Program Information

BBC4 documentaries Dennis Wheatley: A Letter To Posterity

Series:

Subtitle:

BBC remove Dennis Wheatley interviews from web

Program Type:

Interview

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Dennis Wheatley

Contributor:

Bristol Broadband Co-operative Contact Contributor

Date Published:

Jan. 23, 2012, 1:23 p.m.

Summary:

Credits: DENNIS WHEATLEY: A LETTER TO POSTERITY
BBC4 Tuesday 31 October 2006 11.10pm-12.10am; rpt 2.20am-3.20am
He wrote over 70 books and sold over 50 million copies of them; he served his country with distinction in both wars; he sold fine wines to the crowned heads of Europe; but he counted a conman and a murderer among his closest friends and was a keen student of the occult and the black arts. As he explains here he drew on the first hand knowledge of Rollo Ahmed, Harry Price, Montague Summers and Aleister Crowley, all, as Wheatley says, top boys in that line.
Dennis Wheatley was labelled the prince of thriller writers by the critics, but less than 30 years after he died, he is largely neglected.
The inheritor of the mantle left by Alexandre Dumas and Rider Haggard - which he himself passed on to the likes of Ian Fleming, George MacDonald Fraser and even Clive Barker.
But if Wheatley were really to return, what would he make of the modern world?

Notes: Over Christmas 2011/12 the BBC webmasters removed the following web page which used to link to two real audio files on Wheatley interviews.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/dennis-wheatley.shtml
Those BBC interviews are both presented here, one after the other, in FM quality mp3 format
Wheatley interviewed about his life by John Ellison (1966 - 11 mins 23s)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/media/ram/bb/wheatley4_bb.ram
About his interest in, and writing about, the occult by William Hardcastle PM programme (1971 - 5 mins 20s)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/media/ram/bb/wheatley3_bb.ram

Version 1: