The Dan Dare Radio Adventures – An Episode Guide

An advertisement for the 1954 The Adventures of Dan Dare radio serial, "Attack on the Space Stations"

An advertisement for the 1954 The Adventures of Dan Dare radio serial, “Attack on the Space Stations”

Visit our page – Spaceship Away! “The Adventures Of Dan Dare” On Radio Luxembourg

• A straightforward listing of episodes compiled by Jeremy Briggs is here

THE COMIC STRIPS

Philip Harbottle began transcribing Dan Dare’s Radio Luxembourg adventures into his own comic strips as he listened to them, from September 1954 to their finish in May 1956. His strips (which he has kept) did not cover all the stories, because at times very poor radio reception made it impossible to hear them at all, or to complete some stories, but he successfully covered most of them.

We’ve included some examples of Philip’s strips here – the only record of many of the over 760 episodes that now exists.

We of course should note that Philip’s earliest strips were drawn when he was only 12, and he was working at high speed in order to get the stories down on paper, as he listened to  the instalments each night. “Visually, and lettering-wise, they are not as good as my later 1954 and 1955 strips,” he freely admits, “but they do represent the only surviving record”.

This, of course is exactly why we feature them!

Philip’s starting and finishing dates of his strips were written down at the time – a little later than the broadcast dates, allowing time for their drafting (pencilled, inked, and finally coloured) – and these dates correspond with, and definitely confirm, the dates given in Charles’s Norton’s book Serial Thrillers for the period 1951-55 (but challenge that for the final year of 1956).

The schedule below is compiled from the appendices in Norton’s book, and from Harbottle’s own strip stories (set out in some detail in three articles for Eagle Times in 1991) with appropriate annotations.

This Spaceship Cup and Cap Badge were originally offered in a promotion where you sent in sixpence or a shilling with a label from your Horlicks jar to get them. Between 1951-56 the beverage maker sponsored the Dan Dare Radio Show on Radio Luxembourg and young listeners were encouraged to enrol in the Horlicks Spacemans Club when they tuned in at 7.15, a mug of steaming Horlicks on the kitchen table, to hear Bob Danvers-Walker announce, ‘Dan Dare - Pilot Of The Future, brought to you by Horlicks – The food-drink of the night...’ Image: ComPal

This Spaceship Cup and Cap Badge were originally offered in a promotion where you sent in sixpence or a shilling with a label from your Horlicks jar to get them. Image: ComPal

The schedule is also filled out from two other substantive sources of story information. Firstly, the earlier three articles in Eagle Times in 1988/89, where the reminisces of Keith Howard identified the plotlines of several stories not identified by title in Norton’s book, and secondly, the Horlick’s published Spaceman’s Handbook (1953), from which both definite and tentative (but likely) inferences can be drawn regarding unidentified stories, and the schedule has been further annotated accordingly.

The invaluable Handbook positively identified just 10 stories to 1953.

Titles in “quotes” are Philip’s invented titles of untitled stories. There were certainly others. The titles are not in strict chronological order.

1 – Voyage to Venus
2 – “Battle on Venus”
3 – The Mankton Menace
4 – The Automatons
5 – “Icemen of Venus”
6 – “Journey to Jupiter”
7 – The Lost World on Mars
8 – Marooned on Mercury
9 – Invaders From Space
10 – Attack on the Space Stations

Charles Norton’s book identifies the following additional stories

11 – Sabotage on Venus
12 – Space Pirates
13 – Mystery on the Moon
14 – The Mekon on Mars
15 – Bartley Greenwood
16 – Surprise Assassin
17 – Revolt on Mars

Keith Howard’s recollections in Eagle Times discuss further unidentified/untitled stories; Philip Harbottle’s own invented titles from them are in quotes:

18 – “Death from Uranus”
19 – “Return to Uranus”
20 – “The Martian Bees”

Harbottle’s strips add more unidentified stories:

21 “The Sirilium Stealers” (repeat)
22 “The Robot Replicas” (repeat)

Several of Howard’s recollections and Harbottle’s own strips stories were not identified in Norton’s book, but since they manifestly were based on the radio serialisations they had to have fallen into the schedule where Norton simply listed them as “UNKNOWN” stories. Using his best guess, Harbottle has tentatively fitted them into the schedule.

