form y separately published work icon The Poison Cup single work   radio play   crime   - Two acts; 30 min.
Issue Details: First known date: 1953... 1953 The Poison Cup
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'For more than a year, a murderer slowly and painfully kills his wife, ignoring every call made on his human sympathy. This is the plot of the story "The Poison Cup", an episode in the series "THE CRIME CLUB". This crime is one of the most famous in the annals of Scotland Yard - and the audience is asked to solve it as did the detective in charge of the case.'

Source: Episodic synopsis held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection.

Note: This episode draws on Herbert Rowse Armstrong's murder (in Hay-on-Wye) of his wife Kitty, who was poisoned with arsenic over a period stretching from 1919 to 1921.

Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship.

Production Details

  • Broadcast on Melbourne radio station 3DB on Thursday 15 OCtober 1953 (Argus 15 October 1953, p.11).
  • Narrated by Roland Strong.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1953
      .
      Extent: 19p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • In the manuscript held in the Crawford Collection, 'PRODUCTION' is written in red pencil in the top right-hand corner of the first page of both acts one and two. 'Ep. 17' is written in blue ink on the first page of act one.
      • The script is annotated throughout in blue ink, though the annotations are relatively irregular. Annotations include music cues: note, for example, page one, where 'Impending Doom' has been written above the typed music cue.
      • Notations at the end of both acts one and two indicate that both were recorded on 17 August 1953.
      • The Crawford Collection also contains the following additional manuscript material:
        Act one only: 8pp., no annotations.
        Act two only: 10pp., no annotations.
      Series: form y separately published work icon The Crime Club John Ormiston Reid , Roland Strong , Warren Glasser , Jeffrey Underhill , Crawford Productions (publisher), Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1953-1954 Z1936679 1953 series - publisher radio play crime detective

      A 52-episode radio series, The Crime Club was produced by Dorothy Crawford for Hector Crawford Productions in 1953.

      The program profile with which Crawford Productions promoted the program (held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection) sums up the program as follows: 'Each episode will be the true story of a world-famous detective and his most important case'.

      In promoting The Crime Club, Crawford Productions consciously positions it in close relation to the highly successful radio serial D.24 (a fore-runner to its television program Homicide), emphasising that D.24's 'extraordinary success' boded well for The Crime Club:

      'When first broadcast twelve months ago, "D.24" immediately attracted a large audience. The most recent Survey shows that it has completely out-stripped every other programme on the air. It has more listeners than even the highly-priced Variety and Quiz programmes, and we believe the audience figures are still rising.

      While we could not guarantee that "The Crime Club" would achieve the unique position of "D.24", it has many features similar in entertainment value. It has not the advantage of home locale, but it will draw from a much wider choice of material and have a greater degree of contrast in background and types.'

      The relationship between The Crime Club, D.24, and the Victoria Police Force is also used to emphasise the salebility of the program:

      '"D.24" has had quite dramatic results for the Victoria Police Force in the fields of public relations and recruiting. Hence the fact that the Police Department has twice renewed its contract and has discontinued all other forms of publicity and advertising.

      'Having attracted a wide and loyal audience, "The Crime Club" must certainly become an equally successful vehicle for its Sponsor's message.'

      The same inter-relationship also underscores the argument that The Crime Club performs a public service:

      'Our recent close assoication with the Victoria Police Force leaves us in no doubt that they are diligent, enthusiastic, well-trained and organized, and badly in need of all the public support possible. "D.24" is doing much towards achieving such support.

      '"The Crime Club", which will present the detective in his true light, must certainly make a contribution to this most worthwhile objective.'

      The program outline emphasises that in order to ensure that 'All "Crime Club" stories ... will be authentic', they have established a research network between Melbourne, France, and England.

      In Melbourne, 'The complete facilities of the Victoria Police Force are, of course, at our service.' In addition, 'We are also in close touch with Dr. Norval R. Morris, Ph.D. (Lond.), LL.M., Secretary of the Department of Criminology and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Melbourne. His advice and guidance on the "Crime does not pay" angle will be most valuable.'

      For France, 'we have appointed a "Crime Club" reporter in Paris. He will work in close collaboration with Detective-Inspector Jacques Delarue of the Surete, and will provide stories from France and Europe generally.'

      The French Crime Club reporter is not named in the program profile, but their equivalent in England (who 'will cover the detectives of the British Isles') was English detective novelist John Creasey, whose work had already been produced for radio by Dorothy Crawford in the long-running Inspector West serial.

      According to the program profile, the detectives covered in the program included:

      • Detective Inspector Frank Froest (Metropolitan Police CID/Scotland Yard)

      • Gustave Mace (Sûreté)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Elias Bower (Scotland Yard)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Frank Fox (Scotland Yard)

      • Professor Archibald Reiss (University of Lausanne)

      • Inspector William Melville (Special Branch, CID)

      • Detective-Inspector John Wilson Murray (Canadian Detective Service)

      • Divisional Detective-Inspector Edward Drew (Metropolitan Police CID)

      • Inspector Trevor Fitch (Special Branch, CID)

      • Detective-Inspector Richard Tanner (Scotland Yard)

      • Inspector Nathanial Druscovich (Scotland Yard)

      • M.F. Goron (Paris Detective Service)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Gough (Scotland Yard)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Berrot (Scotland Yard)

      • Senior Chief Detective John Tunbridge (Scotland Yard)

      • Rene Cassellari (Sûreté)

      • Chief Detective Inspector Leach (Scotland Yard)

      • Detective-Inspector Maurice Moser (Metropolitan Police CID)

      • Monsieur Canler (Sûreté)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Jervis (Scotland Yard)

      • Chief Detective-Inspector Henry Marshall (Scotland Yard)

             Number in series: 17

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Note:
      Uncatalogued as at May 2013
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()
Last amended 28 May 2013 09:37:17
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X