{"id":3643,"date":"2017-02-05T14:53:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T14:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2020-12-18T18:18:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T18:18:17","slug":"man-black-appointment-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/man-black-appointment-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man in Black \u2013 Your Appointment with Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you met the Man in Black<\/strong>? Has he whispered to you on the airwaves? Your radio is dead, and yet his voice is still there inside you, entreating you to join him\u2026 Yes, our Voice of Horror<\/em> series is back, with a hero of the genre!<\/p>\n

\"audiovoh\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Long before Johnny Cash<\/strong>, the Tommy Lee Jones<\/strong> films or even Westworld<\/em>, there was a single man who embodied the concept of the forbidding stranger, the archivist of the dark \u2013 the Man in Black. Can you recall his name, or remember his sepulchral tones? No? Then we shall help. Treats are in store, including some links to where you can listen to, or watch, him in action.<\/p>\n

Along the way we bump into Shirley Jackson<\/strong>, Hammer Horror, GK Chesterton, Edgar Allan Poe<\/strong>, Dr Who<\/em>, Sid James<\/strong> of Carry On<\/em> fame and S T Joshi<\/strong>, amongst others. Is that enough names yet? For today’s article we must take you back to the days when you made radio shows by rubbing two sticks together, so a few reminders may be in order.<\/p>\n

Dyall M for Murder<\/h1>\n
\"the<\/a>
the real man in black<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Valentine Dyall<\/strong><\/span> (1908-1985) was the true Man in Black, and it came about because of the BBC. In the 1940s and 50s, they aired a wonderful radio series called Appointment with Fear<\/em>. This was a series of dramatised horror stories which both drew on the classics and also invited new stories from contemporary writers. Each started with an introduction from the narrator, the Man in Black, either teasing the listener about the nature of the tale to come, or warning them of the terror that awaited them.<\/p>\n

Each show was about half an hour long. When Dyall started speaking, you knew you were in the right place. His voice was dark and distinctive (some called him the British Vincent Price<\/strong>), and he had a resonance which just oozed menace. Occasionally the actual story was less interesting than his narration. Between 1943 and 1955 he introduced nine series of terrifying tales, with one more series being narrated by his father, Franklin Dyall<\/strong>. He also narrated a single series of the Man in Black in 1949.<\/p>\n

Before we say more about Appointment with Fear<\/em>, we should mention Dyall’s wider horror credentials. He had a number of parts in film and TV over the years, in addition to his radio work, and his career was packed with the sort of media trivia that we so love.<\/p>\n

\"black<\/a>
black guardian (dr who magazine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For our younger listeners, Dyall played the Black Guardian in Dr Who<\/em> between 1979 and 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Black Guardian is an anthropomorphic personification of the forces of entropy and chaos, the counterpart of the White Guardian, a personification of order. The two Guardians balance out the forces in the universe, although the Black Guardian seems to desire to upset the balance in favour of chaos and evil while the White Guardian prefers to maintain the status quo.\u201d (Wiki)<\/em><\/p>\n

He took the lead role in individual episodes and in three linked serials, which some call the Black Guardian trilogy, playing opposite Peter Davison<\/strong> as the Doctor.<\/p>\n

Well Hammered<\/h1>\n

We mentioned Dyall’s memorable voice, and in Hammer Horror’s film Lust for a Vampire<\/em> (1971), the character Count Karnstein, played by Mike Raven<\/strong>, was dubbed by Valentine Dyall. He also appeared as the caretaker Mr Dudley in the outstanding 1963 film version of Shirley Jackson’s<\/strong> novel The Haunting of Hill House<\/em>. Sometimes just known as The Haunting<\/em>, this is by far the best adaptation, and still sends shivers up the spine.<\/p>\n

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Going further back, he played a key part, Jethro Keane, in the wonderful City of the Dead<\/em> (1960). The film was known as Horror Hotel<\/em> in the States, and is the tale of a young student who seeks information on witchcraft for her college studies. What could possibly go wrong when she travels alone to a mist-shrouded New England village to ask if there are any witches about? Especially when your professor is an intense Christopher Lee<\/strong>, and the man who gets into your car is Valentine Dyall? The usual hilarity ensues\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Horror-Hotel-poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two film oddities in Dyall’s career remain worth noting. The first is the attempt to transfer the Man in Black idea to film, again by Hammer. The Man in Black<\/em> (1949) was a British thriller film which starred Sid James<\/strong>. Adapted from Appointment with Fear, <\/i>Dyall provided the introduction to the film, as “The Story-Teller”. Sid James, who rose to fame in the British Carry On<\/em> films, plays a straight role for once, with none of his yuck-yuck dirty laughter. It received mixed reviews, but is worth a look.<\/p>\n