More outstanding radio drama on CD
Grace Gibson Productions have been creating outstanding Australian radio drama for more than 70 years and they are continuing to make their rich back catalogue available on CD.
Starlight Theatre will transport you back to the glory days of the theatre of the air. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Left: Aileen Britton appeared on British television in 24-Hour Call and Call Oxbridge 2000 for ATV. In Australia she starred in Solo One and can be heard in Starlight Theatre. Right: The Macquarie Award winning actress and music hall star Minnie Love appears in Starlight Theatre, her impressions of famous artistes were legendary.
The amazing diversity of material means that there is something available to suit all tastes.
If you long for the days when radio stations brought the theatre into your lounge room then you’ll be delighted to learn that the first volume of Starlight Theatre is out now featuring fifteen classic radio plays. The series covered a broad range of genres and was produced from scripts written by leading overseas writers which were adapted to suit Australian tastes. We are presented with romance, comedy, suspense, mystery, heartache and tragedy in this beautifully crafted series which was directed by Laurence H. Cecil and John Saul.
I particularly enjoyed a play called Bid for Fame which involves a young actor called Drake Lester (Roger Climpson) who is an overly ambitious nobody obsessed with becoming a star. Only able to secure work as an understudy he will take drastic steps to dispose of the leading actor in order that he can take the part for himself. The all-star cast featured in Starlight Theatre Volume 1 includes John Meillon (from the ATV series The Plane Makers), June Salter, Leonard Teale, Queenie Ashton, Betty Lucas, Wendy Playfair, Brian James, Richard Meikle, Aileen Britton, Dinah Shearing, Margo Lee, Lynne Murphy, Margaret Christensen, Amber Mae Cecil, Lyndall Barbour, Georgie Sterling, Neva Carr Glyn, and British born Minnie Love who became one of the most popular musical comedy stars in Australia. Also appearing are Madge Ryan, Charles Tingwell and Ray Barrett who all went on to appear in Emergency – Ward 10 for ATV here in the UK.
The chickens come home to roost for a horrid woman in A Relative Affair. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Right: The Macquarie Award winning actress Wendy Playfair appears in A Relative Affair. Her television credits include Return to Eden, The Young Doctors and Prisoner: Cell Block H.
A Relative Affair is the story of Carolyn Linton (Wynne Nelson), a beautiful but spoilt and possessive woman. She attracts men like flies to a honeypot and takes great delight in destroying them at will. She despises her cousin Rosemary (Wendy Playfair) with a vengeance, and when Rosemary falls in love with school headmaster John Radcliffe (Alton Harvey), Carolyn takes great delight in stealing him away and marrying him herself.
The problem is that Carolyn does not love John and begins to seek amusement with other men outside of the marriage. When she discovers that she is due to inherit a substantial sum of money she ditches John like a hot potato, but it appears that her past misdemeanours are about to come back to haunt her. The cast also includes Dinah Shearing, Margaret Christensen, and Gordon Poole.
Always in my Heart is a serial about possessive love, with its corrosive and many varied manifestations. It makes for riveting listening as we hear of an infatuation which will engulf and destroy the happiness of four people. Judy Freeman is on the verge of marrying her fiancé Jerry but she has mixed emotions, she’s been looking after her father since the death of her mother and although excited about starting a new chapter in her life, she is reluctant to leave the old boy behind.
Her father Basil considers himself a fairly ordinary chap and can’t believe his luck when he has a second shot at happiness with an old family friend, the beautiful Anne Sherwin. Basil had not counted on his daughter’s reaction, the intensity of her obsession with him or her determination that he should not take up romantically with Anne. Young Judy’s attitude to the situation could not only scupper her father’s chance of happiness, but also her own.
Left: Always in my Heart brings destructive possessive love to the fore. Right: Borrasca involves two men who knowingly court a self-confessed gold digger. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions.
Borrasca, adapted from the best-selling novel by Octavus Roy Cohen, involves a bitter feud between two silver miners, and exposes the greed of the money hungry woman that they both love. Malcolm Douglas and Logan Berkeley are both infatuated with Althea Carmichael. She admits that she loves Malcolm, but that she intends to marry Logan for his wealth. Shortly after the nuptials Logan’s lucrative mine is destroyed by fire and he loses everything. As chance would have it, Malcolm’s old mine, previously thought to be worthless, has come good and he’s hit the jackpot.
Although he’s now taken up with another woman, Malcolm fully intends to steal Althea away from his old rival. The feud escalates to epic proportions with each man threatening to do for the other one, this can only be settled when one of them is dead. The entire 104 episode serial starring Alistair Duncan, Richard Meikle and Lola Brooks is now available.
If you enjoy a good romantic melodrama then you’ll love Dinner at Antoine’s, adapted from the best-selling novel by the American authoress Frances Parkinson Keyes. We meet Orson Foxworth (played by Kevin Brennan from ATV’s serial Crossroads), the daring and unscrupulous president of an American shipping line. Orson has a lucrative side-line in illegal armament shipments and it looks like the law could be about to catch up with him.
