The Wit & Widsom of Johnny Dollar

One of the great things about radio drama among all the forms of mass-media entertainment is the emphasis it gives to the human voice as the driver of the story. Though imaginative sound design often helps set the scene, it's rarely used to paper over narrative shortcomings the way visual effects are in TV and movies. This is especially true for detective dramas, which like their literary counterparts are often told in the first person. For many fans of radio drama, the long-running series Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was a pinnacle of the genre.

With each case presented in flashback as the title character adds up the expenses incurred in the course of investigating that week's insurance matter, even the most minute items could be a big part of the story with the telling key to "seeing" how they all fit together. Very often the finest moment of any story would come at the end when Johnny finishes his report and offers his remarks on the case. In many ways, particularly during Bob Bailey's tenure in the lead role, it was a microcosm of what made the show so great.

Even in a genre whose success often hinged on the quality of the main character's narration, Bailey's delivery of the various writers' sardonic dialogue under Jack Johnstone's direction typically added up to something special. Two particular examples have stuck with me as I've been revisiting these programs as research for my documentary about the program (whateverbecameofjohnnydollar.blogspot.com), each by one of old-time radio's best writers. One is from The Cui Bono Matter (by Les Crutchfield) and the other from The Markham Matter (by E. Jack Neuman writing as John Dawson). Both are noteworthy not just for how they speak to the plot but also the way they display Johnny's character.

The Markham Matter: "In the end it was his attempt to run away, and it didn't work. It never works. Even if you get away, you find something new to run from."

The Cui Bono Matter: "When you gave me this assignment, Don, you asked a question, a phrase in Latin: cui bono? Who benefits? So, here is your answer: nobody."

If you've never heard these stories before, and even if you have, they're both well worth a listen.

Nothing Bleak But the Title

One of the surest signs of loving something, whether it’s a type of music or genre of literature, is being able to laugh at its eccentricities and conventions and clichés. This is why the best parodies, for example A Mighty Wind and Christopher Guest's other faux-documentaries, tend to be the ones that display an obvious affection for their sources of inspiration. When done right, the end result is a piece of work that goes beyond just being a laugh to being a strong example of the genre itself.

Period drama is ripe for this sort of treatment, but there are surprisingly few examples outside of sketch comedy programs with an occasional Downton Abbey send-up. Aside from Blackadder very few shows have really run with this approach for a full-length series. Among the exceptions, perhaps the best recent example isn't a TV series but rather the product of BBC Radio.

If you've ever wondered what kind of story Charles Dickens would have come up with if he’d written sitcoms instead of serialized novels, the BBC Radio series Bleak Expectations is the show for you. As written by Cambridge Footlights alumnus Mark Evans, the adventures of Sir Philip Bin (who goes by the very Dickensian nickname Pip to his friends, families and enemies) is not just laugh-out-loud funny but also a compelling tale of good versus evil in the finest tradition of Dickens.

Aided by a cast that includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Head as Pip’s evil guardian Mr. Gently Benevolent and veteran actor Geoffrey Whitehead (who recently appeared in the Martin Clunes remake of Reggie Perrin) as numerous members of the sadistic Hardthrasher family, Evans’ scripts have great fun with the Dickensian settings and plots. What really makes Bleak Expectations worth seeking out, though, is that underneath the sly and knowing remarks from the characters and the outrageous twists of fortune is an engaging enjoyable story where you want to find out what happens in the next episode. In this respect, it’s like so many of the Dickens works that inspired it, just a bit funnier.