"The Laughing Policeman" by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - BBC Radio - Martin Beck Mystery Episode 4

Classic Old Time Radio, Vintage radio shows, the Golden Age of radio, murder, mystery, drama, comedy, sci-fi, westerns. The BBC Radio adaptation of The Laughing Policeman is the fourth installment in the Martin Beck mystery series, written by the Swedish duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The story begins on a cold, rainy night in Stockholm. As the police are occupied with an anti-Vietnam War protest, a gunman boards a bus and kills all nine people inside. The victims appear to be random, but when Detective Superintendent Martin Beck and his team begin their investigation, they discover that one of the dead is a young detective, Åke Stenström. The investigation shifts to finding a motive for Stenström's murder. Beck and his trusted colleague, Lennart Kollberg, realize that the mass shooting was likely a cover-up for Stenström's killing. They meticulously retrace Stenström's final days, uncovering that he was secretly and unofficially investigating a cold case: the murder of a Portuguese prostitute from sixteen years earlier. To find the bus killer, Beck and his team must first solve the very cold case that Stenström was pursuing. The synopsis highlights the painstaking, methodical nature of police work and offers social commentary on Swedish society in the late 1960s. The title of the story is an ironic reference to a British song and to Beck's own gloomy, unsmiling nature, which makes his final, rare moment of laughter at the end of the novel all the more significant.