| 25 | "The Wedding" | E. Nesbit | April 25, 1969 |
| To everyone's surprise, beautiful and flighty May Forster suddenly agrees to marry geeky, yet persistent, John Charrington. Friends speculate that Charrington has unduly influenced Miss Forster, but when the wedding date is set and invitations are sent it is obvious the betrothed are committed to spending eternity together. | |||
| 26 | "Yarrow" | Sir Charles Lloyd Birkin | May 2, 1969 |
| Sixteen year-old Angela Peters is raped and murdered on Wimbledon common. Evidence points to the family chauffeur, George Yarrow, but there is not enough evidence to convict him of the crime. Thinking release from the police means he won't suffer the consequences for the murder he committed, Yarrow accepts his old job as chauffeur. Angela's father, however, is a noted scientist who has some interesting experiments in mind for his loyal employee. | |||
| 27 | "Hobart [A Man Called Hobard]" | Elizabeth Bowen | May 9, 1969 |
| A wife and her husband Arthur, dedicated to transforming their new house into a home, receive a disturbing letter in the post. Mr P. St. J. Hobart claims the house belongs to him by right of inheritance and aims to take possession. Mr Hobart dies in a plane crash en route from Australia... but he still means to take possession. | |||
| 28 | "Little Happenthatch" | Collin Brooks | May 23, 1969 |
| A writer stays with his cousin at a rural vicarage while he finishes writing his book: "The Epistemological Implications of Practical Psychiatry" [riveting, I'm sure], but gradually becomes more interested in the practical implications of his cousin's sturdy, but shapely, housekeeper who provocatively wears thins muslin frocks... and who happens to cast no shadow. | |||
| 29 | "Borneo" | Oscar Cook | May 30, 1969 |
| The relationship between two partners (Leopold Thring and Clifford Macy) on a small experimental estate in Borneo becomes quite strained when one of the partners returns from a trip to England with a young bride (Rhona)... and the other partner falls in love with her. | |||
| 30 | "The Yellow Room" | H.G. Wells | June 6, 1969 |
| Enticed by an eccentric, yet wealthy widow's substantial reward, a sceptic accepts an offer to spend a night locked in a supposedly haunted room in her mansion... despite the fact that previous volunteers have all gone insane or committed suicide. | |||
| 31 | "Arsenic" | MIchael McCabe | June 13, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 32 | "Sir Dominic's Bargain [The Man Who Lost His Soul]" | Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu | June 20, 1969 |
| Sir Dominick Sarsfield inherits an estate—one of the finest in Ireland—but spends much of his time drinking, dicing, racing, and playing cards. In a few short years the estate is in debt and Sir Dominick is a distressed man on the brink of suicide. There doesn't seem to be a viable alternative, until he receives an offer... | |||
| 33 | "The House [The Visits]" | Henry James | June 27, 1969 |
| A young student of divinity, rambling the countryside near Medford, stumbles upon and seems drawn toward an abandoned house. The door is locked and barred, but hearing someone approach, he hides himself and witnesses an odd spectacle—a little old man pauses before the door, bows to it, produces a key and inserts it into the lock, then presses against one of the door panels and enters as the door swings open. When the man leaves, he again bows to the door and hobbles away without a backward glance. Intrigued, the young man visits the house again and again and discovers that the old man visits the house on the last day of every quarter, precisely at sunset.... | |||
| 34 | "Sammy" | MIchael McCabe | July 4, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 35 | "The Paul Henry Expedition [A Smile To Drive You Mad/Vulture People]" | MIchael McCabe | July 11, 1969 |
| The injured leader of an archaeological expedition into the Amazon waxes jealous when his wife and their amorous Brazilian guide depart for help—so jealous that he sports truck with murderous natives known as the 'Vulture People' to retrieve her. | |||
| 36 | "The Jokester" | Robert A. Arthur | July 18, 1969 |
| Too many jokes played on too many people lead to unexpected consequences for Bradley, a boorish reporter on the Police Beat who finds it amusing to play practical jokes on anybody he can, including the night attendant at the morgue. | |||
| 37 | "Under The Hull Tree [Under The Hau Tree]" | Katherine Yates | July 25, 1969 |
| A mysterious travelling couple are difficult to trace, as their names are forgotten by everyone they encounter and even disappear from the hotel registry! | |||
| 38 | "The Crystal Ball" | Sir Charles Lloyd Birkin | August 1, 1969 |
| Lilian has always looked good in her yellow dressing gown. But lately, she feels her husband slipping away... into the arms of her best friend. While cleaning one day, she discovers her old crystal ball and, gazing intently, witnesses events that have dire implications for her, her daughter, and her husband's mistress. | |||
