Local Storm: The Whistler (September 10, 1944)

“Local Storm” is an episode of The Whistler, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 10, 1944. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Invalid Mrs. Wentworth lives alone in a white stone cottage on the wild moors of Devon, near the village of Stone Cross. Her massage treatments with Dr. Brooks are going badly, and she grows angry with him over her worsening pain and her refusal to exercise. Left alone during a violent storm while the village mourns a recent death, she finds herself sharing the cottage with her gardener, George, who has been acting strangely. The story follows the mounting tension in the cottage that night, as Mrs. Wentworth struggles to trust the people around her and Inspector Gentry arrives from Scotland Yard.

A lonely white stone cottage on the wild moors of Devon, England, during a violent storm, shortly after the Blitz

Characters: Mrs. Wentworth, Dr. Brooks, Olive, George, Inspector Gentry, Constable Irwin

Listen for: The sound of the wheelchair and the storm, and the tension in the cottage as Mrs. Wentworth is left alone with George

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.