SERIES: BEYOND MIDNIGHT
Starring: Denis Smith, Hal Orlandini, Michael McCabe, Marjorie Gordon and others.
Writer: Various International & South African Writers. Stories adapted by Michael McCabe.
Producer: Michael McCabe
Total Episodes: Broadcast: 78 Archived: 71
First Episode B/C: 01/11/1968 Last Episode B/C: 24/04/1970
Radio Station: SABC - Springbok Radio
Synopsis:
This series became the replacement series for “SF’68”.Most of the cast were the same in both series’, although
“Beyond Midnight” gave producer Michael McCabe the opportunity to also include ghost and horror stories. At a
later stage he was also allowed to try his hand with stories of mystery and suspense in the series “Suspense” and
later “Hitchcock’s Half Hour”.
Many sources in the old time radio community list 45 to 46 episodes of this series in their catalogues. The major
problem with this series is the episode titles. Collectors tended to give their own episode titles to this series. With
the exception of 7 episodes, which might still be found we can now list the original episode titles and broadcast
dates for this series. It would appear that the majority of the episodes in circulation worldwide originated from the
South African collector John Wright, who sent these recorded reel to reel tapes to a friend in the United States.
The SABC Transcription Service released 5 episodes for broadcast on International radio stations. The
transcription discs are as follows. 1) SABC LT14526/8 "The Visitors", 2) SABC LT14527/5 "A Time for Thunder",
3) SABC LT14529/4 "The Picture", 4) SABC LT14522 "The Tangled Way", 5) SABC LT14523 "The Room". In
2006, Neil Gesson, a avid Springbok Radio fan donated several hundred reel to reel tapes of Springbok Radio
programmes that he recorded since about 1955 to this society. In this collection of reels a total of 71 episodes of
“Beyond Midnight” episodes were recorded and also logged by him. For many months his logs were compared to
the official Springbok Radio logs, Neil’s log was spot on. Neil sadly passed away in 2006, but left behind many
recorded programmes from Springbok Radio, that in most cases are programmes that would have been lost
forever. This society and South Africa owe him hugely for his efforts. This series has been scheduled for digital
restoration and upon completion, a set will be donated to the SABC Sound Archive in Johannesburg for National
Preservation.
We have tried various ways in trying to match the known episode titles with the official episode titles, but after
many moons and many hours we decided to make available these logs for collectors and interested parties. In
brackets are the episode titles given by collectors.
If any other collectors match up any of the titles we could not, please be so kind as to contact us so that we can
keep this log updated.
The list of episodes logged and currently in holding with the Springbok Radio Preservation Society of South Africa
Sound Archive is as follows:
Nr B/C Date Episode Title
01 01/11/1968 The Marble Knights (First Episode)
02 08/11/1968 The Paxton’s House (The House at Brickett Bottom)
03 15/11/1968 The Monkey’s Paw
04 22/11/1968 The Phantom Coach
05 29/11/1968 Spider-Phobia
06 06/12/1968 The Late Mr Elsham
07 13/12/1968 Harry
08 20/12/1968 A Beautiful Viper
09 27/12/1968 Smee
10 03/01/1969 Short Circuit
11 10/01/1969 No-Name Baby
12 17/01/1969 The Honeymooners (Honeymoon)
13 24/01/1969 Lanceford House
14 31/01/1969 A Night in the Waxworks (Waxwork)
15 07/02/1969 Vulture People
16 14/02/1969 The Phantom Groom
17 21/02/1969 Insect Man (Insects)
18 28/02/1969 All at Sea
19 07/03/1969 Eloise’s Whereabouts
20 14/03/1969 The Dream
21 21/03/1969 The House was a Sphinx
22 28/03/1969 The Train
-- 04/04/1969 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
23 11/04/1969 The Evil Face
24 18/04/1969 A True Ghost Story
25 25/04/1969 The Wedding
26 02/05/1969 Yarrow
27 09/05/1969 Hobart (A Man Called Hobard)
-- 16/05/1969 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
28 23/05/1969 Little Happenthatch
29 30/05/1969 Borneo
30 06/06/1969 The Yellow Room
31 13/06/1969 Arsenic
32 20/06/1969 Sir Derminic’s Bargain
33 27/06/1969 The House
34 04/07/1969 Sammy
35 11/07/1969 The Paul Henry Expedition (A Smile to Drive you Mad)
36 18/07/1969 The Jokester
37 25/07/1969 Under the Hull Tree (Under the Hav Tree)
38 01/08/1969 The Crystal Ball
39 08/08/1969 Mrs Taber’s Killer
40 15/08/1969 Fellini the Great (The Great Fellini)
41 22/08/1969 The Happy Return
42 29/08/1969 Take your Partners
43 05/09/1969 The Werewolf
-- 12/09/1969 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
44 19/09/1969 Radiation
45 26/09/1969 Turning to Marble
46 03/10/1969 A Man’s Worth
47 10/10/1969 Something Haunts this House
48 17/10/1969 White Revised
49 24/10/1969 Storybook Man
50 31/10/1969 Uninvited Face
51 07/11/1969 The Cigarette Case
52 14/11/1969 Mexican Mario
53 21/11/1969 The Voice
54 28/11/1969 Rendezvous
55 05/12/1969 Watches by the Dead
56 12/12/1969 The Manor House
57 19/12/1969 Cliffs of Bembridge
58 26/12/1969 The Door in the Wall
59 02/01/1970 Sarah
60 09/01/1970 Rupert Orange (What Happened to Rupert Orange)
61 16/01/1970 The Thirteenth Elephant
62 23/01/1970 The Bonanza
-- 30/01/1970 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
-- 06/02/1970 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
63 13/02/1970 The Visitors
64 20/02/1970 The 56 G’s
65 27/02/1970 The Picture
66 06/03/1970 Impala
67 13/03/1970 The Incomplete Corpse
68 20/03/1970 Arthur’s Return
-- 27/03/1970 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
-- 03/04/1970 Episode unknown at this stage – Lost
69 10/04/1970 Mr McGraw and his Victim (McGraw shoots Stoney)
70 17/04/1970 An Evil Memory of Julia Wright
71 24/04/1970 The Speciality of the House (Final Episode)
List Compiled by The Springbok Radio Preservation Society of South Africa. December, 2006
