The Buckingham Palace Connection & More
by Ted Willis, Michael Aldridge, Seán Barrett, Hugh Burden, Joyce Carey, Jeremy Clyde, Alaric Cotter, Nicholas Courtenay, Annette Crosbie, Alan Cuthbertson, David Daker, Anthony Daniels, Hugh Dickson, Maurice Denham, William Eedle, Adrian Egan, Deryck Guyler, Frances Jeater, Alex Jennings, Hilda Kriesman, Moir Lesley, Preston Lockwood, Miriam Margolyes, Trevor Martin, Geoffrey Matthews, Ian McShane, Mary Miller, Barbara Mitchell, Richard Pascoe, Elizabeth Proud, Andrew Sachs, Leslie Sands, Christopher Scoular, Cyril Shaps, Bob Shearman, Victor Spinetti, Henry Stamper, Lockwood West, Jo Manning Wilson, Mary Wimbush, Haydn Wood
Why You'll Love This
The man who wrote Dixon of Dock Green also claimed to know the real story behind a secret 1918 mission to rescue the Romanovs — and he built a career on tales like that.
- Great if you want: mid-century British crime fiction with a historical conspiracy edge
- The experience: compact and brisk — five self-contained stories with classic thriller tension
- The writing: Willis blends procedural grounding with stranger-than-fiction real events
- Skip if: you prefer expansive novels over short, episodic crime fiction
About This Book
When a question raised in the House of Lords pulls a writer toward a buried chapter of history, what emerges is something far stranger than fiction — a 1918 mission tied to the Russian imperial family and the corridors of Buckingham Palace itself. Ted Willis, the remarkably prolific writer behind Dixon of Dock Green, spent decades crafting crime and intrigue that felt both intimate and consequential. This anthology gathers five of his finest radio plays from the 1960s through the 1980s, each rooted in the belief that ordinary people are always one decision away from extraordinary circumstances.
What distinguishes this collection is Willis's instinct for compression — his ability to establish character, tension, and moral weight within tight dramatic structures that translate onto the page with remarkable clarity. The ensemble of voices woven through these stories, drawn from some of Britain's most distinctive theatrical talents, gives the writing a layered, almost novelistic texture. Willis never wastes a scene, and his background in journalism keeps the prose honest and grounded even when the plots reach toward the sensational. Reading him is a reminder that disciplined storytelling, stripped of excess, can carry tremendous force.