Chesterton Radio

Friday has a character all its own. This morning at The Little Station on Commercial Street, we settle in with The Friday Collection , then turn to G. K. Chesterton’s wonderfully comic “The Advantages of Having One Leg” —an essay that begins with inconvenience and ends up asking whether limitations sometimes help us see ordinary pleasures more clearly. We also look toward Game 1 of the World Series , wander through a few intriguing October 23 anniversaries, and consider something increasingly rare in an on-demand world: the pleasure of knowing that something begins at a particular time and that other people will be there for it too. A Friday. A first pitch. A radio program. A page waiting to be read. Perhaps freedom isn’t always having everything available whenever we want it. Daybreak is Chesterton Radio’s morning conversation from The Little Station on Commercial Street—a few worthwhile stories, a wider view of the day, and a thought worth carrying into it. Support The Little Station If Daybreak, Reading Chesterton, our classic radio discoveries, original programs, and cultural deep dives have become part of your day, please consider subscribing to ChestertonRadio.com . Free subscriptions help our community grow, and paid subscriptions directly support the work of keeping The Little Station on the air and creating more programs like these. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. You’re helping keep the door open, the microphone on, and something worth listening to waiting on the other side. Enjoy Chesterton Radio anytime on our 24/7 Live Stream - The Open Door! Live.ChestertonRadio.com Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Long before he commanded the Enterprise , Patrick Stewart picked up a sword. In 1978, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Night Theatre broadcast J. C. W. Brook’s extraordinary The Tale of the Knight, the Witch and the Dragon , with Stewart as Sir Hugh of Monreth—an aging knight living in a peaceful world that has begun to think knights, witches, dragons, and perhaps even the old stories themselves are no longer necessary. Then the dragon comes back. In this Saturday Night Theatre Companion , we return to this remarkable production: Patrick Stewart’s performance, Peter Howell and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s extraordinary sound world, the strange power of radio fantasy, and the deeper question hiding beneath the adventure: What happens when a civilized world decides it has outgrown fairy tales? Along the way, we bring G. K. Chesterton into the conversation— The Ethics of Elfland , The Red Angel , St. George, the necessity of wonder, and the old truth that the important thing about dragons is that they can be fought. 🎧 Listen to the original play, then join us for the Companion. Keep Chesterton Radio’s door open. If these rediscoveries of great radio, literature, drama, and forgotten culture are worth preserving, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps us continue finding, researching, and sharing them. And when the podcast ends, the radio doesn’t. Step through the Open Door and listen to Chesterton Radio’s 24/7 stream at Live.ChestertonRadio.com . The old stories are still being told. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

A train moves through the darkness. A stranger takes the seat across from you. His voice is calm, almost friendly. And then he begins to tell you a story. In this Chesterton Radio Listen with Gilbert Deep Dive, we return to The Mysterious Traveler , the remarkable series created by Robert Arthur and David Kogan and made unforgettable by Maurice Tarplin’s quietly sinister Traveler. We explore the genius of the nighttime-train framing device, the extraordinary range of stories, and the terrifying brilliance of “Behind the Locked Door” —a story that demonstrates something radio understood better than almost any visual medium: Sometimes the most frightening monster is the one you never see. We’ll also explore the strange fate of the series itself. Hundreds of journeys were broadcast, but only a fraction survive. In a wonderfully appropriate twist, The Mysterious Traveler has become something of a ghost itself. So find a dark room. Put on your headphones. The train is waiting. Keep Chesterton Radio on the air. If you enjoy our Deep Dives, classic radio discoveries, Reading Chesterton , original programs and the growing Chesterton Radio library, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions directly support the preservation, production and creation of programming like this. And the radio never has to stop. The Open Door — Chesterton Radio’s 24/7 live stream is always playing at Live.ChestertonRadio.com . Classic radio drama, mystery, comedy, music, Chesterton and unexpected discoveries—day and night. Subscribe. Listen. Share it with someone who still believes radio can create pictures better than a screen. And if you happen to hear a train whistle tonight... perhaps you’d better listen. This Marathon collection includes: No One On the LineThe Acccusing CorpseDeath is the VisitorThe Woman in BlackLocomotive GhostThe Case of Charles FosterDeath Has a Thousand FacesThey Struck it RichOut of the PastNew Years NightmareThey Who SleepNo Grave Can Hold MeMurder Goes FreeMind over MurderDeath is my CallerI Won't Die AloneDeath Laughs LastThe Man Who VanishedThe Man The Insects Hated Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

