There is something particularly unsettling about a murder in a respectable household. The furniture is polished, the conversation is civilized, and everyone seems to know precisely how one ought to behave. Yet behind the drawing-room doors, something has gone terribly wrong.
Today’s selection from the Chesterton Radio archive is Black Plumes, Margery Allingham’s wonderfully atmospheric mystery, presented by BBC Saturday Night Theatre.
The Story
At the center of the mystery is the Ivory family and their fashionable London art gallery, where business troubles and domestic tensions have begun to cast long shadows.
Frances Ivory’s husband, Robert, has disappeared. His absence is troubling enough, but when a murder brings the family’s affairs under scrutiny, the questions become considerably more urgent.
What happened to Robert? Who can be trusted? And how much does this apparently respectable family really know?
Allingham draws us into a world of strained loyalties, guarded conversations, and suspicions that grow more uncomfortable with every revelation.
It is the sort of mystery in which a seemingly casual remark may prove far more important than a dramatic accusation.
Why Listen?
Published in 1939, Black Plumes is something of an exception among Allingham’s mysteries. Her celebrated detective Albert Campion is nowhere to be found.
Instead, Allingham allows the family itself, with its complicated relationships and concealed anxieties, to carry the story.
The result is a wonderfully character-driven mystery, particularly well suited to radio, where an uneasy silence or a carefully chosen word can be as revealing as any physical clue.
Listen to the Complete Play
Settle in for approximately 85 minutes of classic British radio theatre.
BBC Saturday Night Theatre — Black Plumes, by Margery Allingham
Discover More
For more about the remarkable woman behind the mystery, enjoy our Chesterton Radio feature, Margery Allingham: The Strange World of Albert Campion.
Welcome to Play of the Day, a Chesterton Radio feature celebrating the great stories and performances of classic radio theatre.
We’ll be opening the archives regularly, rediscovering forgotten treasures and revisiting some of the finest dramatic productions ever brought to the microphone.
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