Bad Memories

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; Philip 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?

Characters
The investigators

Rachel Weir, an "audio whiz" - an audio engineer who sometimes works with the police. She is very competent at her job. Her approach to the investigation at hand is fairly no-nonsense, but she gets carried away with wanting to know what happened when the tape doesn't appear to be resolvable to a satisfactory answer.

Jim Marquez, a police detective. He appears to have an interest in the natural environment or possibly birdwatching. He's been in the job for 15 years and has seen enough things to find the Blake House incident strange and disturbing, but it does not upset his natural equilibrium. Rachel rebuffs his attempts at asking her out.

The Blake family

Jonathan Blake, an architect.

Imogen Blake, his wife.

Matthew Blake, their son.

Bisa, his nanny.

The Others

Phillip Gibson, a paranormal investigator.

Mary Marston, the ghost of a nine-year-old girl who murdered her family in 1926 with a pair of large scissors.

Trivia
The events described in this audio play are referenced in The Whisperer in Darkness as the Blake House Incident.

Rachel Weir works at Oxford University. Her successor, Charlotte Williams, helps Kennedy Fisher clean up some audio as part of the investigations in The Whisperer in Darkness.

Transcript
Bad Memories/Transcript