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Radio Drama: "The Willoughby Obsession" (1980)

Pocket watch

"The Willoughby Obsession" first aired in 1980 on Nightfall.

Thoughts Before Listening

Hallo dears. Today I have decided to listen to something called "The Willoughby Obsession" from Nightfall. This show might be exciting because ‘obsession’ is a very exciting word and so is ‘Willoughby’. Due to racism, I also believe that this will be Downton Abbey, Dr Who and Call the Midwife all mixed together. I’m not sure if my Indian culture will prevent me from understanding all the words. It probably will.

Thoughts While Listening

Oh this sounds a lot clearer than the other one :) :)

What is the opening sequence dude saying exactly?

‘In the dream. You are falling. Lost in the listening distance. As darkness. Locks in. Haaaaaaaaaaa. Nightfall.’

What is the listening distance but?

Google is acting like it knows but it doesn’t know actually

A lady is singing a sexually suggestive song in a sultry manner while splashing water. My Indian culture is suitably offended by this by golly

Some dude just said ‘making your body sweet for him my dear? lol

Anyway, said dude was Charles and he is outside the locked door which seems to be a great place for him to be

Charles is also inside. He is inside and outside. He is inside outside upside down

The sexually singing lady said ‘what do you want’ and he said ‘retribution’. Really he said that.  

Why is that so funny?

The next time someone asks me what I want, I am going to say ‘retribution’.

I probably won’t tbh

He also wants justice and freedom btw

These are things we all want I guess

She’s like oh go away Charles and he called her Lorena my lovely faithless wife, thus establishing premise and the characters and all things like that

Is that a chainsaw? Already?

She just said ‘not in the water Charles’

Is this the first thing one says to someone who is wielding a chainsaw over oneself while oneself is in the tub?

And said someone is inside and also outside?

And- oh nevermind.

Anyway so Lorena seems to be dead now (RIP, we hardly knew ye) and Charles is talking so I’m guessing he dropped the mysterious whirring object into the tub while being inside and outside at the same time

Illustrious acquaintance suggests Charles is doing Canadian magic

I have duly called illustrious acquaintance a racist because you can’t say stuff like that in front of me and think I won’t say anything by golly it’s too bad

Now cut to another dude who is flummoxed to hear Charles in the car with him.

Dude’s name is either Thornton or Faulkner

Charles is like LEFT and ThorntonFaulkner is like NO and Charles is like LEFT and ThorntonFaulkner is like NO and Charles is like LEFT and ThorntonFaulkner is like NO

And Charles is like LEFT

And he wins.

What is Charles actually? Is he a feeling?

Charles is giggling and saying the power is mine

He has apparently worked hard to get to wherever he is right now so way to go Charles

Now he is not giggling

He is choking?

It’s been like four minutes and three people have died already

Why does the world have to be so bad? Sometimes I just don’t understand. Other times I understand everything but sometimes I just don’t understand

I forgot to mention that ThorntonFaulkner died in that whole LEFT-NO thing

And also I think Charles The Feeling also died

Some other dude is talking now, I guess he is a police fellow? And he’s like there are a lot of answers that don’t have questions which seems like a cool thing to say

Ok no he is a reporter trying to get the story on Willoughby aka Charles the Feeling

He is convinced there is something mysterious about Willoughby

GASP

I don’t want to listen to the rest of this

I’m going to listen to the rest of this by golly

I’m going to listen to the rest of this later

I’m back and I’m going to listen to the rest of this right now

Aaaaaaaand some footsteps and some drunk dude has just entered Charles The Feeling’s house

The drunk dude informs us that he has been in this house of hate for seven years and now he’s going to have a drink

That was not the right place to use that pic sorry

Anyway I think the drunk man is talking to himself because that’s what drunk people do

MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!! Although I didn’t hear anything tbh

Drunk man has entered some mysterious room (possibly a distant relation of the MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!!) and is now talking to a picture because that’s one another thing that drunk people do

drunk people are goofy lol

MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!!

