Crime Radio

Meet Dr Ben Cave. For over thirty years he has worked in prisons and secure hospitals diagnosing and treating some of the most troubled men and women in society. A lifetime of care takes us from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse to drug dependency, personality disorders to paedophilia, and depression so severe a mother can kill her own baby. These are the human stories behind the headlines. The reality of a life spent working with patients with the severest mental health disorders. The tragic and often frightening truth about what happens behind closed doors.

Michael Shayne, "the reckless, redheaded Irishman", was a popular hard-boiled detective created by crime novelist Brett Halliday. In the novels, Michael Shayne settled in Miami just after WWII, making crime pay by fighting it with a license and an attitude. Like Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, Shayne was a loner. The backstory on Mike is that he was happily married, but it hit him hard when his wife was tragically murdered. Grief stricken, Shayne loses himself in his work as a private eye, prowling the dark streets of the city.

Grahame Mayer specialises in selling books, not solving mysteries. So when he’s asked to play private investigator and track down a soldier from the Spanish Civil War, he wonders if it’s some sort of test – and if so, what will happen if he fails.... Armed with fresh information, he is sent to Glasgow on the trail of Jock Cameron, and a meeting with a former nurse who knew him back in Spain furnishes Grahame with further clues. But despite these new leads, the elusive Jock remains tantalisingly out of reach.

Director, actor, genius. Orson Welles was all these things and more. But talent can sometimes make people afraid. And Hollywood was very afraid of Orson Welles. So Welles went indie, making his own works on the proceeds of various jobs that required a big name and that very distinguished voice - perfect for radio. Here, in The Black Museum, he sets the scene as true life crime is retold. Mr Welles, we’re ready....