A group of escapees on a prison world aptly named Hell determine to make a home in the only livable valley on the planet.
A straightforward prison-escape story with an ironic twist that I didn't see coming at all. The incidental background music plays counterpoint to the dialog, creating the image of a truly hellish landscape.
*Note that Cogswell Thomas was a pen name for the collaboration of Theodore Cogswell and Theodore L. Thomas. Both men were award-nominated in their own right.
Mind Webs was a 1970's series out of WHA Radio in Wisconsin that featured weekly short stories of science fiction by some of the genre's best writers. The music, sound cues and occasional character voices along with the performance of Michael Hansen, the reader, resulted in better than most fully dramatized productions of the period. Around 150 shows were aired between 1976 and 1984 varying in length, but most were about 30 minutes.
Mind Webs: Paradise Regained - Cogswell Thomas - 30:36