Radio choice, by Ben Dowell
The Incident at Ong’s Hat
Radio 4, 2.15pm
Ong’s Hat is one of the earliest internet-based conspiracy theories conceived on some of the first online bulletin boards (remember them?) as a deliberate experiment in which the story — about the activities of a group of professors in Ong’s Hat in New Jersey — might take on a life of its own. In this intriguing five-part drama by Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto, yoga instructor Sarah Larsen (Avital Ash) and her friend Charlie Brill (Corey Brill) have gone in search of Ong’s Hat, believing it to be a fabled gateway to another dimension. In true Blair Witch Project style, the suggestion soon develops that this may not be an urban legend after all . . .