Horror on the Radio!

I loved radio horror. I love readings, and dramas, and dramatised readings, and if there are readingised dramas I'd probably love them too.

Which brings me to Radio 4, the BBC's main conduit for comedy, drama, and factual programming. There are not one but two classic adaptation of supernatural horror stories coming up.

On Hallowe'en ( which falls on a Saturday, this year, so be warned), the BBC is broadcasting an adaptation of Nigel Kneale's classic TV ghost story The Stone Tape. It stars Romola Garai, Julian 'Mighty Boosh' Barratt, and Julian Rhind-Tutt, which is a stellar cast. There's a gallery at the web page, with the actors standing around in a haunted house. Well, that sort of thing. It is a location recording, which should add to the atmosphere.

Julian Barratt in a serious hat

And that's not all. In a thread cunningly titled Fright Night, Radio 4 follows The Stone Tape with an adaptation of Ring, the novel by Koji Suzuki that became the film that triggered the Asian horror boom and so forth. Judging from the cast, adapter Anita Sullivan has drawn on the US version of the movie by including Western characters, while retaining the Japanese setting. The key role of the investigator is played by Eve 'Torchwood' Myles.

Eve Myles is serious without a hat

The Stone Tape begins at 10 pm on 31st October, followed at 11 pm by Ring.