More beaut Australian radio serials on CD

The good news keeps coming for fans of classic Australian radio serials, because more titles from the Grace Gibson archives are now available on CD.

I am particularly pleased that the complete series of the 1952 drama Danger in Paradise featuring my old friend Gwen Plumb has been made available. Adapted from the novel by Octavus Roy Cohen, we are transported to Carrington Incorporated, New York’s biggest advertising agency where glamorous girls and fast-talking men are embroiled in mystery, romance and murder. Advertising executive Jimmy Drake (Alan White), top line radio singer Iris Randall (Margaret Christensen) and FBI agent Dan Crowley (John Saul) appear to be unlikely bedfellows on the surface but they are inextricably linked by love, an intriguing box of Havana cigars, robbery, a shady foreign agent, and a homicide or two.

Gwen Plumb who appears in this serial will be best remembered by British television viewers as kiosk lady Ada Simmonds in The Young Doctors, and as Mum Foote in Richmond Hill, but she also enjoyed an extensive radio career as a producer, presenter and actress. She had leading roles in radio serials such as The Lawsons, Blue Hills, Mary Livingstone MD, and Grace Gibson’s production The Guiding Light. She was a regular on both the Lux and Macquarie Radio Theatres, winning the 1951 Macquarie Award for Best Comedy Performance following her outstanding portrayal of Judy Holliday in Adam’s Rib. Gwen hosted her own radio show for decades on 2GB, and whilst in England she had the honour of covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II for the network, despite assurances from the management of the station that the recording would be safely stored in their archives, she was mortified to learn later that this important piece of history was disposed of by a hapless employee. Gwen would have been delighted that Danger in Paradise is now available on CD; others in the cast include Georgie Sterling, Babs Mayhew, Barry Cookson and future Hollywood movie star Rod Taylor.

Next up we have Not to be Taken which follows the exploits of a woman who was poison to men. We meet Rhonda Martin (Coralie Neville), the most fascinating villainess ever to charm a man into committing murder! She is a lady who wants money, lots of it, and she wants everything that money can buy. She soon realises that the quickest and easiest way to get what she desires is by pursuing married men who will hand it to her on a platter. These men will need to learn that she doesn’t give a tuppenny damn about them, she is only interested in what they possess, and she has no intention of sticking around once she has obtained all that they have to give. She keeps three decent men dangling on a string, manipulating them into committing abhorrent acts which are totally out of character. This intriguing serial also stars Leonard Teale, Alistair Duncan and John Unicomb.

Leonard Teale will be fondly remembered by television viewers for his leading roles in Homicide and Class of ’74, but on radio he had enjoyed an equally successful career. He played the title role in the Australian radio version of Superman, and also topped the bill in the comedy-adventure western series Twilight Ranger. His other radio credits included roles in The Guiding Light, Portia Faces Life, We Love and Learn, and Hagen’s Circus.

Reach for Tomorrow captivated listeners when it hit the airwaves in 1967. This is the complicated story of three sisters for whom sibling jealousy and rivalry is never far from the surface. The eldest is Karen; she has married well and appears to have it all. Rita, the middle sister, has a brilliant husband but rather than waking up to what she has got, she constantly demands that her man buys her everything that Karen has. And Rita had better wake up quick smart because Betty, the baby of the family, despises Karen’s attitude to her husband and longs for the type of man that Rita has hooked! There is plenty of backstabbing and intrigue as the women attempt to outdo each other and compete over the men in their lives.

Green Dolphin Country is an epic saga, adapted from the best-selling novel by Elizabeth Goudge, and is directed by Walter Pym who will be remembered by television viewers for playing Sid Merrymore in The Box. We meet William Ozanne, the son of a doctor, who grows up in the Channel Islands. Two sisters live next door and they both fall in love with him. Marianne is clever and shrewd but plain in appearance. Marguerite is beautiful, and she is the sister that he loves and has worshipped from afar. As the years pass William joins the British Navy, but after being way-laid in the Orient and missing his ship, he is considered a deserter and therefore can never return home. He makes a life for himself in colonial New Zealand, and whilst drunk one night he decides to write to his beloved Marguerite asking her to join him as his wife.

