Dead Hand: 1. Number Stations
Limelight
BBC
4.4 • 698 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A contemporary thriller set in Northern Ireland written by Stuart Drennan.
Greg is the host of a true crime podcast dedicated to uncovering the identity of a serial killer, last active over 20 years ago, known only as Dead Hand.
A killer named after a mysterious radio transmission which has been broadcasting an indecipherable code in the years since Dead Hand vanished. A code told in the voices of Dead Hand’s victims; including Greg’s missing father. However, when a new voice is added to the code, Greg realises that Dead Hand is active again.
With time already running out, can he finally crack the code and catch the killer?
Cast: Greg ... Paul Mallon DS Murray … Michelle Fairley Kate … Roísín Gallagher Lucy … Hannah Eggleton Stacey … Eimear Fearon Daniel … Desmond Eastwood Assistant Jo … Nicky Harley Operator … Louise Parker All other roles played by members of the cast.
Writer … Stuart Drennan Script Editor … Philip Palmer Producer … Michael Shannon Executive Editor … Andy Martin
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | This is dead hands. |
| 0:21.6 | These are victims. |
| 0:24.6 | 3142-0-0-0-1-315. |
| 0:31.6 | 3142-0-1-3-1-9-5-1-3251-3-2-5-0-5-0-4-5-0-45-3-7-9-8-3-1-3-9-37. During the Cold War, agents working on foreign soil were sometimes given their orders through coded CB radio transmissions called Numbers Stations. |
| 1:12.3 | What you just heard is a version of one. |
| 1:17.8 | It was first broadcast just under 25 years ago. |
| 1:22.0 | It's one of six that play every evening without fail, one after the the other to this very day. |
| 1:30.1 | I believe it was recorded by a serial killer, dead hand. |
| 1:35.9 | He forces his victims to read out a code before I believe he kills them. |
| 1:42.9 | In the 20 oddodd years since, |
| 1:45.1 | I've only been able to identify one of the voices. |
| 1:48.8 | A journalist named Peter from North Belfast. |
| 1:52.5 | He went missing on his way home from work. |
| 1:55.0 | No body was ever found. |
| 1:57.3 | He was presumed dead. |
| 2:00.3 | Peter was my father. |
| 2:03.4 | My name's Greg Matthews and I started this podcast eight years ago |
| 2:08.0 | after just over a decade of working on all of this alone |
| 2:11.6 | so we as a community could crack the dead hand. |
| 2:25.0 | Oh, so bear with me, folks. |
| 2:27.3 | This is dead hands. |
... |
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