RARA-AVIS: Re: Dashiell Hammett's "Secret Agent X-9" now a BBC radio series

From: Kevin Burton Smith (kvnsmith@sbcglobal.net)
Date: 21 Mar 2009

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    Vince wrote:

    > In 1994, BBC radio ran a series based on Dashiell Hammett's "Secret
    > Agent
    > X-9" comic strip. It starred Stuart Milligan and Connie Booth (the
    > former
    > Mrs. John Cleese). The BBC re-ran the series in January of this
    > year. A web
    > page is here:
    > http://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes /b00gfwhy

    I just hope they're better than the actual strips. There are great bits in there, but they don't add up to a lot of sense. I think Hammett might have been deliberately stringing them along. And along. And along.

    Supposedly he and the people paying the bills had very different ideas of where the strip was supposed to go and so the whole thing seems patched together. And unfortunately, all the stitches show.

    Then again, even latter day, for-drinking-money Hammett is better than no Hammett at all.

    Kevin Burton Smith www.thrillingdetective.com

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