What happens when two radio productions take on one of G. K. Chesterton’s strangest books? This morning on Daybreak , we listen to two versions of The Man Who Was Thursday and explore how radio transforms Chesterton’s extraordinary mixture of mystery, comedy, conspiracy, nightmare, and metaphysical adventure. The same Syme. The same Sunday. But not quite the same journey. Then we cross into another world where appearances can be wonderfully deceptive: the celebrated “feud” between Jack Benny and Fred Allen. We visit Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel , remember a great October 23 moment in baseball history, and look out from The Little Station on Commercial Street at a few things worth noticing in the wider world today. Two Thursdays. One imaginary feud. Sports becoming storytelling. And the peculiar magic of radio—the medium that can build an entire world inside your head. Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. This is Daybreak from Chesterton Radio. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

For one remarkable hour of radio history, the great musicals of Broadway and American operetta climbed aboard the train. The Railroad Hour brought Gordon MacRae, a full orchestra, chorus, celebrated guest stars, and some of the greatest music of the stage into American living rooms—compressing whole theatrical worlds into the intimate dimensions of radio. In this Listen with Gilbert deep dive, we’re letting Chesterton Radio listeners choose the program. We count down the ten Railroad Hour productions you’ve listened to most—from Rio Rita , Eileen and Song of Norway through Jerome Kern’s Roberta , Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta , Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet , Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn —and finally to the surprising runaway favorite at No. 1. Along the way, we’ll hear the story of The Railroad Hour itself, explore the journey from operetta to the American musical, and ask a wonderfully old-fashioned question: How did they fit Broadway inside a radio? And perhaps there is a larger question hiding there too. We now have nearly every song, show, and recording available whenever we want it. The listener of radio’s golden age had far fewer choices. But on Monday night, when the orchestra began, they had somewhere to be. Ten shows. One little radio. An entire world of music. All aboard. The Desert Song - Romberg and Hammerstein - Railroad Hour Holiday Inn - Irving Berlin - The Railroad Hour Bitter Sweet - Noel Coward - Jeanette MacDonald - Gordon MacRae - The Railroad Hour The Red Mill - Gene Kelly - Operetta by Victor Herbert - Railroad Hour Naughty Marietta - Victor Herbert - Railroad Hour Roberta - Jerome Kern Musical - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Railroad Hour Sally - Jerome Kern Musical - The Railroad Hour Song of Norway - Edvard Grieg - The Railroad Hour Eileen - Victor Herbert - The Railroad Hour Rio Rita - The Railroad Hour Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Good morning from Chesterton Radio. Today on Daybreak , the weather turns deadly in the wonderfully atmospheric Midweek Theatre mystery The Weather for Murder —a Chesterton Radio favorite that has now been heard more than 110,000 times. Then we travel to 79 Wistful Vista , where Fibber McGee and Molly welcome a visitor uniquely qualified to make an already disorderly household even less sensible: Gracie Allen . It’s a delightful glimpse of the Golden Age of Radio as one great shared neighborhood, where familiar voices could wander through one another’s worlds. And in today’s Reading Chesterton , we turn to one of G. K. Chesterton’s small masterpieces, “A Piece of Chalk.” A forgotten stick of white chalk, a sheet of brown paper, and a walk through the English countryside become a meditation on goodness, imagination, and the astonishing world hiding inside ordinary things. That becomes our thread for this Wednesday morning: what happens when imagination transforms the familiar . Weather becomes menace. Domestic life becomes comedy. And a piece of chalk becomes philosophy. Pour the coffee, turn up the wireless, and join us for Daybreak . P.S. New here? Welcome to the Chesterton Radio world. Chesterton Radio is more than a podcast. It’s an open door into stories, ideas, faith, mystery, comedy, drama, and wonder . Start the day with Morning Prayer and Daybreak . Read G. K. Chesterton with us in Reading Chesterton . Drop in on the students of Benedictine College in Rook . Settle in for classic and original mysteries, radio drama, and Saturday Night Theatre . Explore great broadcasts more deeply with Listen with Gilbert . And when you simply want the wireless playing in the background, step through the Open Door , our continuous Chesterton Radio stream. Some of what you’ll find here is nearly a century old. Some of it was created yesterday. The idea behind all of it is much the same: Good stories are still worth telling. Great ideas are still worth discussing. And the world is still full of wonder. Welcome to Chesterton Radio. Stories • Ideas • Wonder Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

