{"id":58598,"date":"2026-02-23T06:07:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58598"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:55:37","slug":"stories-from-the-radio-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/non-fiction\/stories-from-the-radio-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories From The Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hallo strange fam! You are all so gorgeous that it\u2019s not even funny. Today we are going to be listening to a story from a show called Nightfall<\/em>, that ran from 1980 to 1983 from the good old CBC. So bear with me a little here. I used to be Canadian. Meaning that I was born and raised there and moved to India in my early teens. One thing I remember about my time in Canada is that as a country, we either made really awful stuff, or really cool stuff. There was no middle ground. Like there\u2019s Informer by Snow. And then there\u2019s the movie The Twentieth Century <\/em>which is just so bafflingly amazing that it is obviously Canadian. I mean maybe that\u2019s just me but anyway. For me, Nightfall is one of those really good shows. Often times, I would be listening to an episode thinking it was going to be like Inner Sanctum or something, and later I would be like why am I listening to this in the night when it is dark. This intro is already too long and probably didn\u2019t make any sense. So without further ado, here is Love and the Lonely One<\/em> from CBC\u2019s Nightfall<\/em>. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/NightfallUPGRADES<\/a><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a man teaching some medical students about cutting cadavers and he made a joke but I didn\u2019t understand it<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s laughing a lot though<\/p>\n

I doubt if it was really that funny<\/p>\n

This story has already set up its dialogue and back story so nicely<\/p>\n

So two college dudes, Freddie and George, are carrying the body of an auld woman with a terrible mouth<\/p>\n

They are going to use this to prank some girl who stood one of them up<\/p>\n

Oh you silly boys<\/p>\n

They have now dragged the corpse to the girl\u2019s door and now they will probably run away quite fast<\/p>\n

Wait! Creepy music!<\/p>\n

Instead of running away so fast, Freddie is staring at the corpse<\/p>\n

Freddie says that the corpse\u2019s mouth was green and it was staring at him whaaaaaaaaat<\/p>\n

This is what we came for you guys<\/p>\n

Digging the synth music at the scene changes also<\/p>\n

Now we are at the medical college hospital? And Freddie has suddenly been called in to assist with something. George, on the other hand, is going skiing because his priorities are different.<\/p>\n

They are trying to revive this body but it is not cooperating<\/p>\n

You know why? Because it has a huge hole in its heart and its face is dark purple<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a doctor, but I would say such a person is dead. That is just my opinion though<\/p>\n

Phone is ringing but since no nurse is around, Freddie magnanimously answers the phone himself<\/p>\n

Oooh Freddie has a secret admirer who is calling him. He thinks it might be a prank though.<\/p>\n

How did she know that Freddie would answer the phone? Dun dun dun!<\/p>\n

The secret admirer has the perfect voice you guys<\/p>\n

This secret admirer is bamboozling Freddie with her words<\/p>\n

He has now promised to meet this admirer at the same place they dropped off the corpse<\/p>\n

So a mysterious lady has asked you to meet her at a place where you dropped off a corpse. NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN I GUESS<\/p>\n

Freddie has asked how she knew where to find him, pertinent question fam, and she says the guy next to you told me only the guy next to Freddie IS DEAD NO BIG DEAL<\/p>\n

Now Freddie has come to meet the mystery lady and they are in some room? And there\u2019s like twenties music playing? And she looks great apparently.<\/p>\n

The lady has referenced banks crashing, so I guess she thinks it\u2019s the thirties? I don\u2019t know anything<\/p>\n

We all know this is going to end badly for Freddie but right now, he\u2019s dancing with a pretty girl and they\u2019re having champagne and they seem happy<\/p>\n

Now they have stopped dancing and he is asking what her hopes and dreams are<\/p>\n

Feel like there is a rule somewhere that one should never ask the undead what their hopes and dreams are<\/p>\n

Now I think they are going to have sex<\/p>\n

FREDDIE DON\u2019T HAVE SEX WITH THE UNDEAD<\/p>\n

Well, to be fair she said she was going to go change into what she really is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably not a good thing<\/p>\n

She just said that\u2019s what you want, isn\u2019t it? NO THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT FREDDIE<\/p>\n

Freddie is saying stuff like when you meet someone special you just kinda know and we all feel bad for Freddie right now<\/p>\n

OMG THE LADY SOUNDS LIKE SHE\u2019S DECAYING WHAAAAAT<\/p>\n

As we said before, DON\u2019T HAVE SEX WITH THE UNDEAD FREDDIE<\/p>\n

Freddie has screamed and SCENE!<\/p>\n

So I guess Freddie is trying to tell George about his ordeal but George is laughing<\/p>\n

He has figured out that the ghost lady was the corpse lady<\/p>\n

George is really, really laughing<\/p>\n

Well whatever the boys are now going to sleep<\/p>\n

None of this is going to end well for Freddie<\/p>\n

Which seems unfair, considering that it was George who came up with the idea, no? Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Some twisted twenties\/thirties music is playing and I have to say it\u2019s uncomfortable fam<\/p>\n

George is going skiing today and Freddie is staying back to study<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the phone DON\u2019T ANSWER THE PHONE FREDDIE<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the corpse lady who wants to meet again<\/p>\n

Corpse lady just said that they belong together. Which is discouraging when this kind of sentiment comes from the undead.<\/p>\n

Bro is now having insomnia<\/p>\n

There is now a knock at the door<\/p>\n

Surprise! It\u2019s the corpse lady!<\/p>\n

She\u2019s like you took me from my bed you can\u2019t send me back now but again this was George\u2019s idea no?<\/p>\n

Is Freddie having second thoughts about this whole \u2018don\u2019t have sex with the undead\u2019 thing?<\/p>\n

Fred is actually considering this whaaaaat I mean the logistics alone Freddie<\/p>\n

Maybe this isn\u2019t about sex at all, maybe the corpse lady just wants to hang out.<\/p>\n

Freddie just opened the door and the corpse lady is standing there with no clothes on.<\/p>\n

Welp. There goes Freddie.<\/p>\n

Now we are back to that same cadaver class like from the beginning<\/p>\n

I think they have opened the cadaver freezer and found Freddie inside.<\/p>\n

Oh, the corpse lady and Freddie are together in the freezer I think.<\/p>\n

And they look so happy. Aw \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

That was pretty good fam! I enjoyed it a lot, a typical, strong Nightfall story. I thought the lady who was the corpse did a particularly good job and it is sweet that we got a happy ending here. I did expect the story to go another way because I thought it was going to be like any other undead story. But I am very happy to see that it wasn\u2019t. For the next few weeks I am tempted to go through some of the other stories here. Frankly, they are a nice change from the usual OTR shows which, to be honest, are often on the sloppy side. So do join us next time when we will look at another show from Nightfall. Bai dears.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Columns Editor: Joyce Chng<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copy Editor: The Copyediting Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought the lady who was the corpse did a particularly good job and it is sweet that we got a happy ending here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[944],"class_list":["post-58598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-non-fiction","tag-stories-from-the-radio"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-ff8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58598"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58600,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58598\/revisions\/58600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}