This clip is an excerpt from episode 23 of Mostly Ghostly.

This sparkling 1960s series of three-minute ghost stories is one of the crowning jewels of Australia’s horror radio legacy. Performed singularly by radio legend Moray Powell, Mostly Ghostly was conceived as television was coming into ascendency and radio drama producers sought desperately to compete with Top 40 music programs. The result? Original ghost plays that were short enough to be listened to on the car ride home while still stirring enough to completely enrapture listeners.

Narrator Powell voices the delightful Mr Nightmare, who imparts spine-chilling tales in the first-person while reminding you to take your nerve tonic. Powell spent his teenage years working as a jackaroo in Western Australia before he risked it all to become a radio actor. His gamble paid off: after taking his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force in 1945, he swiftly earned his reputation in Sydney and Melbourne as one of the most gifted voice actors in the country. With its velvety resonance, maniacal laughter, and breathtakingly authentic screams, Powell’s voice still manages to astonish over six decades later. These bite-sized episodes pack a performative punch while deftly touching on a wide breadth of themes: unrequited love, vengeance, jealousy, guilt, world war and the nation’s colonial legacy.