This morning at The Little Station on Commercial Street, we open the listening room with The Cave of Diamonds , a 1973 South African radio drama from Tuesday Theatre , then return to August 1945 and the extraordinary V-J Day edition of Command Performance . Adventure, laughter, relief, remembrance and a prayer of thanksgiving lead to a larger question: What did radio once know how to do that we may have forgotten? Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

In 1943, Suspense gave silent-screen legend Lillian Gish a voice in Marry for Murder . Thirty-two years later, CBS Radio Mystery Theater broadcast an entirely different mystery with exactly the same title. Coincidence? Homage? Or simply proof that some suspicions never grow old? In this Listen with Gilbert Deep Dive, we put the two broadcasts side by side—from the remarkable paradox of a silent-film icon performing in radio’s invisible theater to the revival of dramatic radio under Himan Brown. Along the way, we consider a distinctly Chestertonian question: we can follow the money, examine the evidence, and investigate a person’s past—but can we ever completely know another human heart? Two eras of CBS radio. Two marriages shadowed by suspicion. One title. Marry for Murder. There’s more behind this door. Chesterton Radio is a world of stories, ideas, faith, mystery, laughter, and wonder — for people who still believe listening can be an adventure. Listen Live — Chesterton Radio around the clock. Classic Radio — Mysteries, dramas, comedies, and remarkable broadcasts from radio’s past. Originals — New mysteries, radio dramas, fiction, readings, and programs from Chesterton Radio. Daybreak — A daily journey through stories, history, culture, music, and unexpected connections. Saturday Night Theatre — Great radio drama and our original Companion essays. Morning Prayer — Scripture, prayer, and the ancient rhythm of the Church. Rook — Our black-and-white comic from the peculiar world of Benedictine college life. The Mercantile — Books, prints, apparel, and things from the Chesterton Radio world. Subscribe and come through the Open Door. Stories • Ideas • Wonder Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

A man is convicted of murder. He escapes. Somewhere outside the prison walls lies the truth—and perhaps the only chance to prove his innocence. Victor Canning’s The Hidden Face is a superb example of the British man-on-the-run thriller, a tradition stretching from John Buchan into the golden years of BBC radio drama. But what makes a story of pursuit so compelling when the audience can see absolutely nothing? In this Listen with Gilbert: Saturday Night Theatre Companion , we explore Canning, his 1956 novel The Hidden Face —published in America as Burden of Proof —and its life on BBC radio. We’ll look at contemporary reactions to the drama, the craft of creating pursuit and danger entirely through sound, and the themes of guilt, innocence, identity and justice beneath the thriller. And perhaps we’ll discover why, decades after its first broadcast, listeners are still willing to follow a fugitive into the darkness. Listen to the play. Then join the conversation. From Chesterton Radio — Stories • Ideas • Wonder Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

What does it mean to love something—and is love enough to keep it alive? In Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard , a family returns to an estate filled with memory, beauty, and a magnificent orchard. They love it. They cannot imagine life without it. And yet, while they remember, argue, dream, and delay, the world around them is changing. In this Listen with Gilbert Deep Dive, we enter Chekhov’s orchard with G. K. Chesterton as our companion—not because Chesterton wrote about the play, but because his ideas about tradition, inheritance, home, memory, and “the democracy of the dead” raise fascinating questions about it. We meet Ranevskaya, who loves the orchard but cannot save it; Lopakhin, the grandson of a serf who understands what must be done; Trofimov, looking impatiently toward the future; and old Firs, remembering a world everyone else is preparing to leave behind. And we listen for two sounds: a distant string breaking somewhere beyond the horizon—and, finally, the axe. From Chekhov’s Russia in 1904 to a little radio station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas, the question remains surprisingly close to home: What is our cherry orchard? What have we inherited? What deserves to survive us? And what are we willing to do about it? Listen with Gilbert , from Chesterton Radio. Stories. Ideas. Wonder. Chesterton Radio is an independent little station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas, created for people who still believe great stories, great ideas, and the human voice are worth keeping alive. Programs like Listen with Gilbert take time to research, write, produce, and preserve, and they exist because listeners choose to support them. If you enjoy discovering Chekhov, Chesterton, classic radio drama, forgotten books, and new original programs without algorithms deciding what is worth hearing, please consider becoming a paid subscriber . Your subscription helps keep the lights on, the microphones warm, and the door open for the next story. Thank you for listening—and for helping Chesterton Radio remain a small place where Stories, Ideas, and Wonder still have a home. Our Open Door 24/7 Live Stream is always on! Live.ChestertonRadio.com Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