Harbottle’s strip stories were irrefutably based on the radio stories. Comparisons between the recordings of two “Ice Men of Venus” radio episodes and Harbottle’s own matching strips prove conclusively that his strips were both contemporaneous and accurate transcriptions. His strips are the only surviving detailed record of these “lost” radio stories. Keith Howard’s recollections are sufficiently vivid and detailed as to confirm their existence as further stories, especially as he also described elements of several of Harbottle’s strip stories before he knew they existed.

Based on his own final transcription, Harbottle believes that the story title listed by Norton as the final repeat in 1956, “Revolt on Mars” was incorrect. (See notes for the Fourth Series.)

FIRST SERIES

1951

July 2-25 – VOYAGE TO VENUS

SECOND SERIES

Nov 1 – “BATTLE ON VENUS”
Dec – “BATTLE ON VENUS”

1952

Jan 4 – “BATTLE ON VENUS”
Jan 7 – “ICEMEN OF VENUS”
Feb -8 “ICEMEN OF VENUS”
Feb 11- UNKNOWN – “JOURNEY TO JUPITER”??
Apr 4 – UNKNOWN – “JOURNEY TO JUPITER”??
Apr 7 – UNKNOWN – “THE SIRILIUM STEALERS”??
May 23 – UNKNOWN – “THE SIRILIUM STEALERS?” (See Fourth Series Harbottle
strip story)

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare - The Sirilium Stealers", drawn in 1955

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare – The Sirilium Stealers”, drawn in 1955

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare - The Sirilium Stealers", drawn in 1956

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare – The Sirilium Stealers”, drawn in 1956

May 26 – UNKNOWN – “DEATH FROM URANUS”??
June 27 – UNKNOWN – “DEATH FROM URANUS”?? (Keith Howard remembered story)
June 30 – UNKNOWN –“RETURN TO URANUS”??
July 30 – UNKNOWN –“RETURN TO URANUS”?? (Keith Howard remembered story)
Aug 4 – UNKNOWN – THE MARTIAN BEES??
Aug 29 – UNKNOWN – THE MARTIAN BEES?? (Keith Howard remembered story)
Sep 1- THE MANKTON MENACE
Oct 3 – THE MANKTON MENACE
Oct 6- SPACE PIRATES
Nov 14 – SPACE PIRATES
Nov 17- INVADERS FROM SPACE
Dec INVADERS FROM SPACE

1953

Jan 5 – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS
Feb – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS
March – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS
Apr 3 – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS
Apr 6- REVOLT ON MARS – Wrong title? Should it be Revolt on Venus?
May -29 REVOLT ON MARS – See Fifth Series Harbottle transcription as “The Robot
Replicas”

Listen to one of the “Mars” episodes:

THIRD SERIES

1953

The Adventures of Dan Dare - 208 Magazine Advertisement

An advertisement for The Adventures of Dan Dare from an issue of “208” magazine

MAROONED ON MERCURY

Sep – MAROONED ON MERCURY
Oct – MAROONED ON MERCURY
Nov – MAROONED ON MERCURY
Dec – MAROONED ON MERCURY

As an aside, Keith Howard mentions several Theron characters and Venus-based intrigues, but Philip has not ascribed them missing stories status because there is simply not enough room in the schedules (we can assume Norton’s time-lines are correct) for any extra stories, and there are lots of Norton-established “Venus-based” stories that could have encompassed them.

