What happens
Fred Allen and his sidekick Portland Hoffa stroll down Main Street on a Sunday night, meeting a parade of eccentric townsfolk and celebrities while trading jokes about health weeks, school teaching and Irish independence. Basil Rathbone, a guest on the program, describes his bus tour and his new radio mystery work, then recounts a story called The Mad Doctor of Downing Street. In it, Sir Hubert Buffington, physician to the King, is accused after the death of a tattooed circus man who visited his office. The broadcast is a comedy sketch series from 1949, heard on the Fred Allen Show, which aired on CBS and NBC on April 24, 1949. Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa lead the cast, with Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious also taking part.
Main Street on a Sunday night, and later the consulting office of a London physician.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Basil Rathbone, Speedy Simpson, Titus Moody, Mrs. Nussbaum, Sir Hubert Buffington
Listen for: Basil Rathbone's mystery story of the Mad Doctor of Downing Street, told as a radio drama within the broadcast.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.