What happens
Flight Commander Jeffrey Crisp recalls the life of R.J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire fighter plane. Mitchell, worn out after his Schneider Cup successes, is taken to Germany by his wife Diana and Crisp, where a remark from a German pilot about building ever more planes unsettles him. Back in England he begins designing a fast fighter with little official support. Dramatized for the Screen Guild Theater, the broadcast of August 9, 1943 stars Basil Rathbone as Mitchell, Heather Angel as Diana and Reginald Gardner as Crisp, and is based on the film Spitfire.
Britain and Germany, 1930s, including the Richthofen Club in Berlin and the Vickers works in England
Characters: R.J. Mitchell, Diana Mitchell, Jeffrey Crisp, Miss Harper, Sir Ian, Dr. Messerschmitt, Hermann Goering
Listen for: The German pilot's remarks about the future and the guns that have the last word
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.