Rocky Jordan

Just how one man could possibly get himself into so much trouble or how so much trouble could seek him out is a fact that puts Rocky Jordan well and truly amongst the ranks of Sherlock Holmes, Matt Dillon, Sam Spade, Rick Diamond and even the crew of the Scarlet Queen (amongst many many others).

The difference with this show was that Rocky wasn't a detecti ve who's excuse for adventure was a never-ending line of clients needing help or a Wild-West law man bringing his own brand of justice to the untamed people of the frontier lands. He wasn't even aboard a ship that was on a secret (multi-million dollar) mission to retrieve countless treasures from a secret location deep on the sea bed somewhere in the South China Sea... no, the star of these shows was the owner of a bar/restaurant in Cairo! (Istanbul in earlier shows)

You may therefore wonder just how it is that every week Rocky Jordan found himself juggling damsels in distress, dead bodies, blackmailers, spies, terrorists, black-marketeers, gunmen, crooked cops, brawlers, man-eaters, poisoners, fleeing Nazis and just about anything else you could imagine, but worry no longer because here are a number of shows that adequately explain exactly why Rocky Jordan (Jack Moyles & George Raft) seemed to have so much trouble with the locals.

It wasn't just because Egypt and North Africa were rather unpredictable places to live at that time but more because the writers managed to capture the mood of a post-war radio audience perfectly. The world had become a place of odd-sounding yet somehow familiar names. It was a time when the need for adventure had been replaced with a need for things to make sense and feel secure again. Rocky Jordan was an American sitting in the middle of a still turbulent region of the world where danger was ever present and death could easily pay an unplanned visit and agents of the West and the East grudgingly rubbed shoulders in the slow-cooling of a recent forced friendship. And here in the middle sits "The Café Tambourine" and restaurateur Rocky Jordan providing to us a familiar and strangely reassuring calm in the eye of a very chaotic Egyptian storm.

Happy listening my friends,