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The Adventures of Major Gregory Keen of M.I.5 |
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Dossier on Dumetrius: the story of a document
now gathering dust in a silent room Dossier on Dumetrius was probably the best and most successful radio
serial ever produced. It
introduced Major Gregory Keen of MI5 who was the forerunner to James Bond. The story is set in Post
War London and tells of the search for missing Nazi loot which was brought
into England by a mysterious, vicious criminal Dumetrius, his gorgeous girlfriend Hedy Bergner and Yottie Bleem, a butcher who thinks murder is fun. An interesting and
distinctive feature of this programme is the theme melody. Each episode opens with a few bars of
whistling, the tune of which is then taken up by a full concert orchestra. The whistling of this theme serves
throughout the story to identify Dumetrius and it is finally the cause of his
dramatic capture. Dossier on Dumetrius was incredibly popular where in New Zealand alone
the Members of Parliament rose early to be able to hear the final episode. Obviously there had to be a
follow-up and it appeared 18 months later as Deadly Nightshade in which Keen travels to Sydney in an effort to
trace an atomic scientist who has vanished: Deadly Nightshade: a story that unfolds like
the petals of a deadly flower This time in, each episode
opens with single notes being played on piano to dynamic effect! The role of Keen in both
productions was played by New Zealand's Bruce Stewart and his nemesis in both adventures (Dumetrius in "Dossier on Dumetrius" & Dumetrius'
half-brother Felix Hubermann in
"Deadly Nightshade") was played by fellow Kiwi, Guy Doleman - the latter moving on to prominent film roles in Thunderball (1965) and Michael Caine's mid 60's Harry Palmer
trilogy (The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin & Billion Dollar Brain) Nothing succeeds like
success and following acclaim for the spy-counterspy intrigue of Deadly
Nightshade, Keen was back for a
celebrated third adventure with Twenty-Six Hours: Twenty-Six Hours: the record of a night and a
day and the fall of another night For this series, each
episode opened with the sinister note of footsteps - ominous and foreboding! Bruce Stewart was to return one last time as Keen (alas this time
without Guy Doleman) in an adventure set in Cold War Europe. Were there any more series of
Gregory Keen? Yes, two, but they were not for me. The 4th and 5th
series did not have Bruce Stewart as Gregory Keen - and I was worn out after
restoring 312 episodes from series 1 to 3. Also the sheer file size was
beyond my abilities to package affordably (I'm limited to about 2.8 Mb per
title). Hence, I have restored Series 1
to 3 only and these are the ones that are available here. Want
to check out some episodes of one of this radio serial? - why not "taste
& try"? Below
are the first three episodes of the Dossier on Dumetrius adventure - fabulous! These
episode can be freely downloaded to your computer - just right button click
on any link below and chose "Download Linked File" (or words to
that effect). The file is on an average about 9Mb - download time will depend
on your (broadband) speed AMGKDD_1951
Episode No.001.mp3 AMGKDD_1951
Episode No.002.mp3 AMGKDD_1951
Episode No.003.mp3 These 4 MP3 CDs contain all episodes of Gregory Keen's "Dossier on
Dumetrius" adventure (104 x 12 minutes each), all episodes of his "Deadly
Nightshade" adventure (again, 104 x 12 minutes each) and all episodes of his "Twenty-Six
Hours" adventure (yes again, 104 x 12 minutes each) All 312 episodes have been painstakingly
restored and are of great sound quality - perfect! A. Dossier on Dumetrius
(1951) -
104 x 12 minute episodes B. Deadly Nightshade
(1953) -
104 x 12 minute episodes C. Twenty-Six Hours
(1955) -
104 x 12 minute episodes |