The Hex
by Gregory Evans
Gregory Evans - The Hex
BBC Radio 4: Afternoon Theatre
Broadcast: Friday 2nd January 1981 @ 3:02 p.m.
"Like one that on a lonesome road doth walk in fear and dread, and having once turned round walks on, and turns no more his head;
because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread."
Professor James Montague has recently published a book on witch trials and now he's suddenly an authority on the occult. Cranks queue
up to interview him though the book is a work of social history. One rainy evening, while visiting his old friends Dr. John Rhodes and his
wife, Laura, Montague tells them something that has been bothering him. Recently, he gave an interview on radio to what he was told would
be an eminent authority in his own field. Instead, it was a five-star crackpot by the name of Dr. S. M. Gardini.
Montague became so irritated by Gardini that he called him crazy during the broadcast. This infuriated Gardini so much that he threatened to
curse him, but oddly enough, a few days after the recording Gardini came around to Montague's to apologise. Before he left, Gardini gave
James a book - a book that James would later come to realise masked a strange and inexorable curse: he has been 'hexed'.
That was a week ago. Since then, James has had trouble sleeping and having nightmares - the type of nightmares he hasn't had since he was
a child. Told not to worry too much about it, Montague leaves to go home, though it's still pouring rain outside. But while walking home,
James senses someone or something following him....
Based on the 1911 short story 'Casting the Runes' by M. R. James.
With Conrad Phillips [Professor James Montague], Peter Copley [John Rhodes, Montague's Friend and Doctor], Carole Boyer [Laura,
John's Wife], Kim Hartman [Elspeth Speedwell], and Edward Atienza [Dr. S. M. Gardini].
Other parts were played by Edward Atienza and Tim Bannerman.
Directed by Brian Miller in Bristol.
60 minutes.
Jim
