Detective Inspector John Appleby: Lament for a Maker & Appleby’s End: Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Classic Crime Dramatisations

Gripping crime dramas featuring Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector John Appleby

A double bill of Scottish crime writer Michael Innes’ DI John Appleby novels adapted with a full cast. Written during the golden age of detective fiction, these two gems from the archive are a thrilling listen for any fan of quality detective crime drama.

In Appleby’s End Appleby of the Yard is played by veteran star of stage and screen, John Hurt (Alien, Harry Potter) – who brings his signature voice to the detective in this stunning production. Inspector Appleby is used to dealing with serious crimes but from the moment he steps on the train to Snarl to investigate a series of bizarre happenings, he's plunged into a world where jokes play too large a part. Travelling with a strange companion and staying in an eccentric country estate, Appleby quickly discovers that the various unusual events, including a prize bull turning into stone, a local boy gone missing and the apparent practice of witchcraft in the area, may all have a more logical explanation. However, when the body of Heyhoe, an old family servant is found buried up to his neck in snow things start to get serious…

In Lament for a Maker, a mad laird, an eerie tower, dark deeds, and a devilish plot are brought to life. Something is amiss at a remote castle isolated in the Scottish Highlands. Raving recluse Ranald Guthrie, the much-despised laird of Erchany, has been wandering his halls obsessively reciting an old Scottish poem. But when Guthrie falls to his death from the tower of his castle Appleby is called in to investigate this deadly accident. Immersing himself in the lonesome world in which Guthrie spent his final days, Appleby must separate dreadful truth from chilling legend to determine what really happened on that terrible night. Was Guthrie driven mad enough to take his own life? Or does something darker lurk within this gothic castle?

Between 1936 and 1986 Michael Innes (the pseudonym of the Scottish academic and novelist John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections. They have the same charm, pace and excitement now as they did when they were first published.

Cast and credits Written by Michael Innes

Appleby’s End Dramatised by Michael Bakewell Directed by Jane Morgan

Starring John Hurt, John Le Mesurier, Christopher Benjamin, Joyce Redman, Pippa Guard, Lewis Stringer, Anthony Newlands, Richard Derrington, John Sharp, Christopher Douglas, Jack May, Hugh Dickson, Pauline Letts, David Gooderson, Trevor Baxter, Stephen Garlick, John Livesey

First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10th Apr 1982

Lament for a Maker Dramatised by Kathleen Jamie Directed by Patrick Rayner

Starring Michael MacKenzie, John Shedden, David McKail, Anne Lacey, Callum Mill, Ernest Blake, Gerda Stevenson, Martin Black, Edith MacArthur, Benny Young, Victoria Da Vidson, Gwyneth Guthrie, Brown Derby, Robert Paterson

First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31st Dec 1988

©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

© 2026 BBC Digital Audio (Lydbog): 9781529965834

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Lydbog: 4. juni 2026