Mystery, Crime & Detective · Syndicated (Towers)
Secrets of Scotland Yard
· 57 broadcasts
Secrets of Scotland Yard is a syndicated British true-crime anthology produced by Harry Alan Towers' Towers of London for worldwide distribution on transcription discs, first airing internationally around 1949-51. Each half-hour dramatizes a real case from the files of London's Metropolitan Police -- murders, forgeries, poisonings and robberies -- with the detectives of the Yard working it to its solution. The English film star Clive Brook, Hollywood's first talking-picture Sherlock Holmes, narrated the early run and, for authenticity, sometimes talked the case over on air with Percy Hoskins, the Daily Express crime reporter; a cheaper, uncredited actor billed only as "Superintendent X" took over later. The surviving titles read like a tour of British criminal history -- Jack the Ripper, Burke and Hare, George Joseph Smith, Dr Buck Ruxton, the Camden Town murder, Neville Heath. One episode, "The Bone From a Voice Box," is said to have seeded Towers' more famous series The Black Museum. The recordings are undated transcriptions; of a production reckoned at some 110 episodes, 57 survive here, all streamable.
Collection status:
57 of 57 held (100% complete)
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Episode Spine
undated
date unknown
The Murder at Moat House Farm
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(MP3)
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Jean Pierre Vaquier, The Dapper Frenchman
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Absent Minded Professor
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Accurate Spelling Is Essential
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(MP3)
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The Bank of England Robbery
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(MP3)
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The Black Market Murders
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(MP3)
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Bloody Belgium
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(MP3)
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Bone from a Voice Box
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(MP3)
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The Case of the Brothers Staunton
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(MP3)
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Buckets of Blood
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(MP3)
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Burke and Hare
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(MP3)
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The Case of Captain X
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(MP3)
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The Case of Charles Peace
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(MP3)
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Counterfeiter
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(MP3)
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Crimes on the Railways
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Dr Ruxton Axe Killer
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(MP3)
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The Case of the Family Solicitor
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The Fence
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(MP3)
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Fiction Is Stranger Than Truth
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(MP3)
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The Case of Mrs Florence Maybrick
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(MP3)
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The Case of Frederick Stewart
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(MP3)
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General Charles Leward
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(MP3)
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The Casebook History of George Joseph Smith
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(MP3)
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The Great Gold Robbery
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(MP3)
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The Case of the Green-Eyed Monster
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(MP3)
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Henri Perot, A Waiter with Ambition
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(MP3)
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Henry Fauntleroy, Forger
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(MP3)
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The Case of the Hunted Hunter
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(MP3)
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Jack the Ripper
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(MP3)
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Jim the Penman
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(MP3)
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Just a Matchstick and a Duster
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The Case of the Kindly Doctor
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The Lady Is a Crook
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(MP3)
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The Case of the Lady in Distress
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A Lesson in Love
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(MP3)
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The Liverpool Bank Fraud
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(MP3)
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The Lucky Murderer
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(MP3)
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Mightier Than the Sword
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(MP3)
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Murder Most Foul
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(MP3)
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Murder Without Motive
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(MP3)
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The Murderer's Letter
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(MP3)
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Music, Murder and a Mackintosh
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(MP3)
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Neville Heath
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(MP3)
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Nurse Waddingham
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(MP3)
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One Man Too Many
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(MP3)
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The Perfect Detective
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(MP3)
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The Poisoner
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(MP3)
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The Romantic Murderer
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(MP3)
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Ronald Vivian Light
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(MP3)
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The Root of All Evil... Money
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(MP3)
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Saved by a Scrap of Paper
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(MP3)
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The Scales of Justice
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(MP3)
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The Servant Problem
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(MP3)
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Smoke Clings to the Hair
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(MP3)
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The Story of Walter Miller
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(MP3)
date unknown
The Theft of the British Crown Jewels
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(MP3)
date unknown
The Witchcraft Law
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(MP3)
The Story
Secrets of Scotland Yard is a syndicated British true-crime anthology produced by Harry Alan Towers' Towers of London for worldwide distribution on transcription discs, first airing internationally around 1949-51. Each half-hour dramatizes a real case from the files of London's Metropolitan Police -- murders, forgeries, poisonings and robberies -- with the detectives of the Yard working it to its solution. The English film star Clive Brook, Hollywood's first talking-picture Sherlock Holmes, narrated the early run and, for authenticity, sometimes talked the case over on air with Percy Hoskins, the Daily Express crime reporter; a cheaper, uncredited actor billed only as "Superintendent X" took over later. The surviving titles read like a tour of British criminal history -- Jack the Ripper, Burke and Hare, George Joseph Smith, Dr Buck Ruxton, the Camden Town murder, Neville Heath. One episode, "The Bone From a Voice Box," is said to have seeded Towers' more famous series The Black Museum. The recordings are undated transcriptions; of a production reckoned at some 110 episodes, 57 survive here, all streamable.
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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