What happens
William Essex, a struggling writer in Manchester, watches his friend Dermot O'Riordan marry and start a family, then pursues his own career and his marriage to Nelly. The series Lux Radio Theatre presents this 1940 broadcast, first aired on March 11, 1940, with Brian Aherne, Madeline Carroll, Lewis Hayward and Josephine Hutchinson as the leads. Essex and Nelly raise their son Oliver, and Essex's indulgence of the boy strains the marriage. Essex's life takes a new turn when he meets a young woman while researching a coal mine novel. The first act ends with Nelly's death on the way home from chapel.
Manchester and Yorkshire, England, from 1889 onward
Characters: William Essex, Dermot O'Riordan, Nelly Muskrop, Oliver Essex, Livia Vainau
Listen for: Essex's journal entries marking the years, and his growing conflict with Nelly over how to raise Oliver
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.