Jenny McCartney Jenny McCartney

Listen to the world’s first radio play

Plus: BBC Radio Ulster’s excellent Assume Nothing series goes on the trail of Typhoid Mary

Mary Mallon, AKA 'Typhoid Mary', institutionalised on Brother Island where she stayed from 1914 until her death in 1938. Image: Getty / Bettmann 
issue 11 February 2023

Radio works its strongest magic, I always think, when you listen to it in the dark. The most reliable example is the Shipping Forecast, that bracing incantation of place names and gale warnings, which – with the lights out – can transform even the most inland bedroom into a wind-battered coastal cottage.

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