Bad Memories

## Episode Guide • Transcript

Bad Memories is an audio drama written by Julian Simpson. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 7 Jan 2011 as part of the "Friday Play" series.

## Synopsis

In 2004, a successful architect and his family mysteriously disappear from their home. Six years later five bodies are found in the cellar of their house. They are identified as Jonathan and Imogen Blake and their son, Matthew; Phillip Gibson, who was on the missing person's register and a woman, identity unknown. Forensics determine that not only were they murdered, but the time of death was 1926. Can audio files found with the bodies solve the mystery?

## Plot

Detective Inspector Jim Marquez, of Christchurch Police, enlists the help of audio technician Rachel Weir on a case he's working on. He explains that in November 2004, architect Jonathan Blake, his wife Imogen, and his son Matthew, vanished from their home in the New Forest with no explanation. 10 days ago, a pair of teenage boys were playing in the remains of the house when they fell into a cellar that belonged to another house that had previously occupied the site. Inside, the boys found five skeletons belonging to the Blakes', a man called Phillip Gibson, and an unidentified woman. Jim tells Rachel that, inexplicably, according to the forensics they all died in 1926. The bones also had damage consistent with being repeatedly stabbed with a large pair of scissors, suggesting they were murdered. Jim wants Rachel to look at a recorder found on one of the bodies, which they believe to be Phillip's, and see if she can salvage any of the recordings. Rachel agrees and sends Jim out to get coffee while she makes a start.

When Jim returns, Rachel tells him that she's managed to recover some of the recordings, and begins playing the first one for him. In the recording, Phillip is walking up to the house, and meets Jonathan, who is expecting him. Through their conversation, it becomes apparent that Phillip is here to interview Jonathan for a local paper, and has done research on the house. He tells Jonathan about the previous house, which Jonathan was not aware of, and that it burnt down, and that the family who owned it died. Jonathan invites Phillip inside, and when Phillip explains his car has broken down he offers to call a breakdown service for him on the landline. Jim notes that Phillip has never worked for a local paper, but can't work out why he's lying.

In the second recording, made 22 minutes later, Jonathan introduces Phillip to Imogen. Matthew, and Matthew's nanny Bisa, whom Jim suspects is the fifth body. While they talk, Jonathan notices that Phillip's recorder is on, which Phillip apologises for not mentioning, and they head up to his study to start the interview. On the way upstairs, Jonathan mentions that they used stone found on the site for the floor, and Phillip wonders if the stone came from the original house. While they talk, Rachel and Jim hear a noise on the recording that sounds like muffled screaming, but neither Jonathan nor Phillip react to it. Rachel thinks that the sound is not an artefact but actually in the room. Jim is also bothered by the sound of swallows singing in the background, as there are no swallows in the New Forest in November.

The third recording is Phillip's interview with Jonathan. They talk about the difference between a house and a home, which Jonathan explains as a warmth created by the memories of the people who lived there seeping into the house. As they continue talking, a girl's voice is heard singing the tune of *Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush*, which again neither Phillip nor Jonathan react to, before the recording abruptly cuts out. A baffled Rachel tells Jim that the singing has not been added to the recording after the fact, and can only suggest that Jonathan and Phillip, somehow, cannot hear the sound.

The fourth recording opens with Phillip alone in the bathroom, stating he's played back some of the recordings, heard the girl's voice, and thinks there's 'something here.' Jonathan invites him down to the kitchen to call the breakdown service but gets called away by Imogen and allows Phillip to look around. Phillip talks to Matthew and asks him about the girl. Matthew says her name is Mary and that she lives in the floor. Jonathan comes back and notices Phillip's recorder is on again, and Phillip apologises before turning it off. Jim suspects that Phillip is involved in a scam of some kind, but Rachel disagrees.

The fifth recording, made two minutes later, has Phillip, Jonathan, and Imogen talking to each other. They note that Bisa has gone home, which Jim doubts, as she must be the fifth body. Imogen invites Phillip to stay for dinner to stop him walking to his car in the dark, and Jim suspects she's in on the scam. Jonathan however, reveals that he knows there is no car, and that he called the local paper and knows Phillip doesn't work for them. Imogen then explains that Phillip is a paranormal investigator she's hired because she's worried about Matthew, much to Jonathan's disapproval. Phillip tells them that Matthew has been communicating with Mary Marston, a girl who lived in the previous house. In 1926, when she was nine, she stabbed her family to death with dressmaking scissors and then vanished, and Phillip thinks her spirit is in the stone from the old house. Jonathan is sceptical, and Phillip stops recording to play him the previous tapes as evidence. Jim still thinks it's a scam, but Rachel is starting to believe the Blakes and Phillip were killed by Mary's ghost. Jim calls the station and asks them to find information on the Marston house, Bisa, and Phillip's ghost hunting. Rachel begins to investigate the screaming noise and finds it's a mixture of different sounds. She plays the next recording while she works.