| 39 | "Mrs. Taber's Killer" | MIchael McCabe | August 8, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 40 | "Fellini The Great [The Great Fellini]" | Henry Slesar | August 15, 1969 |
| Fellini the Great (an ageing, dim-witted, muscle-bound escape artist) is obsessed with his fading popularity and proposes a death-defying attempt at the Water Trick—shackled, strait-jacketed and dumped in the ocean. His wife is tired of hearing about it and plans to sabotage his escape from a potentially watery grave. | |||
| 41 | "The Happy Return" | William Hope Hodgson | August 22, 1969 |
| A man's world-wide search for his fiancée's lost ship brings him to a desolate isle in the South Atlantic. Even though her ship is found dismasted and void of life, it is meticulously clean, as if the crew had just departed with the life boats. The ropes are clean and neatly coiled, the calendar turned to the correct date. So where is everybody? | |||
| 42 | "Take Your Partners" | Ronald Blythe | August 29, 1969 |
| The romance of a log fire entices an old man to reminisce with his grandson about a ball he once attended... and the woman he met there. It was long ago and life was simpler then. And the ball was held at Campion's. Ah. Campion's. An invitation to a ball at Campion's and you were set for the whole year... tennis, the Bishop's garden-party and no end of other little beanos. | |||
| 43 | "The Werewolf" | Geoffrey Household | September 5, 1969 |
| Kyra Vaughan and her husband meet Lewis Banning while vacationing at Zweibergen, a small village in the Carpathian Mountains, during the Summer of 1926. Two local men have vanished during the past week and the townspeople are convinced a werewolf is responsible. Vaughan and Banning take turns acting as bait to lure the werewolf out so the other can kill it. | |||
| 44 | "Radiation" | MIchael McCabe | September 19, 1969 |
| Livermore National Laboratory, California. An accident involving a highly-classified project results in serious radiation poisoning of a civilian truck driver. Secret notes are read and passed about... experts are consulted... the truck driver is detained. It's all very hush-hush, and I really can't say any more about it. | |||
| 45 | "Turning To Marble" | Robert W. Chambers | September 26, 1969 |
| Sculptor Boris Yvain discovers a chemical solution that turns living objects to marble—lilies, goldfish, rabbits—a curiosity he has no intention of exploiting, for doing so could destroy sculpture the same way that photography has destroyed painting. He shares this discovery, however, with his long-time painter friend, Alec, but the conversation becomes strained when Geneviève arrives... a woman both men love. | |||
| 46 | "A Man's Worth" | Henry Slesar | October 3, 1969 |
| An oft-hated, up-and-coming executive in the food market business, Burton Grunzer, aged 35, is approached by the secretary of a voluntary-service group called Society for United Action. The members of this organization are engaged in a spot of coordinated 'anthropological psychiatry'... that is to say, Voodoo, and would like to know if Mr Grunzer is interested? Has he ever, for example, personally wished someone dead? Membership? £50 a year. | |||
| 47 | "Something Haunts This House" | MIchael McCabe | October 10, 1969 |
| Newlyweds Dobbin and Kate return from their honeymoon in high spirits, giggling, laughing and having a grand old time. Their delight with their new home wanes, however, and tensions rise as Kate becomes convinced that someone—or something—is watching her... or stalking her. | |||
| 48 | "White Revised" | MIchael McCabe | October 17, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 49 | "Storybook Man" | MIchael McCabe | October 24, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 50 | "Uninvited Face" | Michael Asquith | October 31, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 51 | "The Cigarette Case" | MIchael McCabe | November 7, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 52 | "Mexican Mario" | MIchael McCabe | November 14, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 53 | "The Voice" | MIchael McCabe | November 21, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 54 | "Rendezvous" | MIchael McCabe | November 28, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 55 | "Watches By The Dead" | MIchael McCabe | December 5, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 56 | "The Manor House" | MIchael McCabe | December 12, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 57 | "A Time For Thunder (Cliffs of Bembridge)" | MIchael McCabe | December 19, 1969 |
| During the holidays, a man visits his life-long friends on their centuries-old estate and falls in love with the portrait of a long-dead woman. Later that night, a strange thunderstorm transports him back in time, to 1737, where he has a chance to meet her. | |||
