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About The Penny Bloods
Tales from the Penny Bloods presents a series of audio shows done in the tradition of "old time radio plays." These include adaptions of stories from prestigious Victorian gift annuals like the Keepsake and Forget-Me-Not, and from popular magazines like Charles Dickens's All the Year Round and Household Words.
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Along the way, of course, our programs will also feature stories from the so-called "Penny Bloods" or "Penny Dreadfuls," (think G. W. M. Reynolds's Mysteries of London), bringing you thrilling tales in which London's high society meets the city's underworld.
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Our episodes will entertain you with adventures and romances, ghosts and criminals, with a dash of comedy thrown in.
The Haunted Cow
(as heard on KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
The Haunted Cow, written and directed by Arnold A. Schmidt.
It's 1826, and Captain Lambert is sailing his stately frigate, complete with cow, across the Caribbean. All is at peace - until some unexpected guests turn up, strange things start happening and Abigail the Cow is .... haunted?
Pirates, ghosts and no milk - what is going on?
Lot 249
(as heard on KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot 249, adapted and directed by Julia Warren.
It's 1884, and Abercrombie Smith is studying medicine in his rooms at Oxford when he is called to assist his neighbour and fellow student, Bellingham, who has fainted from shock. Smith can't help noticing how Bellingham's room is filled with ancient artefacts, including the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy.
Strange things start to happen and Smith is soon on the track of a very mysterious felon of the night...
Egyptologists, mummies, magic and mystery combine in this early tale of the weird and wonderful - can Abercrombie Smith uncover the unseen assassin?
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Tales from the Penny Bloods is a series of
radio plays based on stories from popular
19th-century magazines. We hope you'll enjoy these tales of crime & the supernatural, romance
& adventure, with a few laughs along the way.
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Teachers: you'll also find original texts,
notes, vocabulary, & lesson plans.
Upcoming episodes
We are currently working on an exciting new episode, continuing our 'Mummy' season with a fun-packed farce by Arnold Schmidt, based on a comic play by William Bayle Bernard from 1833 : The Elixir of Life.
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Professor Augustus Mondragon is an avid collector of antiquities - including Egyptian mummies! The prize of his collection is a sarcophagus - alas, it is empty! But Sir Charles has a mummy to spare - and so does Captain Bantam. What's more, there is an elixir that will bring the mummy back to life.
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Capers and chaos, drunken mummies, with a touch of romance in this vaudevillean comedy, coming soon!
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Earlier
Episodes
Catch up on all the earlier episodes here...
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About the Victorians
British Library:
Posters, newspapers, illustrations and much more, along with expert articles. (www.bl.uk/victorian-britain)
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Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century:
A respected, open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal covering areas like Romantic and Victorian History, Literature, Musicology, Social History, Visual Culture, etc. (https://19.bbk.ac.uk/)
Victorian History Resources:
Elon University's fine site. (elon.libguides.com/Victorian_History/Internet_Resources)
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Victorian Web:
Great all-round information about lit, history, social history, plus other links. (victorianweb.org)
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About the Penny Bloods
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Dittmer, Nicole C. Monstrous Women and Ecofeminism in the Victorian Gothic, 1837–1871. (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666900804/Monstrous-Women-and-Ecofeminism-in-the-Victorian-Gothic)
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This books examines the popular Gothic female “monster” figure in early-to-mid-Victorian literature in the context of medical science, ecofeminism, and social history.
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Dittmer, Nicole C., ed. Penny Bloods: Gothic Tales of Dangerous Women. (https://www.waterstones.com/book/penny-bloods/nicole-c-dittmer/9780712354189)
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Includes a selection of famous and obscure tales from nineteenth-century periodicals which feature "dangerous" female characters, among them witches, femme fatales, vampire mistresses and deadly criminals.
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