Edgar Lustgarten (1907–1978), 'Scotland Yard' presenter

[julian_craster]

From:
Edgar Lustgarten




Edgar Marcus Lustgarten (1907–1978), broadcaster and author, was born on 3 May 1907 in the Broughton Park district of Manchester, the only child of Joseph Lustgarten, a Latvian-born Jewish barrister, and his wife, Sara Finklestone. From Manchester grammar school, where he shone as a debater, he went up to St John's College, Oxford, in 1926; in his final year, 1930, before graduating BA, he was president of the Oxford Union. Called to the bar, he joined his father on the northern circuit, practising from chambers at 48 King Street, Manchester, and was soon recognized as an astute cross-examiner; he enjoyed working before juries because, as he afterwards said, ‘they were susceptible to an emotional appeal’ (Sunday Times Magazine, 21 Sept 1975). On 6 September 1932 he married Joyce Goldstone (d. 1972), a member of a Manchester family that had become wealthy from the manufacture and marketing of electrical gadgets.

Rarely burdened with legal work, Lustgarten began writing articles on diverse subjects. Encouraged by acceptance of some of them by the BBC North Region, based in Manchester, he concentrated on the writing of radio scripts—to such effect that, by the mid-1930s, the total fees he received for broadcast material sometimes exceeded the total of the fees marked on his briefs. A devotee of variety entertainment, he turned his hand to revue sketches and lyrics for songs; he also pseudonymously presented as well as devised radio programmes, including compilations of jazz records (thereby becoming a disc jockey before that term was coined).

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Lustgarten was turned down for military service because he had ‘grade 2’ feet; his diminutive stature may have contributed to the rejection. Recruited by the BBC as a counter-propaganda radio broadcaster, he moved with his wife to London, eventually to reside in the H1 set of chambers in Albany, next to the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly. Reusing the pseudonym of Brent Wood so as to hide his Jewishness, he broadcast to foreign countries virtually nightly throughout the war, often rebutting Nazi propaganda disseminated from Germany a few hours earlier by William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw)—whom he respected, though only as ‘a great broadcaster’. After the war he remained with the BBC, producing both radio and television programmes.

Lustgarten's first book, the crime novel A Case to Answer (1947), sold well and was made into a film entitled The Long Dark Hall (1951), starring Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer. In 1949 he published Verdict in Dispute, a collection of accounts of notable trials, and followed this with a similar volume, Defender's Triumph, in 1951; these titles are generally considered to comprise the best of his true-crime essays, stylishly written and focused upon turning-points in the proceedings.

It was in the autumn of 1952 when he—or rather, his voice—became famous, with the transmission on the Light Programme of the six-part series Prisoner at the Bar in which, displaying his gift for mimicry, he played all the parts, ranging from timorous spinster to crusty judge, in reconstructions of murder trials. Between the first broadcast and the sixth, the estimated listenership rose from 2 million to 6 million, one of the steepest increases ever. There were rave reviews, the one in the Sunday Chronicle describing Lustgarten as ‘a spellbinder and a wizard with words … a natural microphone genius’, and ending: ‘Let's hear more of him’ (5 Oct 1952). Almost every year for the next two decades or so, the BBC presented similar series starring ‘the one-man repertory company’. Also during that time, there were spin-offs from the radio success: he wrote many series of articles on true crimes for national newspapers; he received commissions from book publishers; he amended some of his radio scripts for a series of audio cassettes; and, in a studio decorated and furnished in resemblance of his own study, he introduced and spoke the tailpiece to short films of fictional crime stories that pretended to be factual.

In 1954 Lustgarten, who for the past four years had worked on a freelance basis for the BBC, switched to the newly formed independent company Associated Television (ATV) as a producer, and sometimes chairman, of current-affairs discussion programmes. He was an expert chairman, for though his hooded eyes gave him the appearance of a tired lizard, he had the lawyer's ability to think on his feet, and, having prepared meticulously, he could make illuminating comments in addition to asking probing questions. The most successful of his programmes were Free Speech, 1955–61, and Fair Play, which ran from 1962 until 1965, when he rejoined the BBC for three years, chiefly as a narrator of factual programmes.

