Audio Review: Dick Barton - Special Agent!

This daft, facile and utterly compelling serial was first recorded in 1946. In the bleak days of post-war rationing, radio listeners sought escapist entertainment and that's exactly what they got. Despite the protestations of stuffy critics, the adventures of Dick Barton - essentially children's fare - rapidly became popular with the whole family.

This BBC Audio release treats us with Barton's first adventure, and delivers the danger and excitement promised by its famous frenzied theme tune. Although the Beeb failed to retain any version of the show, some kindly soul made a clear off-air copy of the 1972 rerecording for our delectation.

The original stars reunited for the '70s version. Noel Johnson sounds great, with a commanding presence that anyone would heed. Snowey White (John Mann)'s a little croaky - that makes him all the more endearing as he backs up the hero.

The most surprising thing about Barton and his boss, products of innocent '40s adventure series, are their fascist tactics. In one scene spy chief Colonel Gardiner (William Fox) tortures a prisoner with a giant mutant spider; in a later escapade, Barton shoots an unarmed hostage! These antics are a far cry from later episodes, where the action was toned down for fear of distressing the kiddies. Any references to alcohol or girlfriends were excised.

Character development consists of turncoat scientists and Dick Barton's chauvinism. Romantic interest Jean Hunter (Margaret Robertson) is quite a heroine: she can handle herself in a scrape, and put up with Dick's sexist remarks to boot. BBC stalwarts Richard Hurndall, resident kindly old scientist, and Michael Kilgarriff, large vocally and physically, are as dependable as ever.

Despite battling spiders, rats and evil henchmen, Barton always has a simple way out of a fix. The villains are so busy being fiendish that they make foolish mistakes and get caught out. This lessens the threat that they pose, but audiences still enjoy similar delights today - from the Saturday teatime nonsense of Alias to the adventures of a more sophisticated special agent called James Bond.