Ok so I’ve been thinking that was a kettle when it was actually MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!! sorry

Drunk man is being killed by the MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!!

Ok this is a police inspector now talking.

Someone knocked on the door and he said ‘it’s not locked’

Why didn’t he just say ‘come in’?

It is the aforementioned reporter and a police officer. Their names are Paul and Walter respectively but I might be wrong also. It is always important to know people’s names because they are human beings with identities

Walter and Paul are on the way to the house and they are having some very uninteresting conversation

Ok wow so that before guy? Thorntonfaulkner? The one who died in the car? He would get tickets for driving too slowly and as I type this I see that I shouldn’t be typing this because it’s stupid

Oh and he was Charles The Feeling’s secretary.

That’s what I really meant to put down.

Anyway.

Charles The Feeling apparently made secret plans to sell his business and bought a ticket to Calcutta.

Why Calcutta? Why am I scared? Is it racist to be scared about this?

Maybe he has family there anyway I don’t know

Now they are in the Willoughby house and it’s so creepy like wow amazing very scary

I’m going to listen to the rest of this later bai

Hai im back and I am going to listen to the rest of this right now.

Now I’m really going to listen to the rest of this for real.

Now for real though.

OMG ok really now. Really.

These guys are still talking and I feel like they are saying things which are possibly relevant to the story but everything seems so difficult right now so I’m not actually going to listen so that life can be easier for me

MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!!

Did I mention there is a ghost in here? Ya there’s a ghost

The bathroom apparently looks like a Turkish brothel but I don’t know what that means because I’ve never been to one. I somehow feel like they wouldn’t let me in.

Ok it wasn’t a chainsaw that killed that lady from before, it was an electric razor my bad y’all

These dudes are asking all the hard hitting important questions because these are the dudes

THESE ARE THE FUCKING DUDES

I think all the people who died did their dying at the same time

Dudes have stumbled upon books with strange names aka occult books and SOME ARE IN SANSKRIT OMG

Oh don’t do this to me

So the phone rang and we were thusly informed that Charles The Feeling had a gardener and this gardener is now apparently dying

THE LIBRARY DOOR WAS OPEN!!!

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT!!!!

Ok now someone has wheezing and is reciting nursery rhyme

I think this is the gardener he sounds like a very interesting person

And now he is dead

The gardener sounded like an interesting person because he sounded like two dudes talking when he was actually one dude talking

The reporter and the police officer are no longer with the gardener now because they have other stuff to do

I think they went back to the house and the reporter has found a letter from India and he is going to read it now and I am scared for realsies

Oh what the fuck

Ok idk I believe Charles the Feeling developed evil magic yoga powers, possibly through a mail order yoga class conducted by someone named Deanna who is the worst person ever

And also the letter came from Ambarapur which is the evil magic yoga word the gardener was saying when he was two dudes and not one and which also appears to be a village in Odisha which I’m sure will have some significance in this story later on hahahaha

Feel like Ambarapur has been unnecessarily dragged into this story and it didn’t even do anything

These dudes have come to the conclusion that Charles the Feeling is residing in feeling form in the house

Now they are wondering how to get rid of Charles the Feeling and also I think Charles the Feeling is trying to infiltrate the police officer

Aaaaaand they are now going to defeat all this with good old fashioned Christian prayer!

So one friend of mine who is Hindu went to a Christian school in his youth and he liked the hymns so much that once when he went to his grandmother’s house he started singing them and she did numerous special prayers and things and was very upset because she thought he was possessed by idk Christianity? I guess? We usually hear that story the other way round, no?

MYSTERIOUS SOUND!!! has been replaced by a ticking clock! This is very significant!

Charles the Feeling has successfully infiltrated the police officer because the police officer has expressed a possible desire to visit *gasp* INDIA!!!!!!!

Thoughts After Listening

Bai. Just bai.

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