What happens
Herman, a young officer in Saint Petersburg, becomes obsessed with a secret system of three cards said to guarantee winning at gambling. He hears that his friend's grandmother, the old Countess, knows the secret, and he sets out to win her favour through her young ward, Lizaveta. Orson Welles plays Herman in this adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's story, introduced by Laurence Olivier on the Theatre Royal series. The broadcast was first aired on October 4, 1953.
Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the early nineteenth century, including a card party, the Countess's mansion, and the city streets
Characters: Herman, Countess Anna Fedotovna, Lizaveta Ivanovna, Tomsky, Narumov, Yeletsky, Count Saint-Germain
Listen for: The card-game scenes at Narumov's and the scene in the Countess's bedroom, where Herman's obsession turns to desperation
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.