Imagination Theatre is American radio's premiere drama series, now heard coast to coast on well over a hundred radio stations in North America and by satellite on XM Radio. Click here for a radio affiliate in your area. These hour-long weekly broadcasts feature mystery, suspense, fantasy and adventure, produced by Jim French Productions before live audiences on a state-of-the-art recording stage.

These shows began airing in Seattle, Washington in 1972, with performances by major Hollywood guest stars, including John Astin, Eddie Bracken, Hans Conreid, Bob Crane, Patty Duke, Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island), Kurt Kasznar, Ruta Lee, Roddy MacDowall, Richard Sanders (of WKRP in Cincinatti), Tom Smothers, and Keenan Wynn. National syndication began in 1996. This led to coveted media awards and honors by BBC Radio.

Imagination Theater Weekly Show Web Stream

Every week we offer our weekly Imagination Theater radio broadcast to our listeners via a streaming webcast. Our webcast is brought to you in MP3 format and is playable on Windows Media Player, Real Media Player and all MP3 compatible players. - Happy Listening!

Monthly Feature

There's no lack of books on the subject of Arthur Conan Doyle and his immortal consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. I have a fair collection of these resource books at hand as I write "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", and the Internet has proven to be an invaluable source of authentic detail regarding Victorian England. For example, the other day, as I was writing "The Adventure of the Ten-Pound Notes", I needed some facts about the Great Western Railway on which Holmes and Watson were traveling. In a few minutes I'd amassed a treasure chest of information on the types of carriages, the stations, the "halts" and the trackage. The English, bless 'em, are loquacious when sharing their enthusiasm about their hobbies and side interests, and that's a boon to the likes of me! The other day, a group of young Washington State Holmes buffs challenged Lawrence Albert (my "Doctor Watson") on references in one of my scripts to Watson's first wife, Constance Adams, whom he met during a visit to San Francisco. Where did I get that? It's according to the noted Holmes expert, W.S. Baring-Gould, cited in the book "Encyclopedia Sherlockiana", which I find an invaluable resource. He notes that this lady appeared as Watson's first wife in an unpublished story by Doyle. Others have chimed in with remonstrances about terminology I've used in some Holmes stories. One such case was my use of the furniture known as a "couch". My advisor, Fr Basil of Westminster Abbey in Mission, B.C., tells me that the term "couch" is American; "sofa" would be more authentic. So from now on, Holmes will sit on a "sofa" (unless he sails off to America again.) A frequent question is, "Why do you write original stories? Why not dramatise (note the UK spelling) Doyle's stories instead? The basic reason is, to do justice to almost any of Sir Arthur's Holmes adventures would take longer than a 22-minute radio script. Even a double-length show would cramp the telling of most of his stories. Another reason is... it's a challenge to try to write in the style of another author, and I find - now that I've written forty "pastiches" of Sherlock Holmes, that it's very enjoyable work. In May we'll record a script I wrote from a plot submitted by an English listener from Surrey. Now he's written two more, and I hope we can find other writers who would like to collaborate. But, mind you: I try to be true not only to the times and fashions of the Victorian era during which Sherlock and Watson "lived", but also to the sorts of cases they would have accepted, their personalities, attitudes and relationships with each other and those in whom they would come into contact. Fair warning: I'm not going to go far afield from the Holmes which Sir Arthur wrote about. No comic send-up of Sherlock. No girl friends. No offspring. But I probably will put Sherlock's brilliant older brother Mycroft into more stories. We're blessed with a perfect actor to play this most interesting character - Ted d'Arms, who has charmed theatre audiences and moviegoers for close to thirty years. His commanding presence - even on radio - is perfect for what we know about Mycroft Holmes, the man Sherlock says "at times, he IS the British government"!