There was a time when you didn’t search a catalog for something to hear. A program arrived at a particular hour—and you made room for it. This morning on Daybreak , we consider the return of appointment listening , tonight’s GKC presentation on Monday Night Playhouse , and the growing rhythm of Morning Prayer, Daybreak, ROOK, Saturday at Eleven, Sunday plays, and The Open Door. Perhaps radio’s old gift wasn’t simply programming. It gave the day a shape. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Arch Oboler understood something fundamental about radio: what you cannot see may be more powerful than what you can. From the psychological darkness of Lights Out to wartime dramas, literary adaptations, political parables, and performances by Mae West, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Ronald Colman, and Raymond Massey, Oboler continually tested the limits of the medium. Radio historian John Dunning wrote that few people were ambivalent about him. People either liked or disliked him with equal fervor. This Chesterton Radio Deep Dive explores why—through The Sea , The Garden of Eden , Johnny Got His Gun , The Women Stayed at Home , This Precious Freedom , Night Flight , and more. Turn out the lights. The pictures are better that way. The Garden of Eden - Mae West - Don Ameche - Arch Oboler The Sea - Lights Out - Arch Oboler The Women Stayed At Home - Arch Oboler - Norma Shearer - Everyman’s Theater 🎙️ Night Flight — An Arch Oboler Drama of Darkness, Duty, and the Edge of Control Of Human Bondage - Bette Davis - Ronald Colman - W. Somerset Maugham - Oboler This Precious Freedom - Arch Oboler - Everyman’s Theater - Raymond Massey 🎙️ Arch Oboler’s Plays – The History of a Mug - A Mother’s Love and a Gangster’s Fall Berkeley Square - Ronald Colman - Greer Garson - Everything For The Boys - Arch Oboler Johnny Got His Gun - James Cagney - Arch Oboler’s Plays Cat Wife - Every Man’s Theater - Arch Oboler Arch Oboler & Friends - Mystery Adventure All Night Long! Rocket From Manhattan - Arch Oboler - Lights Out Money, Money, Money - Lights Out - Arch Oboler The Cliff - Arch Oboler’s Plays The Women Stayed At Home - Everyman’s Theater - Arch Oboler Revolt of the Worms | Lights Out | Arch Oboler Strange Morning - Ingrid Bergman - Arch Oboler’s Plays - A Story of Victory Lights Out! – They Met at Dorset (1943) | Wartime Thriller by Arch Oboler The Day Sinatra Got Fat - Arch Oboler’s Plays The Truth - Edmund Gwenn - Arch Oboler’s Plays Adolph and Miss Runyon - Bette Davis - Hans Conreid - Arch Oboler - Plays for Americans The House I Live In - Arch Oboler Plays - Mercedes McCambridge - Raymond Massey The Laughter - Four for the Fourth - Fred MacMurray - Arch Oboler - Mercedes McCambridge A Letter at Midnight - Jimmy Stewart - Arch Oboler - Plays for Americans Mirage - Lights Out - Arch Oboler Ways of Men Past, Present and Future - Arch Oboler’s Plays The Chinese Gong - Arch Oboler - First Nighter Engulfed Cathedral - Arch Oboler’s Plays Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