To celebrate his return to New Orleans after a long absence he throws a sumptuous dinner in the unique 1840 Room of the renowned Antoine’s Restaurant. As usual Orson has an agenda to fulfil. He wants to introduce his charming niece to the society set, and plans to rekindle his courtship with a beautiful widow. Thirty hours later his plans have gone awry because there has been a murder and all of the dinner guests are suspects. The all-star cast includes Queenie Ashton, Margo Lee, Bruce Stewart, Ruth Cracknell, and Dinah Shearing.
Left: Radio favourite Alistair Duncan had worked with the BBC Drama Repertory Theatre in the UK. His fans can now hear him in Borrasca. Middle: A shipping line magnates dirty dealings are about to catch up with him in Dinner at Antoine’s. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Right: Kevin Brennan stars in Dinner at Antoine’s, he moved to the UK and appeared in countless ATV productions including Crossroads, The Kids from 47A, Coppers End, Virgin of the Secret Service, and Emergency – Ward 10.
Set in the 1920s, The Sinners of Sonoma exposes the corruption and evil that lurks in a tightly knit community. This is a place where men and women are torn apart in a jungle of sophisticated snobbery, they are the gentle savages. In this part of the world tradition and family values are paramount, and when two women clash bitterly over this tradition, they threaten to bring the world crashing down over the head of the man that they both love.
We are treated to an engrossing tale of love and deception as a hit and run leaves a woman a mangled wreck. We wonder why the heir to the districts greatest fortune begins to show such a keen interest in this crippled invalid, and find that a bride pays a secretive visit to another man on her wedding night! The series stars Lyndall Barbour, Richard Meikle, Amber Mae Cecil, John Norman, Max Meldrum, and we soon find that life in a small conservative town isn’t quite so uptight and boring after all!
Middle and Right: Those who listened to Dinner at Antoine’s on 5AD in Adelaide were offered the chance to win a Hoover vacuum cleaner. Left: Bruce Stewart later wrote for British television hits such as ATV’s The Sullavan Brothers and Mrs Thursday, but listeners of 7HT in Tasmania could hear him in Dinner at Antoine’s.
The Shame of Sefton Ridge is adapted from Hamilton Basso’s provocative novel Pompey’s Head which spent forty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list when it was published. We meet a young law school graduate called Anson Page (Alistair Duncan) who is urged by his father to represent the town drunk in a court case after an unprovoked attack left him permanently handicapped. The problem is that the attacker was one of the towns leading citizens and the consequences will prove fatal for Anson who will lose his job and his fiancé.
Totally disillusioned he leaves town to begin a new life in New York where he manages to re-establish himself as a leading lawyer, and marries a decent woman. Years later a case of embezzlement will take Anson back to the Deep South, long suppressed hang-ups from the past will resurface as he becomes reacquainted with his childhood sweetheart who is now married to a powerful and wealthy man. This is a tale of prejudice and double standards, of a place where there is one rule of law for the rich and another for the poor. The cast includes Anne Haddy (from Neighbours), Wendy Playfair, Richard Meikle, Ron Haddrick, Robert McDarra and John Unicomb.
Left: We become acquainted with the gentle savages in The Sinners of Sonoma. Right: The Shame of Sefton Ridge takes us to a place where the law only protects the rich. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions.
Remember Miranda transports us to the town of Beaumont, a place where it’s very hard to keep a secret from the local gossips. Dr Craig Beaumont (Edward Lansdowne) is handsome, wealthy and dedicated to progressive medicine but not all of his way-out ideas prove popular with his patients. When he begins a campaign against a chemical factory close to the towns’ water supply he makes yet more powerful enemies, and when his spoilt and selfish wife Miranda (Heather Christie) dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances tongues begin to wag. Craig is charged with her murder and the race is on to clear his good name. Other familiar names cropping up in the action include Barbara Joss, Hilda Scurr and Denise Otto.
The 1974 saga The House of Gold is the story of Daniel Gold (Ron Roberts), a man who fled England under a cloud after being accused of a crime he did not commit. He gave up his rightful inheritance, a huge estate and house called Golden Acres, and went in to exile in an explosive new land where great riches are to be found. The problem is that the gold he seeks is located on sacred land, and the natives have threatened to kill anyone who desecrates the soil.
Back in England, Golden Acres is inherited by Daniel’s brother Rufus (Phil Jay) who is a drunkard and a wastrel, but it is Daniel who continues to maintain the estate financially. It will be the next generation, Nicholas (John Keightley) and Bella (Debbie Baile), who will become bitter rivals as they fight each other over ownership of the house, but they must also fight a beautiful and vicious murderess called Silina (Judi Farr) if they want to possess it.
A spoilt and selfish woman is found dead in Remember Miranda. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Right: Barbara Joss plays Penny in Remember Miranda. On television she has appeared in Skippy, Doctor Who, and Harpers West One for ATV. Photo by Doug Moody.
