What happens
John Jasper, a choirmaster at Cloisterham, becomes uneasy when his nephew Edwin Drood and Neville Landless go missing after a visit to the river during a storm. Neville is found by searchers with bloodstains on his clothes and a stick, and he claims he left Edwin alive. Magistrate Thomas Sapsea, a dull and self-assured official, weighs the evidence against him. Jasper pursues Rosa, Edwin's fiancée, who rejects him and speaks of Neville. The episode is part two of Suspense's adaptation of Charles Dickens' unfinished novel, first broadcast on January 12, 1953, with Herbert Marshall starring.
Cloisterham, a cathedral town, in the days after Christmas
Characters: John Jasper, Edwin Drood, Neville Landless, Rosa, Thomas Sapsea, Dean Chrisparkle, Durdles, Datchery
Listen for: Jasper's escalating unease as the search for Edwin finds nothing, and the arrival of a stranger with a claimed message from Edwin
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.