What happens
In 1938 in the Scottish town of Tain Castle, the elderly Father Francis Chisholm is told by a visiting bishop that he should retire from his parish. Chisholm refuses to retire, and as he lies awake, he recalls his life. In a journal he reflects on his early years at Holy Well College, his unsuccessful years as a priest in Scotland, and his assignment as a missionary to China. Ronald Coleman plays Chisholm and Anne Harding plays Mother Maria Veronica in this Lux Radio Theatre production, based on A.J. Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom, broadcast on November 19, 1945.
Tain Castle, Scotland in 1938, with flashbacks to Holy Well College, early Scottish parishes, and a mission in inland China
Characters: Father Francis Chisholm, Bishop Angus Miley, Monsignor Tarrant, Father McNabb, Hamish MacNair, Nora, Willy Tullock, Joseph
Listen for: Father Chisholm's conversation with the bishop about retirement, and the journal entries that reveal his past
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.