Saturday, 13 March 2010

Seance on a Wet Afternoon

I was aware of this story only because of Steptoe and Son doing 'Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard'. What's on offer here is a five six part reading of an abridged version of the original novel. But the reader is Anton Lesser, so that's value added straight away. If there's a better modern voice out there for the strange and menacing I've yet to hear it.

The story is rather disturbing and odd. The basic premise is that Myra Savage is a 'fake' clairvoyant who nonetheless has read psychic powers - she can read minds to some extent. In pursuit of fame, not money, Myra and her husband kidnap the small daughter of a rich industrialist so that they can 'find' her by supernatural means. Needless to say, things go badly wrong. But as I've yet to finish listening to it, I'm not sure what...

2 comments:

Dan M said...

The great Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa produced an excellent adaptation of this story for Japanese television entitled "Seance" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259388/). It's not a masterpiece of the first water like "Cure" or "Pulse" but it's worth checking out all the same.

valdemar said...

Thanks, Dan! I will indeed check it out. Sounds like it should be better known.

Issue 57 - Winter 2024/5

  Cover illo by Sam Dawson, for Steve Duffy's story 'Forever Chemicals', which offers an interesting take on the London of the e...