Happy Father's Day - Horatio Hornblower

First off Joy and I would like to wish all you Dad's out there a Happy Father's Day and if you have been lucky enough to be given a gift of RUSC for Father's Day from your thoughtful offspring then a hearty welcome to you!

I wanted to give you something special to listen to today and I think I have found just the series in The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower. The series was first transcribed in England for the BBC but then aired in America from July 1952 on CBS. So popular were these exciting tales of swashbuckling adventures that it aired again on ABC in 1954 and on Mutual in 1957.

The radio series starring Michael Redgrave as Hornblower was based on the Horatio Hornblower books written by C.S Forester from 1937. Horatio Hornblower is a captain in the British Royal Navy, an indomitable man of the sea who showed bravery during the Napoleonic era. The stories are totally fictional but of course Forester took his inspiration from the history of Naval life in the late 1700's through the mid 1800's and there are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the time such as Horatio Nelson.

Prior to the radio series in 1951 Warner Brothers produced the film Captain Horatio Hornblower based on the events in C.S. Forester's 3 books, The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours. The film starred Gregory Peck in the title role and co-starred Virgina Mayo as his love interest Lady Barbara Wellesley both of whom recreated their roles for Lux Radio Theater to be broadcast on the 21st January, 1952 and, which I will add to RUSC as a Father's Day treat.

We couldn't let the day go by without a bit of comedy too so I have also added Jack Benny's show from September 1951 in which Benny and his team enact their version of the dramatic film but with of course Benny playing the title role of Horatio Hornblower. It's hilarious!

The 52 part radio series was written for radio by Philo Higley and produced by Harry Alan Towers (who also produced the Black Museum) and the dramatic and fitting music was composed and conducted by Sidney Torch.

All 52 episodes of The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower are extant and will be made available through RUSC over the coming weeks.

Happy listening my friends,