Episode 669 - All the Write Moves: Dorothy L. Sayers (Suspense)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2026
⏱️ 128 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our spotlight mystery writer of the week is Dorothy L. Sayers, the English writer, poet, and essayist whose work evolved and advanced the detective genre with characterization and humor. She's best known for the adventures of aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, and we'll hear one of his exploits adapted for Suspense - "The Cave of Ali Baba" (originally aired on CBS on August 19, 1942). We'll also hear three more of Ms. Sayers' stories adapted for "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - "The Fountain Plays" (originally aired on CBS on August 10, 1943); "Suspicion" (originally aired on CBS on February 10, 1944); and "The Man Who Knew How" (originally aired on CBS on August 10, 1944).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Get this and get it straight. |
| 0:02.1 | Crime is a sucker's road. |
| 0:03.9 | And those who travel |
| 0:04.6 | it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave. |
| 0:12.3 | The story you were about to hear is true. |
| 0:15.2 | Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. |
| 0:18.6 | The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective. |
| 0:21.7 | The Adventures of the Saint, |
| 0:23.4 | starring Vincent Price. |
| 0:25.5 | Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures |
| 0:27.7 | of the man with the action-packed expense account. |
| 0:30.6 | America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator... |
| 0:33.4 | Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. |
| 1:02.1 | ... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more old-time radio detectives and crime solvers. |
| 1:14.0 | Every Sunday in May, we're spotlighting another classic mystery writer, and this week our salute is to Dorothy L. Sayers. The English author, who, along with Agatha Christie, was one of the queens of the golden age of detective fiction. |
| 1:20.6 | She's best known today for her novels and short stories starring aristocratic amateur sleuth |
| 1:26.7 | Lord Peter Wimsy, who will meet in just a few minutes. |
| 1:31.5 | But her works also included plays, poems, essays, and English translations of pieces like Dante's |
| 1:38.6 | Divine Comedy. Along with the nuts and bolts elements of clues and crime, Sayer's stories are known for their humor, their characterization, and their satirical commentary, particularly on the class system in her native England. |
| 1:53.7 | Today we'll hear four of her stories adapted for radio's outstanding theater of thrills, suspense. |
| 2:03.8 | And the first show up today is an adventure of Lord Peter Wimsy. It's also one of the earliest episodes of the long-running suspense. From |
| 2:10.6 | August 19, 1942, it's the Cave of Ali Baba. Next, Edmund Gwen, Chris Kringle, of the classic Miracle on 34th Street, |
... |
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