On this day in 1955, Home Service listeners were supposed to have heard the 10th episode of the sixth series, ‘The Pevensey Bay Disaster’.
However, on the day of the Sunday recording, a fatal train crash near Didcot had killed 10 people and injured more than 100 others. A passenger train from Wales to London derailed and plunged down an embankment.
‘China Story’ (Series 5 Episode 17) was broadcast in its place.
‘The Pevensey Bay Disaster’ was eventually broadcast at the end of the sixth series, on 3 April 1956 – although listeners had already heard the script performed in a separate recording as ‘The Hastings Flyer – Robbed’ on 27 December 1955.