The Shout
by Robert Graves
Robert Graves - The Shout
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Thursday 11th December 1986 @ 3:02 p.m.
David has arrived at the local cricket match in Lambton featuring the patients of the lunatic asylum from just outside the village. He can't play
this week because of a thumb injury but has offered to keep score. George Wiseman, the Chief Psychiatric Officer and the captain of the
home team, directs David to a cozy hut where he will sit with a very interesting patient whom he's sure to like called Crossley, while he
keeps score.
He tells David that Crossley is highly intelligent and very widely travelled by all accounts, but the reason he has come to the asylum is that he
suffers delusions that his soul is split into different pieces; that he's killed people in Australia; and that he has a magical power. But before
leading him into the hut, George warns him that Crossley, though perfectly harmless, will get a little bit excited at times and if he does, to give
one of them a quick shout and they'll pop along and sort it out.
During a cricket match, Crossley begins to tell David the story of his powers, one of which was the power to 'shout' people to death, to
split their souls into pieces...
Adapted for radio by Martyn Wade from Robert Graves' short story, "The Shout", first published in his 1929 short story collection, "The
Shout: and Other Stories".
With David Suchet [Charles Crossley], Nigel Anthony [Richard, a Musician], Janet Maw [Rachel, Richard's Wife], Geoffrey Beevers
[David], William Eedle [George Wiseman, Chief Psychiatric Officer / Mr. Austin, the Cobbler], Avril Clark [The Mother], Deborah
Makepeace, Natasha Pyne, Elaine Claxton [The Children], and Stuart Organ, Stephen Hattersley [The Cricketers].
Radiophonic sounds and music by Roger Limb of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Peter Donaldson as the BBC Radio announcer.
Directed by Cherry Cookson.
Re-broadcast on Friday 23rd October 1987 @ 3:02 p.m.
60 minutes
Jim
