Until now, it has been difficult for me to research radio drama in the same way I have comedy as I just didn't have the resources. This all changed a year ago when I managed to buy a near complete set of Radio Times from the early 1960s onwards, and then a chance buy on ebay took the start date back to 1943!
Anyway, I digress. I had an email come in a couple of months ago which gave me the cketchiest of details: part of a name, a basis synopsis of the programme, and a rough date, and I picked up the gauntlet, armed with my newly acquired Radio Times and managed to find the show in question. Sadly none of this appears to exist officially, so if you do have a copy lurking about, please drop me, or the BBC, a line. In the absence of the radio programmes, I have added a link for the original book.
This serial originally appeared in Children's Hour, subtitled 'For Older Children' and was adapted from the book by Rosemary Sutcliff, by Felix Fenton with production by David Davis The six part serial was originally broadcast on a Wednesday at 5.00-5.50pm from 27th February - 3rd April 1957, with a subsequent repeat about 18 months later. A cut down version appeared as part of the Saturday Night Theatre strand half a decade later still, and there was a further adaptation produced in the early 90s and released by BBC Worldwide on audio cassette.
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| Episode Title | Synopsis | Original Tx. Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Attack On The Fort | This is the story of a mystery - the mystery of a lost legion. Somewhere about AD 117 a Roman legion, the Ninth Hispana, stationed at Eburacum (which is where York now stands) was alerted to a deal with a rising among the Caledonian tribes. They marched off, five-thousand strong, into the Scottish mists, and were never heard of again. |
5.0- 5.50pm, Wednesday, 27 February 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 7 Sept 1958 |
| The Saturnalia Games | 'A long march, a long march And twenty years in store, When I left my girl at Clusium Beside the threshing floor.' |
5.0- 5.50pm, Wednesday, 6 March 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 14 Sept 1958 |
| Marching Orders | When the young Roman centurion Marcus Aquila came to Great Briton in his first military command he hoped to solve the mystery of the Ninth Hispana Legion. Badly wounded in defending his fort against a British attack, he was now staying with his Uncle Aquila at Silchester. At the Saturnalia Games there he had seen and persuaded his uncle to purchase for him a young British slave, by name Esca, who had taken part in a gladiatorial duel. It was from Esca that Marcus learned more about the lost Ninth Legion. |
5.0-5.50pm, Wednesday, 13 March 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 21 Sept 1958 |
| Across The Frontier | One evening at dinner at his Uncle Aquila's, young Marcus Flavius heard some more about the lost Legion, which had disappeared into the northern mists, and to which his father had belonged. His uncle's guests were his old friend Claudius Hieronimianus, legate of the Sixth Legion, and a young tribune he had brought with him. |
5.0-5.50pm, Wednesday, 20 March 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 28 Sept 1958 |
| In Enemy Country | Disguised as a wandering Greek oculist (Demetrius of Alexandria) and his servant, Marcus and Esca came north of the Wall into the now abandoned province of Valentia, hoping to learn how the Ninth Legion had met its end, and, if it still existed, to recover its lost Eagle. After many months they met a hunter called Guern, who admitted to them that he had been a Roman Legionary of the Ninth, and from him they heard of the Legion's last days. | 5.0-5.50pm, Wednesday, 27 March 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 5 Oct 1958 |
| Tradui's Gift | 5.0-5.50pm, Wednesday, 3 April 1957 Rpt 5.0-5.55pm, Sunday 12 Oct 1958 |
The series appears to have been re-edited to form a 90 minute play broadcast as part of the Saturday Night Theatre strand (8.30-10.00pm , Saturday 8 June 1963) with a subsequent repeat as part of the Afternoon Theatre strand (Rpt 3.00-4.30pm, Monday 10 June 1963).