SNT 1984-01-14 The Poisoned Chocolates Case (Anthony Berkeley).txt
Anthony Berkeley - The Poisoned Chocolates Case
BBC Radio 4: Saturday Night Theatre
Broadcast: Saturday 14th January 1984 @ 8:30 p.m.
Re-broadcast on Monday 16th January 1984 @ 3:02 p.m. on BBC Radio 4: Afternoon Theatre
When Joan Bendix makes a bet with her husband for a box of chocolates, no one imagines that winning will cost her her life. The
seven she eats poison her and the two her husband eats nearly kill him. The Sheringham Crime Circle find the unusual case
baffling, but eventually come up with some very interesting theories - which they then proceed to disprove one by one. Due to a
series of false clues the identity - and motive - of the killer appears to be out of reach...
Set in 1920s London in which a group of armchair detectives, who have founded the "Crimes Circle", formulate theories on a
recent murder case Scotland Yard has been unable to solve. Each of the six members, including their president, Berkeley's
amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, arrives at an altogether different solution as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrator,
and also applies different methods of detection (basically deductive or inductive or a combination of both). Completely devoid of
brutality but containing a lot of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour instead, "The Poisoned Chocolates Case" is one of the classic
whodunnits of the so-called Golden Age of detective fiction. As at least six plausible explanations of what really happened are
put forward one after the other, the audience -- just like the members of the Crimes Circle themselves -- are kept guessing up to
the end of the play, when the least likely suspect is revealed as the murderer.
Dramatised by Neville Teller from Anthony Berkeley's best-known detective novel "The Poisoned Chocolates Case", first
published in 1929.
With Neil Stacy [Roger Sheringham], Conrad Philips [Sir Charles Wildeman, K.C.], Hilda Schroeder [Mrs. Felda Fleming],
Geoffrey Collins [Morton Harrowgate Bradley], Jane Wenham [Alicia Damers], Michael Bilton [Mr. Chiterwick], Victor Winding
[Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard], William Eedle [Lockwood / The Receptionist], Mark Straker [Graham Bendix / Mr.
Barker, Sir Eustace's Valet], Clive Panto [Sir Eustace Pennefather], Deborah Cranston [Marguerite], and Eileen Tully [Joan
Bendix].
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Directed by Brian Miller in Bristol
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About Anthony Berkeley
Anthony Berkeley Cox (July 5, 1893 - 1971) was a British crime fiction author, born in Watford, England . He wrote under several
names, his most famous works being under the name Francis Iles. Other pseudonyms he used included Anthony Berkeley ("The
Poisoned Chocolates Case") and Monmouth Platts.
A journalist as well as a novelist, Anthony Berkeley was a founding member of the Detection Club and one of crime fiction's
greatest innovators. He was one of the first to predict the development of the 'psychological' crime novel and he sometimes wrote
under the pseudonym of Francis Iles. He wrote twenty-four novels, ten of which feature his amateur detective, Roger Sheringham.
Series
Roger Sheringham
The Layton Court Mystery (1925)
The Wychford Poisoning Case (1926)
Roger Sheringham And the Vane Mystery (1927) aka The Mystery At Lovers' Cave
The Silk Stocking Murders (1928)
The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
Top Storey Murder (1931)
Murder In The Basement (1932)
Jumping Jenny (1933) aka Dead Mrs Stratton
The Roger Sheringham Stories (1994)
The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook (2004)
Novels
Professor On Paws (1926)
Cicely Disappears (1927) (writing as A Monmouth Platts)
Mr Priestley's Problem (1927) aka The Amateur Crime
The Picadilly Murder (1929)
The Piccadilly Murder (1929)
The Second Shot (1930)
Malice Aforethought (1931) (writing as Francis Iles)
Before the Fact (1932) (writing as Francis Iles)
Ask a Policeman (1933)
Panic Party (1934) aka Mr Pidgeon's Island
The Policeman Only Taps Once (1936)
The Rattenbury Case (1936) (writing as Francis Iles)
Not to Be Taken (1937) aka A Puzzle in Poison
Trial and Error (1937)
As For The Woman (1939) (writing as Francis Iles)
Death In The House (1939)
Anthologies containing stories by Anthony Berkeley
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 2nd Series (1931)
The Great Book of Thrillers (1935)
A Century of Horror (1971)
Great British Short Stories (1974)
Fifty Famous Detectives of Fiction (1983)
Short Stories
The Avenging Chance (1929)
Dark Journey (writing as Francis Iles)
White Butterfly
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