This is the second broadcast of the Antony Ellis script about Jack Ketch, a famous and grossly incompetent executioner in the 1670s. Hans Conried stars as this horrible man who would often take five or six blows with an axe to carry out a beheading. Wealthy families, or wealthy convicted prisoners, would slip him money to do the job quickly if a family member was being executed. Ketch was eventually convicted of theft. He was released from prison and died at the end of 1686. This production has him hanged in the same gallows he used, but that is legend and not fact. The real facts of history are more cruel and gruesome in describing the torture to his victims than this production portrays.
The original broadcast starred Charles Laughton, and it was not particularly good. The story was poorly set-up and Laughton’s portrayal occasionally seemed rushed and garbled. Conried’s performance is not as strong as usual because his rendition of a British accent is not as developed as his other voicings. (His Eastern European characterizations are more believable). In terms of both broadcasts, the story is not that good and the only suspense that remains is how it got on Suspense… twice.
Details about the original broadcast and the history of Jack Ketch and how the law finally stopped him can be found at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/08/1952-09-22-jack-ketch.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP520922 which is where the recordings can be downloaded or streamed.
There are two surviving recordings, the network broadcast and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#574). The AFRS recording is in excellent sound while the network recording has narrow range and is comparatively dull-sounding.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP560313
THE CAST
Hans Conried (John Price, aka Jack Ketch), Ben Wright (William Hartley), Raymond Lawrence (Barkeeper), Richard Peel (Harry), Bill James (Jailkeeper), Doris Lloyd (Betty Price), Betty Harford (Elizabeth White), Stan Jones (Thomas Lovelace), George Walsh (Narrator)
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