OPENING NIGHT / WHEN IN ROME

These 1993 full-cast productions of two Ngaio Marsh short stories please in a mild way, but they don't delight. It's hard to tell if the problem is the story-to-radio adaptations or the acting, but it all sounds a bit stilted. Worse, it is hard to distinguish the voice and phrasing of Jeremy Clyde, who plays Inspector Alleyn, from some of the other male actors; this makes following conversations, as Alleyn might say, damnably difficult. Add to that the odd accents adopted by actors playing non-English characters, and we must say that this isn't up to BBC's usual stellar production. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]