The sixth recording is a conversation between Phillip and Imogen where he explains that while only Matthew is hearing Mary's voice, the recorder is picking it up, similar to how photographs sometimes contain people that shouldn't be there. Phillip has set up a recording system using his recorder and laptop which should allow them to hear any strange noises. When he switches it on and asks if anyone's there, Rachel and Jim hear the screaming noise in the recording, and then hear it again through Phillip's laptop speakers before the recording cuts out. Rachel cannot explain how Phillip is able to do this, and believes that not only is the noise real, but that it's somehow causing the recorder to overload.

The seventh recording, made immediately after the sixth, has Phillip and Imogen trying again to hear Mary. This time a girl's giggle is heard before the screaming noise and the tape scrambles. Rachel believes that the giggle belongs to Mary, as she is certain Phillip is not responsible for it, to Jim's disbelief. Jim hears from the station that Mary did not vanish but was incarcerated in a series of asylums due to her dangerous insanity. She slipped into a coma in 2003 and died at 12:37am on the night the Blakes vanished. Rachel notes that the next recording is timed at 12:29am.

The eighth recording is a conversation between Phillip and Jonathan discussing Phillip's interest in ghosts and his apparent lack of evidence. Jonathan suddenly admits that he saw Mary in a mirror, but didn't say anything because he didn't want to believe it, and because she terrified him. Footsteps are heard, and Phillip calls out to Mary. Mary's voice is heard saying she's come home and the screaming noise begins and the tape cuts out. Rachel notes the recording stopped a minute after Mary Marston died, and reaffirms to Jim that the audio is genuine. Rachel wants to go to the house, but Jim tells her that there's nothing they can do.

The ninth and final recording opens with Jonathan, Imogen and Phillip rushing to find Matthew screaming in terror. Mary's voice is heard asking Matthew to come play with her, and Matthew screams that he doesn't want to go. A door slams, the screaming noise is heard, and Phillip's equipment is smashed. The four of them try to leave the house but find that the front door has been locked. Phillip tries to reassure Mary that they're not going to hurt her, but Mary stabs Jonathan in the leg and they run. They find a door that Jonathan says shouldn't be there and seemingly go through it, as the screaming noise shorts out the tape again. Rachel tells Jim that the audio software has broken the noise down, but that the sound is distorted as if it's coming through stone. They identify the Blakes amongst a collection of screaming voices, which Rachel thinks are the Marstons'. When Jim asks how this is possible, Rachel theorises that it is either supernatural or radio interference and that the only way to check it would be to do a control recording at the house. Jim tells her not to, and to get some sleep, before leaving. Rachel ignores him and heads up to the Blake house.

After she arrives, she does a series of control recordings in the hallway, kitchen, and study but finds nothing unusual. She then tries another door and finds she cannot open it. Her phone rings and she answers it hearing Jim's voice. While she keeps trying the door, now confused as to which room she's in, Jim asks her to turn the screaming noise off. Rachel, terrified, begins frantically trying to open the door, while Jim tells her that he's found Bisa alive so he doesn't know who the fifth body is. As Rachel begs Jim to help her, Mary's voice is heard, and Rachel's scream blends with all the others.

## Cast, Characters, Crew

* Nicola Walker as Rachel Weir and Bisa
* Rupert Graves as Jim Marquez
* Steven Mackintosh as Phillip Gibson
* Jana Carpenter as Imogen Blake
* Anthony Calf as Jonathan Blake
* Oscar Richardson as Matthew Blake
* Imogen McCurdy as Mary Marston
* Ashley Cook as Student 1
* Marcus Webb as Student 2

* Writer & Director: Julian Simpson
* Broadcast Assistant: Sarah Tombling
* Sound Engineers: David Chilton & Lucinda Mason Brown
* Producer: Karen Rose

## Notes and Trivia

* The story was recorded on location at Stanmer House in Brighton, East Sussex, England.
* This audio drama won ‘Best Use Of Sound’ at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2012.
* The events described in this story were retconned in The Whisperer in Darkness and The Haunter of The Dark, which changes a number of details about about the Blake House Incident while keeping the broad plot points (see this outline of the changes to continuity).
* Rachel Weir works at the Cambridge University Audio Lab. Her successor, Charlotte Davenport, helps Kennedy Fisher clean up some audio as part of the investigations in The Whisperer in Darkness.
* Phillip Gibson misstates the date in his first recording, saying it's the 3rd of November, when the rest of his recordings for the same day describe it as the 4th.
* Julian Simpson discussed adapting this story into a movie around 2019.
* This story marks the first appearance in the Pleasant Green Universe of Jana Carpenter and Steven Mackintosh.

## External Links

* Sweet Talk Productions: Bad Memories
* Julian Simpson's SoundCloud: Bad Memories
* BBC: Bad Memories

## References

1. ↑ TWiD: "Episode 6"
2. ↑ Night of the Living Podcast Interview