1954

Jan 1 – MAROONED ON MERCURY
Jan 4 – ATTACK ON THE SPACE STATIONS
Feb 19 – ATTACK ON THE SPACE STATIONS
Feb 22 – SABOTAGE ON VENUS
Mar – SABOTAGE ON VENUS
Apr – SABOTAGE ON VENUS
May 14 – SABOTAGE ON VENUS

FOURTH SERIES

Sep 13 – MYSTERY ON THE MOON
Oct 8 – MYSTERY ON THE MOON
Harbottle strip as “The Guided Missile Menace” (28 Sep-15 Nov)

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare -The Guided Missiles Menace"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare -The Guided Missiles Menace”

Oct 8 – THE AUTOMATONS
Nov 26 – THE AUTOMATONS
Harbottle strip as “The Underworld of Mars’ Robot Army” (15 Nov-7 Feb 1955)

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare - Robot Army"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare – Robot Army”

Nov 29 – THE MEKON ON MARS
Dec 31 – THE MEKON ON MARS
Harbottle strip as “The Theron’s Secret” (3 Feb-7 March 1955)

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare -Theron's Secret"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare – Theron’s Secret”

1955

Jan 3 – BARTLEY GREENWOOD
Feb – BARTLEY GREENWOOD
Mar 4 – BARTLEY GREENWOOD
Mar 7 – SURPRISE ASSASSIN
Apr – SURPRISE ASSASSIN
May -2 SURPRISE ASSASSIN
Harbottle strip as “When Worlds Rotate” (16 Apr-7 Sep {unfinished})

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare -When Worlds Rotate"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare -When Worlds Rotate”

FIFTH SERIES

All stories repeats ®

May 3 – “ICEMEN OF VENUS” ®
Jun 3 – “ICEMEN OF VENUS” ®
Harbottle strip as “The Cosmic Umbrella” (16 Jul – 7 Sep {unfinished})

A page from Philip Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "The Adventures of Dan Dare - The Cosmic Umbrella"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “The Adventures of Dan Dare – The Cosmic Umbrella”

June 6 – UNKNOWN – “JOURNEY TO JUPITER” ®??
July 27 – UNKNOWN – “JOURNEY TO JUPITER” ®??
Whilst unable to hear and so transcribe this story because of bad reception,
Harbottle distinctly recalls hearing one episode (shenanigans with the Mekon on
the icefields of Jupiter’s moon Europa) which corresponds with Keith Howard’s
account of this story, which originally ran as a direct sequel to “Icemen of Venus”
and so logically it would follow that story’s verified repeat

Aug – UNKNOWN – SABOTAGE ON VENUS ®??
Sep – UNKNOWN – SABOTAGE ON VENUS ®??
Oct – UNKNOWN – SABOTAGE ON VENUS ®??
Whilst unable to hear and so transcribe any stories from Aug-Oct 1955 because of bad
radio reception, Harbottle did hear an opening episode (which he can no longer
remember) for which he drew a cover picture with his title of “Operation Voria”,
showing a spaceship headed for the planet Venus. “Sabotage on Venus”, which
extended over three months, would perfectly fit the missing schedule!

Nov 21- UNKNOWN – “THE SIRILIUM STEALERS” ®
Dec – UNKNOWN – “THE SIRILIUM STEALERS” ®

1956

Jan – 6 UNKNOWN – “THE SIRILIUM STEALERS” ®
Harbottle strip as “The Sirilium Stealers” (19 Dec-17 Mar 1956)Jan 9 – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS ®
Feb – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS ®
Mar – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS ®
Apr 5 – THE LOST WORLD ON MARS ®
Apr 6 – REVOLT ON MARS ® – Wrong title? “REVOLT ON VENUS”?

May 31 – REVOLT ON MARS ® – Wrong title? “REVOLT ON VENUS”?
Harbottle’s final transcribed story (which was omitted from his Eagle Times article)
which he entitled “THE ROBOT REPLICAS” (April-May 1956) was set on Venus,
not Mars. And the alternate title “Revolt on Venus” would nicely fit his story.

