This performance of T.S. Eliot's works is of exceptional quality. It is a mono recording and the tapes are over 30 years old, but the beauty with which Sir Alec Guinness brings these poems to life is sublime. The first 60 sec of side 1 does sound somewhat extended, as if it had been stretched at some time, but this rapidly fades and the rest of the tapes, 119 mins, play perfectly.
The first message sent to Tom Thorne's phone was just a picture - the blurred image of a man's face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives.