Radio Plays

By 1954 Austin Stone had completed and published another five crime novels. In 1952, he began writing radio plays for the BBC, nine (9) of which were broadcast live from the Midland Home Service Studios in Birmingham. Many of the actors who played parts in Austin’s plays, went on to be very famous. I.e.“Crime on the Sands” which aired at 7:00 PM on Thursday October 28, 1954, starred Donald Pleasance (OBE) who played alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the ‘Halloween’ film series. Billy Whitelaw (CBE) at age sixteen, played parts in both “An Affair of Honour” and “Beautiful for Ever”. She later acted in many films and in 1976 played alongside Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in ‘The Omen’! Among the others, John Laurie, best known for his role in BBC’s ‘Dad’s Army’ series, played Inspector Cameron in Austin’s “A Pearl in the Hand”

In 2014 Austin’s son Ed Stone (editor of “Missing, Murder Suspected”), inherited from his father, the original manuscripts for two unpublished books and several plays, including the nine mentioned above! During the years 2019 -2025,  Ed worked with his local drama group to have several of these radio plays performed on stage. Two of which the BBC could not broadcast because they took more than the one hour time limit allowed! These were: “The Gallows Does Well” and “French Poison”, which were both ‘Premier’ performances by the