This was awful. My third episode of BBC radio's adaption of tales of daring do by Simon Templar. Compared to the other stories this was much darker, with a mad professor inventing a death ray, a second rate Eastern European power trying to secure intellectual rights to the technology, and the British Police and Secret Service acting together and flaying around like keystone cops. The body count and brutality was terrible, the story overly complex, and Templar's humour and language cringeworthy. Leslie Charteris was obviously hugely worried about the prospect of war clouds forming when writing in the 1930s, and it seemed he laid much of the blame at capitalist arms manufacturers. His anger just went totally overboard with this very silly story. First published in 1930 under the title 'The Last Hero'. Dramatised by Roger Danes. Cast included Paul Rhys, Kim Thomson, Charles Simpson, John Hollis, Joshua Towb, Sandor Eles, John Baddeley, John Turner, Ross Livingstone, …. Linda Regan, Paul Jenkins, Jonathan Keeble, Stephen Critchlow, Geoffrey Whitehead, and David Timson. Directed by Matthew Walters. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1995.