The Lovecraft Investigations are back… The Haunter Of The Dark is available now

Svetlovska

Any other fans here (hallo, @Gavinski !) of BBC Radio 4’s excellent updating and adaptation of classic Lovecraft into a cunningly fashioned Elder Gods meet X Files 21st century conspiracy podcast should be rejoicing…

The Beeb have now woven the Haunter into the clever overarching story thread they have already used to tie The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, The Whisperer In Darkness, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth into one continuous and thoroughly modern tale.

It picks up three years on from the apparent disappearance of one half of the original Mulder & Scully-esque investigative reporter team, and anyone new to the series is definitely advised to start at the beginning with Charles Dexter Ward… the whole multi series arc is a gnarly tale involving Lovecraftian cults, shadowy intelligence agencies and maybe, just maybe, some other… things… too. A lot to get your head round, but so worth it. All 46 (!) 15 minute episodes spanning the whole arc are available for download from the iplayer. I might need to find a way to , ah, ‘archive’ all of them…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w/episodes/player

I love the way the series studs little Easter eggs for classic-horror aficionados and Fortean fans into the scripts too. This season opener for example has throwaway references to the real-world, weird world Orford Ness, (which earlier featured in the show as a location, too) and to some offstage characters, including one John Silence, who, as any fule kno, is the name of a Holmesian ‘psychic detective’ created by that other great author of the supernatural, Algernon Blackwood.

Little touches like these demonstrate that this is a show made with real love and care by a team who have a genuine appreciation for the source material, and for the territory they are operating in. Very cool.

I know I’m fan girling all over this, but in my opinion this updating does for Lovecraft on the radio what the modernised Sherlock did for Conan Doyle on tv, bringing the core of really great stories up to date in a deeply knowing, arch, but clever way, which saves them from becoming frozen in their time.

For Sherlock it was touches like the on screen use of text messages; for the Lovecraft Investigations it’s the whole conceit of the heroes being podcasters, which gives them a reason to do exposition and voice over narration. Kind of like a found footage movie for the ears.

Clever, clever clever. I’m as jealous as hell that I didn’t think of it!

michael_m

Excellent, I can listen to it! Sometimes I get a message that I can’t listen due to my location.

Svetlovska

Great! Have you followed it all so far? I did, but even so the first episode was a bit of an info dump as I scrabbled to remember what had happened. Just an excuse to have to go back and do it all from the beginning, obvs…

michael_m

@Svetlovska said:
Great! Have you followed it all so far? I did, but even so the first episode was a bit of an info dump as I scrabbled to remember what had happened. Just an excuse to have to go back and do it all from the beginning, obvs…

I haven’t followed it at all - I pretty much always assume if it’s BBC then it will be blocked for me. As the evenings are getting darker I might make this my listening for my commutes home in the evening…

Gavinski

@Svetlovska said:
Any other fans here (hallo, @Gavinski !) of BBC Radio 4’s excellent updating and adaptation of classic Lovecraft into a cunningly fashioned Elder Gods meet X Files 21st century conspiracy podcast should be rejoicing…

The Beeb have now woven the Haunter into the clever overarching story thread they have already used to tie The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, The Whisperer In Darkness, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth into one continuous and thoroughly modern tale.

It picks up three years on from the apparent disappearance of one half of the original Mulder & Scully-esque investigative reporter team, and anyone new to the series is definitely advised to start at the beginning with Charles Dexter Ward… the whole multi series arc is a gnarly tale involving Lovecraftian cults, shadowy intelligence agencies and maybe, just maybe, some other… things… too. A lot to get your head round, but so worth it. All 46 (!) 15 minute episodes spanning the whole arc are available for download from the iplayer. I might need to find a way to , ah, ‘archive’ all of them…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w/episodes/player

I love the way the series studs little Easter eggs for classic-horror aficionados and Fortean fans into the scripts too. This season opener for example has throwaway references to the real-world, weird world Orford Ness, (which earlier featured in the show as a location, too) and to some offstage characters, including one John Silence, who, as any fule kno, is the name of a Holmesian ‘psychic detective’ created by that other great author of the supernatural, Algernon Blackwood.

Little touches like these demonstrate that this is a show made with real love and care by a team who have a genuine appreciation for the original source material, and for the territory they are operating in. Very cool.

I know I’m fan girling all over this, but in my opinion this updating does for Lovecraft on the radio what the modernised Sherlock did for Conan Doyle, bringing the core of really great stories up to date in a deeply knowing, arch, but clever way, which saves these great stories from becoming frozen in their time.

For Sherlock it was touches like the on screen use of text messages; for the Lovecraft Investigations it’s the whole conceit of the heroes being podcasters, which gives them a reason to do exposition and voice over narration. Kind of like a found footage movie for the ears.

Clever, clever clever. I’m as jealous as hell that I didn’t think of it!

Excellent news!! Thnx for sharing Irena 🔥

jebni

I've always had a huge crush on Kennedy's voice. Glad it's back.

Gavinski

@jebni said:
I've always had a huge crush on Kennedy's voice. Glad it's back.

She’s taken - by the writer and director of this, no less, haha!

The only damn thing about this series is that I find it very hard to remember who’s who. Too many bloody names!