Episode 22 – Two Doctors

A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast

This episode Mike & Will put on their thinking caps and puzzle their way through ‘Two Doctors‘ by M.R. James.

Thanks to Kirsty for the excellent readings, and to Alisdair Wood for the great illustration to the left.

Don’t forget to vote on which story you would like to see Stephen Gray and his crew film next, ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’ by M.R. James or ‘The Willows’ by Algernon Blackwood.

Show notes

• Story Notes by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Visit the ever-excellent Ghosts & Scholars for a useful set of notes which shed light on some of the more perplexing aspects of this story.
• Gray’s Inn (Wikipedia)
  James says he found the papers which make up this story in a dossier addressed to a lawyer in Grey’s Inn. Also see Gray’s Inn on Monty’s World.
• Coronet and Bird Crest (MyFamilySilver.com)
  The ‘bedsheets’ purchased by Dr Quinn features a bird and coronet, a motif common to a quite a few family crests from this period.
• St. Anthony meeting the Satyr (Gallery.ca)
  The rector makes reference to ‘Anthony conversing with a satyr’ as featured in the book of Jerome. This is a 1640 engraving of this scene.
• An Elicidation (?) of the Plot of ‘Two Doctors’ by Lance Arney (Amazon.co.uk)
  This essay features in the collection of essays ‘Warnings to the Curious’ and was a great help to us in researching this story.