For the final Radio Luxembourg broadcast, which Philip called “The Robot Replicas” he created an illustrated text story.

“It was set on Venus, so Norton’s ‘Revolt on Mars’ title does not fit it,” notes Philip. “My theory is that it was actually called ‘Revolt on Venus’ (which fitted my story).”

A page from Philip Harbottle's illustrated text story for the final Dan Dare Radio Luxembourg adventure, a story he called "The Robot Replicas", but might have been titled "Revolt on Venus"

A page from Philip Harbottle’s illustrated text story for the final Dan Dare Radio Luxembourg adventure, a story he called “The Robot Replicas”, but might have been titled “Revolt on Venus”

PHILIP HARBOTTLE’S COMIC STRIP ADAPTATION OF “ICE MEN OF VENUS”

Recordings of two consecutive instalments of a 1952 story called “Ice Men of Venus” exist (which Philip entitled the Cosmic Umbrella for his comic strip adaptations in the 1950s). Philip worked from its 1955 repeat to create these pages – the story is half way through.

These recordings confirm Philip’s record of the stories broadcast – the only record we have of many episodes.

This page retelling "Ice Men of Venus" sees Dan and Sondar leaving Kalon’s office with a Treen called Xtron, to go to his office to see some plans he has designed for a device to overcome the magnetic rays the Mekon is using at the pole, wrecking spaceships and causing adverse weather on Venus. His office is flooded and he pushes them in. Sondar cannot swim and panics. Xtron tells them he is working for the Mekon, and is going to drown them. He has also sabotaged a huge boiler to explode and destroy the city.

This page retelling “Ice Men of Venus” sees Dan and Sondar leaving Kalon’s office with a Treen called Xtron, to go to his office to see some plans he has designed for a device to overcome the magnetic rays the Mekon is using at the pole, wrecking spaceships and causing adverse weather on Venus. His office is flooded and he pushes them in. Sondar cannot swim and panics. Xtron tells them he is working for the Mekon, and is going to drown them. He has also sabotaged a huge boiler to explode and destroy the city.

Jocelyn and Digby see Xtron leaving the boiler house after sabotaging it in this page of "Ice Men of Venus", adapted in 1955 by Philip Harbottle into comic strip. Xtron has to tell them that Dan and Sondar are inside, as he hurries away. In his flooding house, Dan and Sondar conceive the plan of trying a freezing ray pistol on the locked door to crack the metal, so they can escape.

Jocelyn and Digby see Xtron leaving the boiler house after sabotaging it in this page of “Ice Men of Venus”, adapted in 1955 by Philip Harbottle into comic strip. Xtron has to tell them that Dan and Sondar are inside, as he hurries away. In his flooding house, Dan and Sondar conceive the plan of trying a freezing ray pistol on the locked door to crack the metal, so they can escape. Inside the boiler house Dig, sees a dial showing its pointer over the red danger line. Dan and Sondar burst in and warn of the impending explosion. They don asbestos suits to protect them from the heat of the boiler. They climb up the hot metal and knock the jammed safety valves open. “This page is exactly per the serial,” says Philip.

This page of Philp Harbottle's comic strip adaptation of "Ice Men of Venus", accurately depicts scenes in which Dan learns from Digby that the traitor Xtron had been going to see Kalon. Realising the President is in danger, Dan and Dig hurry to his office, to find him slumped over his desk, and Xtron standing over him with a hypodermic. He had given him an injection to render him unconscious. Xtron is forced to reveal that he was intending to take the President to the invisible ice city (the Mekon’s HQ at the pole) in the ray-proof ship he had designed. Dan and Dig fly the ship themselves, with Xtron as prisoner. During the flight Xtron breaks free and sends a radio message to the Mekon, giving his position.