The Worlds We Hear Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street. On this 100th World Mission Sunday, Daybreak considers the remarkable power of radio to carry us beyond ourselves. We revisit Norman Corwin’s globe-spanning One World Flight , discover which CBS Radio Mystery Theater stories listeners still return to most, and recommend the forgotten BBC Sunday Play The Brass Farthing . From voices gathered around the world to worlds created entirely in the imagination, it’s a Sunday morning celebration of what happens when we simply listen. Daybreak — Sunday, October 18, 2026 | Chesterton Radio Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Good morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street . It’s a wonderfully varied Saturday edition of Daybreak . Tesla says the flying-car future is arriving. A remarkable dinosaur fossil has scientists looking again at what they thought they knew. We remember Saratoga and Chopin—and then turn down the lights for today’s feature: All Night Long , Chesterton Radio’s great overnight radio marathons. Why, in an age when we can choose almost anything at any moment, is there still something magical about simply turning on a station and letting it keep us company? Daybreak is made possible by listeners like you. If The Little Station has become part of your day, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a contribution to help us keep original programs, stories, essays, and the Open Door stream on the air. Interested in sponsoring Chesterton Radio? We’d love to hear from businesses and organizations that fit naturally with our audience and the character of the station. And visit the Chesterton Radio Mercantile —our little shop supporting the Little Station and helping keep the signal going. Pull up a chair. The coffee is on, the transmitter is warm, and there is quite a lot happening out there this morning. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854. Tonight, the lights are on at the little station on Commercial Street, and we’re celebrating his birthday the way Chesterton Radio knows best: by listening. In this special Listen with Gilbert , we open the radio archives and hear Wilde come alive through An Ideal Husband , The Importance of Being Earnest , The Canterville Ghost , The Picture of Dorian Gray , and several remarkable radio versions of The Happy Prince . Why does Wilde work so extraordinarily well without a stage? Perhaps because when the scenery disappears, we are left with the things he did best: voices, words, wit, rhythm and paradox. But listen long enough and another Wilde begins to emerge—the writer concerned with conscience and forgiveness, suffering and sacrifice, beauty and goodness, mercy and love. The Happy Prince may take us closer to that Wilde than almost anything else he wrote. And, naturally, Gilbert Chesterton has something to say along the way. So come through the Open Door. Pull up a chair. The ON AIR light is glowing, and Oscar Wilde is on the radio. If you enjoy programs like Listen with Gilbert , please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Chesterton Radio . Your subscription helps us keep this little independent station going and supports the original stories, essays, deep dives, radio companions, Morning Prayer and new programs we’re creating. And the station doesn’t close when the podcast ends. The Open Door is Chesterton Radio’s continuous live stream —a place to drop in throughout the day and discover stories, classic radio drama, literature, conversation and a few surprises from the shelves. Come back whenever you like. The light is on. The door is open. The radio is playing. Chesterton Radio Stories • Ideas • Wonder An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde - Saturday Night Theatre The Canterville Ghost - Margaret O’Brien - Oscar Wilde - Lux Radio Theater The Importance of Being Earnest | Oscar Wilde | Saturday Night Theatre The Picture of Dorian Gray - Living Fiction - Oscar Wilde The Happy Prince - Railroad Hour - Gordon MacRae - Oscar Wilde The Happy Prince - Orson Welles Theater - Christmas 1941 The Happy Prince | Lady Esther Presents Mercury Theatre | Orson Welles Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Why are people still listening to radio plays made decades ago—and listening by the millions? This morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street , Daybreak looks at Chesterton Radio’s 30 most-listened-to Saturday Night Theatre plays and what their remarkable popularity says about the enduring power of audio drama. Then we open The Open Door , Chesterton Radio’s 24/7 live stream, and consider something increasingly rare in an on-demand world: turning on the radio without knowing exactly what you’ll hear next. And on the birthday of Oscar Wilde , we remember the power of dialogue to create an entire world with little more than words, voices—and the listener’s imagination. A good story. A little serendipity. And perhaps a reason not to choose everything. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