Lustgarten's wife died from cancer in 1972. During the latter years of their marriage his undoubted love for her had been tested by her addiction to gambling, hers for him by gossip she heard of his frequenting nightclubs and fashionable restaurants in the company of flashily dressed young women, rarely the same one twice.

In 1978, by which time Lustgarten was living in a flat, 138 Clarence Gate Gardens, near Regent's Park, he published his fifth crime novel. It was entitled Turn the Light out as you Go. On Friday 15 December he visited the reference department of Marylebone Public Library. No one knows what he hoped to learn. While seated at a reading desk, he suffered a heart attack. He was taken by ambulance to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Jonathan Goodman


Sources

J. Goodman, ‘Edgar Lustgarten: the murder man’, Radio lives, BBC Radio 4, 20 Aug 1992, BBC WAC · ‘Lustgarten, Edgar (Marcus) 1907–1978’, Contemporary Authors, new revn ser., 22 (1988), 286–7 · private information (2004) [J. Goodman; G. Singh] · Sunday Times Magazine (21 Sept 1975), 5–7 · Sunday Chronicle (5 Oct 1952)
Archives


FILM
BFINA, performance footage

SOUND
BL NSA, documentary recording · BL NSA, performance recording

Likenesses
Count Zichy for Baron Studios, photograph, 1955, NPG [see illus.]
Wealth at death

£8762: probate, 12 April 1979, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

[CaptainWaggett]

From:
Edgar Lustgarten



In 1978, by which time Lustgarten was living in a flat, 138 Clarence Gate Gardens, near Regent's Park, he published his fifth crime novel. It was entitled Turn the Light out as you Go. On Friday 15 December he visited the reference department of Marylebone Public Library. No one knows what he hoped to learn. While seated at a reading desk, he suffered a heart attack. He was taken by ambulance to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

He was reading the Spectator so I imagine he hoped to learn how the country had gone downhill since women got the vote

[julian_craster]

Quite a small estate (under £9,000 ) for such a famous man.....perhaps this explains why...

"his frequenting nightclubs and fashionable restaurants in the company of flashily dressed young women, rarely the same one twice...."

Naughty Edgar ! (not that I blame him....we chaps are all entitled to a bit of fun now and then....)

[CaptainWaggett]

Quite a small estate (under £9,000 ) for such a famous man.....perhaps this explains why...

"his frequenting nightclubs and fashionable restaurants in the company of flashily dressed young women, rarely the same one twice...."

Naughty Edgar ! (not that I blame him....we chaps are all entitled to a bit of fun now and then....)

The addiction to gambling may not have helped...

[Harbottle]

Sounds like Edgar was living up to his name

[Gerald Lovell]

I wouldn't mind seeing again Stanley Baxter as Edgar Lastgasper!

[Westengland]

I wouldn't mind seeing again Stanley Baxter as Edgar Lastgasper!

Or Roy Hudd as Edgar Dustcarten (in his 1967 BBC TV series), IIRC.

[CaptainWaggett]

[julian_craster]

Here is the man himself.....

[Heinrich]

There was a coziness about Edgar Lustgarten's Scotland Yard stories. From the safety of our cinema seats, surrounded by our boyhood friends, we could witness a horrible murder and see the culprit brought to justice. Who didn't like a good scary story, told by someone we trusted?

[dissolute]

The experimental electronic group "Severed Heads" took their name from, and had a hit song called "Dead Eyes Opened" which heavily sampled, one of Edgar's narrations. He was credited on the single & album.

[wadsy]

Or Roy Hudd as Edgar Dustcarten (in his 1967 BBC TV series), IIRC.

Wasn't there a portrayal on TV by John Wells as Edgar Bloodlusten?