| 58 | "The Door In The Wall" | MIchael McCabe | December 26, 1969 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 59 | "Sarah" | MIchael McCabe | January 2, 1970 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 60 | "Rupert Orange [What Happened To Rupert Orange]" | Vincent O'Sullivan | January 9, 1970 |
| Socialite Rupert Orange lived with his aunt in New York till he was twenty-four years old, and when she died, leaving her entire estate to him, a furious contest arose over her will. The Court declared that the old lady had died lunatic; that she had been unduly influenced; and, that consequently her testament was void. So began the fall of Rupert Orange from opulence to poverty... followed by an unexpected rise. | |||
| 61 | "The Thirteenth Elephant" | MIchael McCabe | January 16, 1970 |
| Local headmen complain to the Kenyan government in Nairobi that a renegade herd of elephants (jumbos) is destroying their crops and damaging their shambas. Two young hunters are hired to thin the herd, but they cannot find it—it seems to be hiding. Desperate, they ask a local witch doctor for help. He agrees to tell them where the herd is... as long as they promise to kill no more than twelve elephants. | |||
| 62 | "The Bonanza" | MIchael McCabe | January 23, 1970 |
| Richard Javelin, anthropologist, wanders into the Bonanza Department store looking for a water distilling outfit—a copper tank with coils of copper tubing used for distilling water—for a 10-man expedition up the Amazon. He takes the elevator to the 13th floor where he meets the most amazing sales woman and arranges to meet her after work. When she doesn't show up, he enquires at the store... but they have no record of an Elaine Carmichael working there. | |||
| 63 | "The Visitors" | MIchael McCabe | February 3, 1970 |
| Colin Hunt, a plantation owner in Sierra Leone, is relaxing on his stoop early one evening when a self-assured young man (Philip Milton) arrives and starts acting as if he owns the place! Soon, friends of Philip (Ann and David Stewart) arrive and start demanding what Colin is doing in their home... | |||
| 64 | "The 56 G's" | Robert Bloch | February 20, 1970 |
| Rusty Conners—recently released from prison—looks up Helen Krauss, the wife of his former cell-mate. Rusty's got a message for her. Seems before her old man died, he told Rusty where the loot was hidden. Sort of. It's with the body of the man he knocked off, but nobody could ever find. Now all Rusty and Helen need to do is figure out where the body is located. Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful, trusting relationship... | |||
| 65 | "The Picture" | MIchael McCabe | February 27, 1970 |
| Jane Brooks is startled when her dustbin lid flies off and lands a couple of metres away. But surprise gradually gives way to alarm, fright and, eventually, terror when neither Jane nor her husband, James, can find evidence of natural causes—no people hanging about... no animal spoor... no wind or earthquakes. Whatever it is, is very, very fast. Eventually a hunter friend hits on the idea of rigging up cameras and trip wires to take some photographs. | |||
| 66 | "Impala" | MIchael McCabe | March 6, 1970 |
| Charles Woodley flees to the highlands of Ethiopia to escape a curse that has been laid upon him for killing a sacred bull elephant—a curse which would cause him to die horribly, trampled beneath the feet of the God of All Elephants, if he were to stay in Tanganyika. There are no elephants in the Ethiopian highlands... | |||
| 67 | "The Incomplete Corpse" | MIchael McCabe | March 13, 1970 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 68 | "The Marble Knights (Arthur's Return)" | MIchael McCabe | March 20, 1970 |
| Newlyweds Laura and Harry—writer and painter—move to a secluded cottage in the country. Their housekeeper, well-versed in local folklore, tells them the grey marble knights stretched out beside the altar in a nearby Norman church had once been fierce, wicked men—marauders by land and sea—who now come to life each All Saints' Eve and roam the land. Folklore, of course. | |||
| 69 | "Mr. McGraw And His Victim [McGraw Shoots Stoney]" | Davis Grubb | April 10, 1970 |
| It was ruled self-defence. Stoney Likens swung a beer bottle at Riley McGraw, and Mr McGraw shot him dead. Nobody liked it, but everybody agreed it was self-defence. Everybody except Stoney's eldest son, Verge. Verge thinks it was cold-blooded murder and he aims to get revenge... no matter how long it takes. | |||
| 70 | "An Evil Memory Of Julia Wright" | MIchael McCabe | April 17, 1970 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
| 71 | "The Speciality Of The House" | MIchael McCabe | April 24, 1970 |
| Description of the episode and starring | |||
References
- ↑ "Relic Radio". Relic Radio: Old Time Radio Show Info.
- ↑ "One Who Saw'/'Let Me See Your Face". YouTube.
- ↑ "Beyond Midnight plotlines". The OTR Plot Spot.
External links
- Radio Horror Hosts
- OTR Plot Spot: Beyond Midnight - plot summaries and reviews.
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