What radio plays are you listening to?

Yes, I believe the opening credits of Poirot might've served as an inspiration for this.

I have two experiences to report. Sometime about 1960 (my early adolescence), I remember returning from a road trip with my parents. As we were coming into town, we listened on the car radio, to the last three radio dramas remaining on air in our city (San Antonio, Texas). They were: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (an insurance investigator), Suspense, and Gunsmoke (William Conrad as Matt Dillion).

Jump to 1917 and these two episodes on You Tube:

Bold Venture. 1) Deadly Merchandise (March 26, 1951) 2) The Kuan Yin Statue (April 2, 1951). With the improvements in audio taping which allowed several radio show episodes to be recorded at the same time, Humphry Bogart could finally work a weekly radio series into his film schedule. Of course, Lauren Bacall joined him in the half-hour series which lasted for one season. The actual number of shows recorded seems to be controversial. I have read that anywhere between 26 and 70 adventures were performed. Probably, the higher number includes repeat broadcasts. The reason for the short run lies more in radio’s shrinking audience in the ‘50s than with the quality of the writing and voice acting. The set-up is that Bogart’s character, Slate Shannon, became the reluctant guardian of the daughter of an old friend. The daughter, Sailor Duvall, was played by Bacall. The story “Deadly Merchandise” was labeled “Episode #1.” If that is correct, then there was no “origin story” – the set-up was complete when the series started and the back story related in dialog. Bogart played an American who owned a hotel, restaurant, and charter boat business in Havana – a riff on “To Have And Have Not” and “Casablanca” with a little “Key Largo” thrown in. The second story, about a missing statue that various groups are after, brings in a “The Maltese Falcon” connection. The weakness of these stories is the 30-minute format. After a complex introduction of a lot of characters and various murders, a rushed resolution is required in both stories. Still, it was great to hear Bogey and Bacall.

In the 1980s there were radio plays of the original Star Wars film and The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. They both played on a station where I lived at the time, but I don't remember which one. I recorded them both on cassette and kept them for many years.