Barnaby Druthers and the Ghost of William Terriss. A return to the classic case files of Barnaby Druthers in the Victorian era in London. A fictionalized account based on true events, the listener is invited into the Viscountess’ parlor to hear a story that requires Barnaby and Irene to investigate elements of the world of the supernatural.
There are three “station stops” on the Nutmeg Junction trolley for this episode.
LISTEN HERE!
SYNOPSIS:
The first feature: Fanny and Fred and the Telephone Company. Your friends and mine Fanny and Fred from Locust Hollow have to contend with reaching a live person at the telephone company in this all too real scenario!
Starring Jandi Hanna and Jeff Savage as Fanny and Fred with Laurel Briggs, Kurt Boucher, Lana Peck and J. Timothy Quirk
The second feature: Thank Your Lucky Stars hosted by Jack Sheedy with Robert C. Fullerton. In What’s Kazoo With You, the world’s greatest kazoo club of Syracuse, NY entertain and inform. Starring Jack Sheedy and Robert C. Fullerton with Kurt Boucher, Olivia Wadsworth, David Robinson and Jandi Hanna
Finally the third feature is the first Nutmeg Junction “short” entitled “The Choice” starring Laurel Briggs and J. Timothy Quirk
CREDITS
Nutmeg Junction Episode 219 was written, created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (c)2019 and recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio
As it was mentioned in Episode 5, we had worked on three chapters of the Professor A: Adjunct Professor to the Multi-verse saga and of course we had the intention to do more. But I found when I edited the show that it sounded best with the chapters at approximately 15 minutes in length (at least for the first two) so we had an extra chapter recorded but not shared with our audience yet.
Secondly, when Olivia Wadsworth came on board I had pitched to her the idea for HER character to be Harriet Holmes. It’s always been my intention for each actor to have a signature role. Some actors may have more than one but I’d like each actor to have episodes where their character is the star. Anyway at the time I envisioned a London tale of Harriet being an actual sibling to Sherlock but found that the tv show SHERLOCK had already put out a story where there was a sister character for Sherlock and it would have seemed too derivative if I tried that too, no matter how I played it.
But as it turned out I also wanted to do a tough as nails Detective character. I have many uses for that character and certainly hard boiled detectives are so ubiquitous in Old Time Radio I’ll have many detectives on the show voiced by many different actors.
Ok, and here’s the thing. I wrote the detective story, finding the lost episode of Nutmeg Junction with a detective without a name. I wasn’t sure what we would call her.
I wrote the opening soliloquy the night before recording and posted it on facebook. This helped Olivia work on and find the voice for the recording session. I finished the story the following day, which was the day of recording, with the final pass completed 15 minutes before i left for the radio station. It’s a tight script that flows very well and there’s very little (if anything at all) I’d change about it.
I cast Jack Sheedy in the role of Lenny Snitchwell. Jack is a writer, an author and editor of a newspaper (Catholic Transcript), and the idea of an “English Major” is a call back to another show that for many years carried the torch of Old Time Radio. Jandi reprises her role of Nonna Hanna.
While we were at the table read, we discussed the fact that the detective didn’t have a name. I believe it was either Jandi or Olivia who brought up the idea of Harriet Holmes. i can not take credit for that at all. But the name fit perfectly and I asked Olivia if she wanted the detective character to be called that. She did.
So that’s how we have Harriet Holmes as a “modern” private eye, not beholden to any Sherlock but understood on her own terms.
Jack did a remarkable job as “Lenny”. He knew the character instantly and gave the right flourish.
The Professor Episode was a lot of fun. This one felt had a lot of comedy thanks to all of the actors in the cast. Everyone has a good line or two including Josh and Jandi as the two humans: Freddie and Alice (which they performed in a cockney accent).
There is only one slight editing mistake I missed in this portion of the show but I will fix it in future editions of the show.
Listeners can expect MORE of Harriet Holmes (she will undoubtedly return in Search for the lost episode part two, and more of the Professor. I plan to have scripts written and recorded this month.
Nutmeg Junction 