If you fancy a thrilling Cold War counter espionage drama then The Cat Scratches will be right up your street. This serial was written by Phillip Grenville Mann who later wrote for television here in the UK with his credits including Probation Officer (for ATV) and Shadow Squad. The Cat Scratches revolves around a group of foolish men who sneered at the English, believing that the British Lion had become a harmless cat, but they forgot that the cat scratches and hadn’t counted on our hero Alan Farrell. To the outside world Farrell appears to be an assessor for the Town and Country Insurance Company but in reality he works for the government as a secret service security agent. He will soon find himself on the trail of £40,000 and a stash of missing diamonds that friend and foe will fight for until the death.
There is more intrigue and derring-do to be had in The Circle of Fear where we find ourselves embroiled in a nerve-tingling race against time to save the world from nuclear destruction. Peter Cane and two fellow secret service agents risk their lives hunting for the elusive Grey Dove. This warped but brilliant individual threatens to simultaneously explode the world’s atomic stockpiles unless every nation agrees to voluntarily discard its nuclear weapons. As Peter finds himself increasingly trapped in a creeping circle of fear, it becomes evident that the Grey Dove has the knowledge and ability to carry out his threats.
A bitter family feud breaks out in The House of Gold. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Left: Debbie Baile played Viki Rayner in The Young Doctors, and stars as Bella Gold in The House of Gold.
Night Beat, a serial adapted for Australian audiences from the original American scripts, proved to be a huge success and ran for almost ten years. When it launched on 2UW in 1951 the programme swept the Saturday night ratings.
The plot revolves around newspaper columnist Randy Stone (played by Alan White and later by Harp McGuire) who prowled the streets at night in order to get the scoop he needed, he would encounter the grim and the downright odd side of life as he went about his business. Randy was a man with a heart but he also had a tough streak, he needed it given the shady types and wide boys he often encountered. He was part private detective and part good Samaritan, meeting those who were in distress, and those who had perpetrated vile deeds. He would see the lot – murder, armed robbery, escaped convicts, working girls, runaway children, and he came across a particularly nasty case where a kidnapped girl was found dismembered in a sewer. A cavalcade of well-known personalities cropped up in the show during its long run including Charles Tingwell, June Salter, future Hollywood film star Rod Taylor, John Meillon, Lyndall Barbour, and Brenda Senders.
Left: In The Cat Scratches friends and foes are on the trail of a fortune. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Right: Listeners of 7LA in Launceston were hooked on The Cat Scratches.
Harp McGuire fans will be pleased to know that the first volume of the 1955 serial The Clock is also now available. Harp stars as The Clock, the narrator, in this series of self-contained human interest stories which were adapted for Australia from top-line American scripts. There is unrequited love, romance, murder, comedy, and mystery as the sands of time pass and the whole drama of life is played out before us. You’ll hear some fascinating adventures including the tale of a thief who ends up being convicted of murdering himself!
The actors appearing in these episodes include Myrna Dodd (from the radio serial Blue Hills), Leonard Teale, Charles Tingwell, John Meillon, Grant Taylor, Ken Wayne, Gordon Glenwright, Sheila Sewell, June Salter, Lynne Murphy, Dinah Shearing, Fifi Banvard, Georgie Sterling, Frank Waters, Lou Vernon, Wendy Playfair, Coralie Neville, and John Bonney (from the ATV series Probation Officer). You’ll also hear Ken Hannam who went on to become a very successful film and television director, he directed the feature film Sunday Too Far Away, and British television hits including Paul Temple, Angels, Emmerdale Farm and The Bill. Fans of The Clock can also order a mini-book from the Grace Gibson website which features a wealth of original publicity material and episodic synopses from the show.
Left: The game is afoot to prevent a nuclear catastrophe in The Circle of Fear. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Middle: Grace Gibson had a major ratings hit with Night Beat, six CD volumes of the series are now available. Copyright IRS Grace Gibson Productions. Right: Alan White (right) was the original actor to play Randy Stone in Night Beat, when he moved to England the American actor Harp McGuire (left) took over the role.
In the 1977 serial Forever is a Long Time we meet Detective Sergeant Frank Stratton who has enjoyed a distinguished career as an undercover police officer, but now that he’s engaged to be married he is determined to give the game away. Unfortunately he has one last mission to complete, a mission that is supposed to last for three months but which drags on for over a year.
Due to the secretive nature of the operation Frank is not permitted to have contact with anyone from his real life, and when he finally returns home he finds that his fiancé has moved on and has married some other Joe! His life goes from bad to worse when he is drummed out of the force after accidentally killing a suspect. Disgraced and with no job, he is forced to take a position as an insurance investigator and finds himself tangled in a web of violence and intrigue as he delves into a suspicious claim worth millions of dollars.
All of these classic Australian radio serials can be ordered by listeners worldwide exclusively from the Grace Gibson Productions website. http://gracegibsonradio.com/
