Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Wrote Too Much?

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

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Factual: Life Stories

14/03/2015

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Wrote Too Much?

Mark Billingham investigates the life of Edgar Wallace, the 'fiction factory' of crime.

Writer Mark Billingham investigates the life of the 'fiction factory' of crime, the creator of King Kong, Edgar Wallace. How has his reputation faired since his death in 1932?

How can a writer, whose publisher declared him the 'King of Thrillers', and was thought to be responsible for a quarter of all new books read in Britain by the late 1920s, be largely forgotten today? 

Crime writer Mark Billingham investigates the life of the man called the 'fiction factory', the best-selling author, journalist, playwright, film director and creator of King Kong – Edgar Wallace.

Wallace's life seems the stuff of fantasy. An illegitimate child in London, largely self-educated, he was the newspaper boy who became one of the most famous writers in the world. He sold millions of books, but was plagued by debts. 

He died in Hollywood in 1932, aged 56, after writing the original story for King Kong. His body was returned by ocean liner in honour to Britain, only to be reunited with an ocean of outstanding bills.

Mark presents some of the best adaptations and documentaries about Edgar Wallace from the BBC archive:  

*   A 1951 version of one of Wallace's biggest successes, THE RINGER
*   One of Wallace’s best crime creations, THE MIND OF MR JG REEDER 
*   Loveable racing 'turf tipster' EDUCATED EVANS, starring Roy Hudd and Andrew Sachs. 

And though he's long dead, Mark has a hunch that he may be able to hear from Edgar Wallace himself.

His work was the source of countless TV and film adaptions in the 1950s and 60s. His books have sold in their multi-millions. But from the 'Golden Age' of crime fiction it is Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie who are really remembered today. 

Was Edgar Wallace just a man who wrote, and did, too much?

Producer: Peter McHugh

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in March 2015.

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