🎧 Listen to the complete play: What happens when the detective solves the murder—but cannot prove it? In this Saturday Night Theatre Companion , we return to the BBC’s 1973 production of Darkness at Pemberley , adapted from the remarkable 1932 novel by T. H. White , years before The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King . It begins like a classic Golden Age puzzle: mysterious deaths, a Cambridge college, an impossible crime and Inspector Buller patiently working toward the truth. But then White does something unexpected. The detective knows who did it. The murderer knows that he knows. And the ordinary rules of the detective story begin to fall apart. The mystery moves from Cambridge to Pemberley and transforms from locked-room puzzle into country-house thriller, Gothic nightmare and manhunt. We explore White’s Cambridge background, the deliberate echoes of Jane Austen, the 1973 BBC production with Brewster Mason and Marius Goring , and why a great house filled with doors, footsteps, unseen rooms and darkness is almost perfectly designed for radio. And we look at the story through a Chestertonian lens . For Chesterton—and especially for Father Brown—a crime was never merely a puzzle of clues. Behind the locked door was always the greater mystery: the human person. Buller may discover the truth. But is knowing the truth the same thing as defeating evil? Perhaps the locked room was never the greatest mystery at Pemberley. Perhaps it was the human heart. From The Little Station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas , this is the Saturday Night Theatre Companion —rediscovering great radio drama, forgotten stories, and the ideas that still speak across the years. Chesterton Radio Great stories. Enduring ideas. The door is still open. Live.ChestertonRadio.com Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Christmas Eve, 1950. A 25-year-old Richard Burton takes the microphone as David Copperfield. Boris Karloff becomes the sinister Uriah Heep. And as the formidable Betsey Trotwood, one of Britain’s great character actresses enters the story: Flora Robson . In this Chesterton Radio deep dive, we follow Robson’s extraordinary voice across more than thirty years of radio drama through three very different performances. 🎙️ David Copperfield — Theatre Guild on the Air (1950)Richard Burton, Boris Karloff and Flora Robson bring Dickens to American network radio on Christmas Eve. 🎙️ The Soft September Air — Charlotte Hastings, BBC Saturday Night Theatre An older Robson plays an independent novelist whose carefully ordered life is unexpectedly transformed by a group of young people. 🎙️ A Voice in My Hand — Charlotte Hastings, BBC Saturday Night Theatre A haunting late-career drama connected with the celebration of Robson’s remarkable sixty years in the theatre. Along the way, we explore Robson’s unusual career as one of Britain’s finest character actresses; the young Richard Burton before international fame; Boris Karloff beyond Frankenstein; playwright Charlotte Hastings and her recurring collaboration with Robson; and the changing art of radio drama from America’s golden age to the BBC tradition of the late twentieth century. Most of all, this is about something radio does perhaps better than any other medium. The theatre disappears. The scenery comes down. The audience goes home. The actors themselves eventually pass into history. But the microphone remembers. More than seventy-five years after that Christmas Eve broadcast, we can still hear Flora Robson walk into Dickens’ story as Betsey Trotwood. The past isn’t merely something we can read about. We can still hear it. Listen to the plays David Copperfield — Richard Burton, Boris Karloff & Flora Robson The Soft September Air — Flora Robson & Charlotte Hastings A Voice in My Hand — Flora Robson & Charlotte Hastings From Chesterton Radio — The Little Station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas. Discover more classic radio drama, original stories, deep dives and the Chesterton Radio live stream at ChestertonRadio.com. If you enjoy the work, please consider becoming a supporter or paid subscriber. Your support helps us preserve these remarkable broadcasts while building the next generation of original Chesterton Radio stories and radio drama. Sponsors are welcome. If your business would like to support thoughtful storytelling, classic literature and independent radio, we’d love to hear from you. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

🎧 Listen to Shadow of Murder first: A murder mystery in the Scottish Highlands. A writer hidden behind more than one name. And a BBC radio drama that, more than sixty years later, has found an extraordinary new audience. In this edition of Saturday Night Theatre Companion , we return to Shadow of Murder , the atmospheric BBC adaptation of a novel by Charity Blackstock —one of the pen names of the nearly forgotten British writer Ursula Torday . From the Little Station on Commercial Street in Atchison, Kansas, we explore the mystery itself, its Highland setting, the craft that makes it work so well on radio, and the fascinating woman behind the story. Torday’s life takes us well beyond detective fiction. We look at her multiple literary identities, her postwar work on behalf of Jewish refugee and Holocaust-survivor children, and the unusual path that eventually led to The Shadow of Murder —published in America under the striking title All Men Are Murderers . Then, after a clear spoiler warning, we go inside the mystery: its characters, clues, suspicions, revelations and ending. Why does a largely forgotten BBC radio play still hold listeners today? Perhaps because good radio never really disappears. It simply waits for someone to turn it on again. Saturday Night Theatre Companion is part of the growing Chesterton Radio world of classic radio, literature, original stories, cultural deep dives and new audio drama. Listen to Chesterton Radio and explore more at ChestertonRadio.com. If you enjoy the work, please consider becoming a supporter or sponsor. Your support helps us preserve forgotten radio, create new programs, and keep the Little Station on Commercial Street broadcasting. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe

Why are decades-old radio dramas attracting millions of listens today? This morning from The Little Station on Commercial Street , we begin with Chesterton Radio’s newly published 30 Most-Listened-To Saturday Night Theatre Plays and the remarkable continuing appetite for long-form audio drama. What can these forgotten productions tell us about imagination, storytelling—and why the podcast age may also be a new age for radio drama? Then we mark the 75th anniversary of I Love Lucy and trace its roots back to radio, before turning to G.K. Chesterton’s wonderfully perceptive What I Saw in America and his observations about Americans, Britons, humor, and learning to understand one another across the Atlantic. We’ll finish with a visit to the Library of Congress and another reminder that cultural treasures sometimes have surprisingly long lives. Perhaps old things don’t always need to be remade to become new again. Sometimes they simply need to be found. Featuring Chesterton Radio’s Saturday Night Theatre Companion : listen to the original plays, then join us for the conversation. Daybreak — October 15, 2026 From Chesterton Radio and The Little Station on Commercial Street. Get full access to CHESTERTON RADIO at www.chestertonradio.com/subscribe