Appointment with Fear (radio)

Appointment with Fear was a horror drama series originally broadcast on BBC Radio in the 1940s and 1950s, and revived on a number of occasions since. The format comprised a dramatised horror story of approximately half an hour in length, introduced by a character known as the Man in Black. The plays themselves were a mixture of classic horror stories by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, M R James and W W Jacobs, and commissioned stories by new or established writers. Many of the stories in the early series were written or adapted by John Dickson Carr.

Appointment with Fear originally ran for ten series between 1943 and 1955, initially in the BBC Home Service and from September 1945 in the Light Programme. The Man in Black was played by the British character actor Valentine Dyall, except for the second series, which was presented by his father Franklin Dyall. Only four episodes are known to survive.

The Man in Black was broadcast for one series of eight episodes in 1949, also on the Light Programme, and again presented by Valentine Dyall in the title role. No episodes are known to have survived.

Fear on Four ran for five series on BBC Radio 4 between 1988 and 1992, the part of the Man in Black being played by Edward de Souza. A fifth series was broadcast in 1997, this time without a narrator. An anthology of stories from the first two series was published by BBC Books in 1990.

The series was revived again in 2009, on BBC Radio 4 Extra, this time as The Man in Black, with Mark Gatiss in the title role. It ran for four series between 2009 and 2011.

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