Private Eye Philip Odell BBC - Lester Powell

Category: Detective, Full Cast, Radio Productions
Language: English
Keywords: BBC Crime Classic Full Cast Radio 4

Written by Lester Powell
Read by Full Cast
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Dramatization

Private Eye Philip Odell: Lady in a Fog & Test Room Eight
Two BBC Radio Classic Crime Dramas
By: Lester Powell
Narrated by: Robert Beatty, Sheila Manahan, full cast
Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 15-09-2022
Language: English
Publisher: BBC Audio

Robert Beatty stars as the hard-nosed Irish-American PI in these two vintage crime serials.

Lester Powell’s Chandleresque detective Philip Odell was a huge hit on the BBC Light Programme between 1947 and 1961, thrilling audiences with his crime-solving adventures in post-war London. This gripping collection brings together the only two surviving radio serials featuring the tough-guy investigator—one of which, Test Room Eight, is published here for the very first time.

Lady in a Fog - En route from London to Dublin, Philip Odell meets an old friend, Heather McMara, who tells him that her brother has been found drowned and asks him to investigate. Against the backdrop of a thick, pea-soup fog, he probes a case of blackmail and murder, involving a racehorse owner, a newspaper editor and a mysterious lady in mink….

First broadcast BBC Light Programme, 29 April-17 June 1958

Test Room Eight - Concerned that someone is trying to sabotage the production of his new influenza vaccine, millionaire industrialist Herbert Truscott hires Odell and Heather to go undercover at his state-of-the-art facility at Barton Medworth. They soon discover that all is not well at the plant—and when a staff member dies after inhaling a fatal dose of live virus, their search for a saboteur turns into a hunt for a killer….

Starring Robert Beatty as Philip Odell and Sheila Manahan as Heather, with a supporting cast including June Tobin, Jeffrey Segal, David March, Hilda Schroder, Mary Wimbush, Beryl Calder, Trevor Martin, Hamilton Dyce and Rolf Lefebvre.

First broadcast BBC Light Programme, 22 December 1958-26 January 1959

NB: Due to the age of the recordings, the sound quality may vary.

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