Whitehall 1212
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WHITEHALL 1212 was a British police OTR drama series brought to the
United States, sometimes mistaken for THE BLACK MUSEUM. The series
was heard over NBC. WHitehall 1212 was the police emergency phone
number in London just before '999' (their equalvalent of "911" here
in the States).
Wyllis Cooper, of QUIET PLEASE fame, wrote the script for all 44
shows in the series.
This series was very similar to the Black Museum that was hosted by
Orson Welles. Both the Black Museum and Whitehall 1212 drew their
material from the files of Scotland Yard. The stories were true in every
respect except that the names were changed to protect the innocent, as
they say. The Whitehall 1212 series boasted that for the first time
Scotland Yard opened its files and the producers promised to bring to 
the public authentic true stories of some of the most celebrated cases.
Permission for these records came from Sir Harold Scott, Commissioner of
the yard at that time.
There is actually a Black Museum. This area is located on the lower
ground floor of Scotland Yard and it does indeed contain articles that
are closely associated with the solving of a crime. And "Whitehall 1212"
was the actual emergency phone number for the yard at the time.
The research for the shows was done by Percy Hoskins, chief crime
reporter for the London Daily Express. For the benefit of American
audiences, Wyllis Cooper of Quiet Please fame was hired as script
writer. Interestingly enough both the Black Museum and Whitehall 1212
had all-British casts; both ran concurrently. Whereby Mutual
Broadcasting System aired the Orson Welles version, NBC offered the
Wyllis Cooper one.
There were 44 episodes in the series and all but one are in circulation.
None of the prorgrams were titled and as they appeared on the scene,
were given names by those who collected them. For that reason there are
variations of titles, some with incorrect spellings; an attempt has been
made to correct this.
51/11/18 1 The Blitz Murder Case
51/12/02 3 The Fonier Case
51/12/09 4 The Murder of Duncan Frazier
51/12/16 5 The Man Who Murdered His Wife
51/12/23 6 The Heathrow Affair
52/01/06 7 The Murder of Charles Brooks
52/01/13 8 Kashmere Is Murdered
52/01/20 9 The Case of Donald Simms
52/01/27 10 The Murder of Little Philip Avery
52/02/03 11 The Pete Williams Case
52/02/10 12 Case of Arthur Freeman
52/02/17 13 Case of the Late Mrs Harvey
52/02/24 14 Murder of Peter Amory
52/03/02 15 The Case of Air Cadet Gordon
52/03/09 16 Case of Dr Duncan Allen
52/03/16 17 Case of Thomas Applebee
52/03/23 18 Case of the Black Gladstone Bag
52/03/30 19 Murder of a Bloody Belgian
52/04/13 20 Case of the Fatal Bath
52/04/20 21 Case of Mrs Minerva Bannamon
52/04/27 22 Case of Franchesca Nicholson
52/05/04 23 Case of William George Greenly
52/05/11 24 The Case of Margery Tate
52/05/18 25 The Case of Sydney Wolfe
52/05/25 26 The Case Of Maggie Ralenson
52/06/01 27 Case of Winfred Hog
52/06/08 28 Case of the Strange Bondfire
52/06/15 29 Case of the Homemade Handbag
52/06/22 30 Murder of Mrs Ann Battersby
52/06/29 31 Case of the Weed Eradication
52/07/06 32 Murder of Mr Sweet
52/07/13 33 The Tapir House Murder
52/07/20 34 Case of the Unidentified Woman
52/07/27 35 The Case Of The Magena Blotting Pad
52/08/03 36 The Case of Nora Brady
52/08/10 37 Case of the Missing Clarinet
52/08/17 38 Case of Dugel Henry
52/08/24 39 Murder of Lady Madge Johnson
52/08/31 40 Case of the Madden Family
52/09/07 41 Case of the Eaton Brothers
52/09/14 42 Case of the Winchester Bottles
52/09/21 43 Case of the Inoperative Wireless
52/09/28 44 The Case Of The Electric Torch
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