The Last Mysteries: One Last Case, One Last Chance, One Last Knock
There is something irresistible about the word last.
The last case. The last escape. The last fight. The last train. The last séance. The last days of a civilization. And finally…the last man on Earth.
In this Chesterton Radio Deep Dive, we travel across decades of great radio drama to discover why storytellers return again and again to that final moment when there may be no second chance.
Along the way we’ll encounter Ronald Colman in Trent’s Last Case, Frank Lovejoy’s Night Beat, Candy Matson, Suspense, Inner Sanctum, The Mysterious Traveler, Gunsmoke, Agatha Christie, Saturday Night Theatre, You Are There, CBS Radio Mystery Theater and Dimension X.
These stories range from murder mysteries and noir to historical drama and science fiction, but they share a fascination with the same questions: What do we do when time is running out? When is it too late to put something right? And why do apparent endings so often contain the possibility of something else?
There’s another irony. These stories about endings come from an art form—radio drama—that supposedly had its own ending decades ago.
Yet we’re still listening.
And perhaps Fredric Brown provided the perfect final word:
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
🎧 Hear the complete Last Mysteries collection:
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Chesterton Radio — Stories • Ideas • Wonder
The Last Escape - CBS Radio Mystery Theater
An old escape artist wants to try his hand at one last escape - the one that Houdini failed to finish
Trent’s Last Case - Ronald Colman - Suspense
Sigsbee Manderson, a wealthy American plutocrat, is found shot dead in the grounds of his English country house “White Gables”, in the village of Marlstone, on the south-west coast of England.
Candy’s Last Case - Candy Matson Detective
A double murder and a missing half million dollar diamond!
Gunner’s Last Fight - Night Beat - Frank Lovejoy
A down-and-out boxer considers fighting one last time...
The Last Story - Richard Widmark - Inner Sanctum
A story about a reporter who falls in love with the girl with the yellow eyes...the one who’s “born to kill!”
The First and the Last - Radio City Playhouse
Two bothers, one a judge and the other a murderer, are involved together in a struggle when the weaker brother, the judge, convicts an innocent man to protect his brother.
Death Laughs Last - Mysterious Traveler
A man needs money for a surgeon to save his wife’s life, but he finds that the money is not easy to get.
The Last Lesson - Fred Gwynne - CBS Radio Mystery Theater
To pay off his debts, a gambler shackles himself to a plain but wealthy woman. Things don’t go according to plan
Marshal Dillon Finally Asks Miss Kitty to the Dance - Gunsmoke -
Radio’s Last Great Dramatic Show
Last Night - Suspense
The story of a corpse in the rumble seat and a debt-ridden dude ranch. This episode was adapted from the short story “The Red Tide”
The Last Letter of Doctor Bronson - Suspense
A doctor tries to convince people to murder him in order to test a theory.
Last Train Out - CBS Radio Mystery Theater
An American film crew tries to film the last journey of The Orient Express. They fall into a communist trap and must struggle to get out alive.
The Last Seance - Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple
Last Chapter - Michael Gilbert - Saturday Night Theater
Michael Francis Gilbert was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.
The Last Days of Pompeii - You Are There
What if CBS Radio News were present at the Last Day of Pompeii? Historical dramas presented as live radio news reports!
Knock - Last Man on Earth - Dimension X
“The last man on earth sat alone in a room... There was a knock on the door...”
