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The Curious Incident Of The Dog
In The Night-Time
 

‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time’ was the fourth programme in a series of six under the banner of ‘Sport In Books’ presented on BBC Radio Four by Chris Sykes. This particular programme focused on sport in crime writing.

The title refers to a well-known incident in the Sherlock Holmes adventure, ‘Silver Blaze’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, when a dog fails to bark because he knew the night-time ‘intruder’. Dramatized extracts of ‘Silver Blaze’ were used as both beginning and end pieces to the programme and came from the 1992 BBC Radio production featuring Clive Merrison as Sherlock and the late Michael Williams as Watson.

The main interviewee is R. H. F. Keating who talks at great length about the subject, expressing the view that changes in crime fiction have mirrored changes in society. They naturally touch on ‘flawed heroes’ and criminals as heroes, discussing the amateur cracksman, A. J. Raffles, and his assistant Bunny Manders created by E. W. Hornung. It has often been said that Hornung’s brother in law (Conan Doyle) did not approve of Hornung presenting a criminal in a ‘favourable’ light. In the 1980s BBC Radio produced three seasons of Raffles’ stories featuring Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny. A clip was featured from the second season story ‘Gentlemen and Players’. The tale included a country cricket match and not surprisingly a jewellery theft.

Malcolm Hayner’s ‘Golfing Mysteries’ are looked at and Dick Francis talks about his mysteries set in the world of gambling. Finally Chris Sykes talks to Colin Dexter about DECE, a cricketing story used in the third television series of Morse originally aired in 1989. Colin Dexter recalls how he wrote a lengthy story (from which Anthony Mingella wrote the screenplay) for the production and how much the cast and crew enjoyed getting outside more after the usual settings in the cloisters of Oxford.

The story involves Lewis joining an old boy cricket team after a murder, to find out exactly what is going on. To add authenticity a radio in one scene has Brian Johnstone giving a cricket commentary. Dexter also relates that he came from a school that ‘equated winning with guts’ a philosophy with which he did not agree. To illustrate how Morse was not a sporting man he gave an example of when he attended a football match with Lewis but left before half time!

The 30 minute programme was first aired on the 1st. May 1998 at 23:30. It is worth watching the radio listings for a possible repeat. However, if you have never seen DECE steele yourself for Chris Sykes’ four word plot summary that gives the plot away!

Article supplied by Philip Attwell