‘Appointment with Fear’ AKA ‘The Man in Black’ AKA ‘Fear on Four’ (Audio drama review)

Fear on Four BBC Radio 4’s long running anthology of scares and frights presented by the ‘Man in Black’ was originally titled Appointment With Fear and presented by Valentine Dyall (not Johnny Cash) in the late 1940s. The series was warmly received by audiences in the UK. Many famous writers of the day, such as Edgar Allen Poe, had episodes based on their stories, but the series also focussed on new writers, producers and directors to keep the fresh ideas coming for a number of years, before the show was rested.

The series returned a few years later, renamed The Man in Black, acknowledging for the first time the immense popularity of the now eponymous narrator who must surely be the original framing device for this type of series (copied from a similar show in the US titled Suspense). Resurrected several times over the decades and the format has successfully travelled the world. At various times in the 1950s and 60s North America, Canada and Australia each had their own ‘Man in Black’. Mark Gatiss is the latest actor to assume the mantle for BBC Radio 4, presenting new tales of evil and suspense.

I’m reviewing three instalments made by the BBC in 1988,after the strand was renamed Fear on 4. It ran for about twelve years and continued the excellent standard set by its forebears. Edward De Souza provides his silky, deep voice, greeting us genially before presenting chilling tales from the darkest depths, starting with:

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS by William Fryer Harvey