This page of Philp Harbottle’s comic strip adaptation of “Ice Men of Venus”, accurately depicts scenes in which Dan learns from Digby that the traitor Xtron had been going to see Kalon. Realising the President is in danger, Dan and Dig hurry to his office, to find him slumped over his desk, and Xtron standing over him with a hypodermic. He had given him an injection to render him unconscious.
Xtron is forced to reveal that he was intending to take the President to the invisible ice city (the Mekon’s HQ at the pole) in the ray-proof ship he had designed. Dan and Dig fly the ship themselves, with Xtron as prisoner. During the flight Xtron breaks free and sends a radio message to the Mekon, giving his position.

In this final page of this 1955 comic strip adaptation by Philip Harbottle of "Ice Men from Venus" depicting some of the action from the second episode, Sondar and Jocelyn overhear the radio message, and realise the Mekon will send missiles to shoot them down. They decide to fly to their aid, using conventional jet aircraft. Dan’s machine is attacked by the Mekon’s missiles and he takes evasive action as best he can. Xtron is confident the Mekon will spare his life. He is allowed to get back in contact , but Digby warns him he can expect no mercy and is expendable. Sure enough, Xtron is told he will be eliminated, along with Dan and Digby. Their ship is hit and as it lurches Xtron is flung out of the door and falls to his death. Dan brings the ship down to crash in the snow at the pole and he and Digby manage to bale out into the snow...

In this final page of this 1955 comic strip adaptation by Philip Harbottle of “Ice Men from Venus” depicting some of the action from the second episode, Sondar and Jocelyn overhear the radio message, and realise the Mekon will send missiles to shoot them down. They decide to fly to their aid, using conventional jet aircraft. Dan’s machine is attacked by the Mekon’s missiles and he takes evasive action as best he can. Xtron is confident the Mekon will spare his life. He is allowed to get back in contact , but Digby warns him he can expect no mercy and is expendable.
Sure enough, Xtron is told he will be eliminated, along with Dan and Digby. Their ship is hit and as it lurches Xtron is flung out of the door and falls to his death. Dan brings the ship down to crash in the snow at the pole and he and Digby manage to bale out into the snow…

DOWNTHETUBES RADIO LUXEMBOURG DAN DARE ITEMS

Visit our page – Spaceship Away! “The Adventures Of Dan Dare” On Radio Luxembourg

Listen to a rare episode of The Dan Dare Adventures, with the kind permission of the Dan Dare Corporation, and find out more about the episode here on downthetubes

• “Dan Dare’s Holy Grail
2008 report on the continued hunt for episodes of the Dan Dare radio show broadcast by Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s

• Dan Dare Radio Show – Missing Episode surfaces – June 2012

Dan Dare on the Radio – A Thrilling Radio Serial – June 2013, item by Jeremy Briggs

EXTERNAL LINKS

• Dan Dare Corporation web site: www.dandare.com

Dan Dare Info Radio Luxembourg Page

• Wiped Web Site: http://wipednews.com

The Radio Luxembourg Official Web Site

• Radio Luxembourg 208 Fans Facebook Group

• The web site AntiqueHistory.net has an English language version of the origins of the Spanish version of Dan Dare, which you can read here

The Eagle Times, magazine of the Eagle Society, has featured items on The Dan Dare Adventures.  Ordering and subscription details can be found at eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk

Read Steve Winders article on The Dan Dare Adventures in Journey Planet 23

Serial Thrillers by radio researcher Charles Norton, released in 2013, looks at four radio dramas of the 1950s, the BBC’s Dick Barton: Special Agent, Paul Temple, and Journey Into Space plus Radio Luxembourg’s Dan Dare.

With interviews with those in front of and behind the microphones along with information from the BBC Archive and contemporary magazines, Charles has put together an in-depth history for the four radio dramas as well as detailed episode listings of each.

• Serial Thrillers (softcover, 280 pages, ISBN 976-1-900203-45-6) is published by Kaleidoscope Publishing at a cover price of £16.99. It is available from the Kaleidoscope website and from amazon.co.uk

• A straightforward listing of episodes compiled by Jeremy Briggs is here

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