Elspeth Eric’s very creative script about an attempted criminal impersonation hinges on the singing of a French nursery rhyme, Frère Jacques. The script is also constructed in the framework of the song when sung as “a round” (explained below). In English, that translates as the episode’s title, “Brother John.” It is a good story, but requires some extra attention to catch the nuances of the impersonation and the details of who knows what and when. It is one of the better scripts of the Zirato tenure, but often discounted because collectors only heard it in lesser quality sound. There is now a fine listenable recording available.
William Redfield plays “Frank,” a stroke patient in a veteran’s hospital. He is recovering. Another stroke patient, Charlie, shares the semi-private room, but is not able to communicate. Charlie is visited by his older brother, John, who once took a prison rap for a wealthy embezzler, Gerald Tremaine. John is the butler for the Tremaine family in return for which he is overpaid, living comfortably on a monthly retainer. He promised John that the payments would last for the rest of his life as payment for his silence. John has been having an affair with Tremaine’s wife. He has a hold over her, too, and can threaten her with telling her husband. John was telling Charlie much of this as he was unresponsive in his hospital bed, and Frank overheard all of it. Over the years, John saved much of the money and now plans to leave it to brother Charlie when he recovers. Charlie’s doctor assured John there he has an excellent chance for recovery, hopes his brother join him soon. Charlie’s recovery is slower than Frank’s. John was told that familiar music could help with Charlie’s recovery of his memory and speech. John tries to sing Charlie’s favorite song from childhood, Frère Jacques. Charlie was raised in France before being sent to the US to join his brother when then parents died. The Tremaines never met Charlie but knew some of the story.
Frank is ready to be released from the hospital and learns that John has been murdered. This is his chance: since the Tremaines have never met Charlie, and he decides to go to the Tremaines, pretend to be John’s brother, and keep the blackmail scheme going.
The Tremaines are startled by Frank’s “faux Charlie” visit. They thought their individual problems were over with John’s murder. They are hospitable, and invite the Frank, the Charlie impostor, to stay in the apartment John used. Frank confronts each of them in conversation that he knows about the embezzlement and the affair. Something happens that he was not expecting: husband and wife confess to each other, but they deny killing John. Frank, still known to them as Charlie, demands $50,000 in extortion, threatening to go to the police if they do not cooperate. Then, another unexpected event: the real Charlie calls from the hospital and he can be heard singing Frère Jacques. Frank’s hoax is revealed, and the scheme falls apart.
The dollar figures used in the story seem low, but once they are adjusted for inflation, the values are very high:
John’s weekly payment was $200; that is approximately $2,125 in
US$2025, or $111,000 annually.
John’s savings amounted to
$38,000; that is approximately $404,000 in US$2025.
Frank’s
blackmail demand for $50,000; that is approximately $530,000 in
US$2025.
The title of the episode is from the French song Frère Jacques. The song is about a friar who has overslept and is urged to wake up and sound the bell for the midnight or very early morning prayers for which a friar would be expected to be awake. The traditional English translation changes the order of the original lyric to fit the melody better:
Are you
sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John,
Morning
bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Ding, dang, dong.
Ding, dang, dong.
How curious: the story’s “Brother John” is “sleeping” because he was murdered. “Bells are ringing” because the real Charlie is calling from the hospital to sing the song that John would remember him as knowing in the original French:
Frère
Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez
les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Din, din, don. Din, din, don
The nursery rhyme is often sung as a “round” with a group of singers divided, where one set sings the first line and continues, the second set starts singing the first line when the first set is starting the second. Eventually each line is added until there is a point where all four lines are sung in parallel, and then three, then two, and then a final singer with the last line.
There is audio of the song from Wikipedia played simply on piano. It illustrates how the song is heard as a melody, and is followed with a sample of how the lines of music overlap, in parallel, as a “round.” This brief recording is at the same Internet Archive page as the program recording.
Also curious: The song as a round is found in the plotline. John is at the Tremaines living the good life as a blackmailer. Charlie is recovering the in hospital. John, Frank, and Charlie all have different but key parts of the storyline, and there is a time when all three of their stories, and the Tremaines, are all playing out simultaneously. One drops out at a time. The real Charlie is the last to sing, just like the final singer in a “round.”
Frank can’t speak French, and that is funny, a little irony inserted in the story by Eric. Those who can speak French are “francophones.” Frank’s plans are thwarted by a phone call from a man who speaks French. Frank can’t speak French!
Eric selected interesting the character names, possibly from her background in studying English literature in college.. “Charles” is derived from an Old English word meaning a “free man” who has no debts or obligations, possibly referring to his recovery and how he will be free of the schemes that John created and Frank attempted to perpetuate. Of all people in the story, Charles is the one who gets a clean start, beginning with a fond memory of childhood now that he can recall his favorite childhood song. The name “Tremaine” has a possible derivation from a the Cornish version of English referring to monks and their seminaries, giving it a connection to “Frere Jacques,” or “Brother John,” a monk who has overslept, the subject of the lullaby. The wife’s name, “Constance,” means “steadfast,” which she is, when staying with Gerald after he admits his embezzlement and payoff of John, and she admits her affair. “Gerald” is German in origin for someone “with a spear who rules,” which means some kind of leader. But Eric may selected the name because of Gerald of Mayo, a famous British monk who established a monastery in Mayo, Ireland.
The program was recorded on Thursday, April 5, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620415
THE CAST
William Redfield (Frank [impostor Charlie]), Connie Lembke (Constance Tremaine), Paul McGrath (Gerald Tremaine), Sam Gray (John), Bill Smith (Doctor), Guy Repp (“Voice” [real Charlie on phone])
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