Escape's "A Source of Irritation" was adapted from a story by Stacy Aumonier, which was first published in the January 1918 issue of Century Magazine and later published in The World's One Hundred Best Short Stories, 1927. It is currently available online as a Gaslight e-text. The original story is a WWI tale, but Escape changed the setting to WWII.
As the episode opens, Sam Gates is working on his farm tending his turnips and beets when he is irritated by the daily arrival of his niece, Aggie. She asks him if there is any "noos." Of course, there never is, but she asks him for "noos" twice a day--everyday. Sam has little interest in anything outside the limits of the farm.
After she leaves, Sam is further annoyed by a Nazi airplane that suddenly appears and makes an emergency landing in his field of turnips. When he yells at the pilot to leave, the man seems to recognize Sam. He then forces him into his airplane and takes off into the sky.
Then, Sam finds himself in Germany, where the Nazi officers are amazed by his resemblance to a notorious spy named Paul Jaubert. They devise a plan to let the British find Sam's dead body in the battlefield, where they will surely think he is Jaubert! Meanwhile, the real spy will be able to continue his operations.
Will their plan work?
"A Source of Irritation" was adapted for radio by television writer Meyer Dolinsky and produced/directed by Antony Ellis. Ben Wright starred as Sam Gates. Featured in the cast were Hy Averback, Paul Frees, Jack Kruschen, Charlie Lung, Betty Harford, John Dodsworth, Alec Harford, Richard Peel, and Ramsay Hill. This episode aired on July 5, 1953.
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Map showing the location of the village of Haversham in the county of Buckinghamshire, the area where this story takes place, is from Wikipedia.
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