What happens
John Price, a public hangman in London, drinks at the Blue Bough and resents the people who shun him. Heavily in debt, he borrows from William Hartley, a clerk who tells him to change his ways, and Price is later sent to debtors' prison in Marshalsea. There he meets Mr. Lovelace, a gentleman also held for debt, and the two talk about their trades and their lives. Price's bitterness toward Hartley grows as his hardships mount and his marriage falls apart.
London in the 1680s, including the Blue Bough alehouse, a Marshalsea debtors' prison, and Bunhill Fields.
Characters: John Price, William Hartley, Mr. Lovelace, Betty, Mr. White, Mrs. White, Elizabeth
Listen for: Price's grim, self-pitying bitterness toward those who avoid him, and his conversations with Mr. Lovelace in prison.
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.