The Adventures of Rouletabille: The Mystery of the Yellow Room & The Perfume of the Lady in Black: Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

Full-cast radio adaptations of two classic mysteries by the writer of The Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Leroux was one of the pioneers of the detective story, alongside Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe. Best known for The Phantom of the Opera, he also wrote a series of crime novels featuring journalist and amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Included here are dramatisations of the two best-known books in the series, The Mystery of the Yellow Room and its sequel, The Perfume of the Lady in Black, starring Nicholas Boulton as Rouletabille and Charles Simpson as his friend and assistant Sainclair.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Described by John Dickson Carr as ‘the finest locked-room tale ever written’, this celebrated mystery finds young reporter Rouletabille investigating an impossible crime. How was Professor Stangerson’s daughter Mathilde knocked unconscious, strangled and left for dead in the Yellow Room, when the door was bolted from the inside and the windows barred? And how did her attacker manage to vanish into thin air?

The Perfume of the Lady in Black – France’s most dangerous man is dead, and few people mourn his passing. Of the scattering of people at his funeral, one in particular stands out: a mysterious, heavily-veiled woman, dressed in swathes of black. Rouletabille recognises her perfume – lavender with a hint of jasmine – and is convinced they’ve met before: but where? To solve the puzzle, he must look to his own past, and a secret he has kept hidden for many years...

Cast and credits Written by Gaston Leroux First published 1907 (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), 1908 (The Perfume of the Lady in Black) Directed by David Blount

The Mystery of the Yellow Room Joseph Rouletabille – Nicholas Boulton Inspector Frédéric Larson – Geoffrey Whitehead Mathilde Stangerson – Becky Hindley Jean Sainclair – Charles Simpson Robert Darzac – Alastair Danson Professor Stangerson – Hugh Dickson Corbeau/Judge – Stephen Thorne Jacques/Innkeeper – Brian Parr

Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 20 June 1998

The Perfume of the Lady in Black Rouletabille – Nicholas Boulton Sainclair – Charles Simpson Larson – Geoffrey Whitehead Mathilde – Suzanna Hamilton Rance/Uncle Marius – Stephen Thorne Darzac/Steward – Alastair Danson Beauvais/Captain – David Timson Edith/Postmistress – Alison Pettitt

Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan from a translation by Margaret Costa

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 August 2000

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Lydbog: 13. november 2025