Have I ever introduced you to Lord Morrisey Morrisey?
     I thought as much. Seeing that few, if any, of you are fee-paying students of mine you probably are completely unaware of my latest writing project, the historical mystery series of Lord Morrisey Morrisey and his ever changing in rank (and service) wartime chum, Stickle. In part this is an answer to a recent question of what I have been writing, fiction-wise, recently. The answer, as it is not currently clear, is that I have been working on little two minute audio dramas that I then produce and perform in.
     Somewhat based on the episodic nature of radio detective serials, with a dosing of faux-Victoriana, Lord Morrisey Morrisey has been in a few fairly interesting cases. ‘The Unusual Case of the Corpulent Fowl,’ ‘The Fascinating Conundrum of the Absent Page,’ ‘The Strange Affair of the Black Murumba!’ and his latest escapade, ‘The Case of the Aspirant Demagogue.’ We have theme music, sound effects, background noise and a cast of… Well, three. But there will be more.
     The task (enjoyable as it is) of writing these snippets of larger stories has been interesting; you need to feel that you really have just come across an episode of a far larger work yet still be able to understand what is going on in this particular episode. it is, I suspect, rather akin to the way soap operas work, in that a good soap opera is one where you can sit down and watch an episode several years into the main storyline and be able to pick up on the salient details within a twenty-two minute slot. It helps to be using a well-recognised formula (the detective duo) and an easily recognisable period (Holmesian Victorian England). The comedy helps as well.
     The eventual aim of this is to write a full half-hour story featuring Morisey and Stickle and record it professionally. It is part of a plan Jon and I have for a new Critical Thinking textbook which would use the individual scenes as examples of fallacies and suchlike. Our take on reason and argument is fairly different to the available textbooks and courses being taught, and this could be the ‘zing,’ as Bertie would put it, to make our work the cat’s pajamas.
     And here are some non-representative samples of the plays…
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Morrisey: Enough of the Johnny Foreigner politics, Stickle. Tell me of the threat to the monarchy of England!
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Stickle: Oh, I agree. Why, the other day we were speaking about the mysterious chucaphra…
Morrisey: Your interest in cryptozoology is commendable, Stickle, but let us return to our suspects.
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Morrisey: That, Stickle, is a matter to which I want an answer. Who would want to kill an unsightly, ghastly creature such as a film critic?
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And it all leads towards writing and producing the ‘Jack Danger and Trip Hazard’ radio series Jon and I have planned for next year.
     Radio really is the next TV phenomena. You read it here.