Unfortunately in his drunken stupor he addresses the letter to the wrong sister, and when Marianne receives the communication she is overjoyed, she heads to New Zealand immediately. When she arrives William is numb with shock, he is appalled at his ghastly mistake as this girl means absolutely nothing to him. Yet she has travelled thousands of miles across perilous water to be with him, and he has no choice but to go through with the promised nuptials. This is an ominous beginning to a new marriage in a pioneering new land. There are plenty of twists and turns in this engrossing tale which stars Kerry Francis, John Unicomb, Amber Mae Cecil and Wynne Nelson.

Incidentally the radio adaptation of the story came from the pen of Eric Scott who was forced to dictate the final episodes after suffering a coronary. Eric enjoyed an impressive career writing and producing the long running radio ‘soap opera’ Martin’s Corner for twelve years and to top that off he also played the role of Philip (the father of the core family) in the serial. Whilst visiting Great Britain shortly after completing Green Dolphin Country the BBC offered him the chance to write some episodes of Dr Finlay’s Casebook but regrettably his poor health prevented him from doing so.

Escape Me Never was a smash hit for Grace Gibson when it hit the airwaves in 1950. Adapted from Margaret Kennedy’s world famous novel The Fool of the Family, we are transported back to the halcyon days before the First World War. The drama opens in gay carefree Venice before moving to a London filled with a fury that none could escape. We meet Fenella MacLean (Coral Lansbury), the daughter of a titled English family, who falls in love with a struggling musician named Caryl Sanger (played by Michael Pate of Matlock Police fame). Although Caryl comes from a dynasty of famous musicians he has yet to make his own mark on the world and won’t marry the love of his life until he has the financial means to do so.

Fenella’s parents wrongly believe that Caryl has fathered a child out of wedlock with another girl called Gemma (Marion Johns), and whisk their daughter back to London where a love triangle will develop when our heroine falls for the charms of Caryl’s brother Sebastian (Alan White). This beautiful story also stars Rita Ponsford, Alfred Bristow and trivia buffs might like to know that leading lady Coral Lansbury was the mother of Malcolm Turnbull, the current Prime Minister of Australia.

Marion Johns who plays Gemma had stepped away from the microphone to raise her two young children but was tempted out of retirement for this role which proved to be too hard to resist. Marion had been a huge fan of the book and of the movie version which had been produced in 1935 by the British & Dominions Film Corporation. She would go on to enjoy further success on television in The Story of Peter Grey, The Group and Number 96.

If you’d like to hear some rare Grace Gibson productions from the 1940s and 1950s you’ll love the Grace Gibson Radio Classics box set which features a number of titles not available anywhere else. You’ll hear an episode of the Australian version of Dragnet which was adapted from the original American scripts. We follow Sergeant Joe Friday (Frank Waters) and his off-sider Ben Romero (Joe McCormick) as they tackle actual police cases step by step.

There’ll Always Be a Robin stars Dinah Shearing, John Tate, and Neva Carr-Glyn who spent six years treading the boards of assorted British theatres during the 1930s. The plot focuses on a young boys faith which not only helps to restore his sight but which years later will reunite his family which has been torn apart by war. In total contrast Silver Wedding, starring John Cazabon and Bebe Scott, introduces us to a man who decides to end his marriage after 25 years. He finally faces up to the fact that the union has been a disaster for 24 of those years and he is determined to free himself of his ball and chain.

Fans of Yes, What? (aka Greenbottle) will be pleased to know that the thirteenth CD volume of this timeless comedy classic has just been released. In this edition the naughty schoolboys in the fourth form of St Percy’s continue to cause mayhem as they fall out over a Sheila, get totally confused in their French class, and as they try to get to grips with the greatest poets of our age. As you can imagine the schoolmasters cane has to work overtime trying to bring these dunces into line.

The Legend of Kathie Warren presents us with an absorbing story of a pioneering family in early colonial Australia. Kathie (Jean Watson) is a 19 year old vicar’s daughter who has bravely sailed from England to Australia alone in order to marry a wealthy squatter. On her arrival in Port Phillip Bay in 1853 she is filled with hope, excitement and trepidation, and is in a daze as she is whisked to the 20,000 acre farm in Western Victoria which belongs to her betrothed. Unfortunately things don’t work out quite as Kathie had imagined. By 1855 aged only 21 she will be dead. Her tombstone will read, ‘Forgiving and Forgiven.’ Why did this young woman, once so full of hope, end up longing to die? All will be revealed as we follow the events which led up to her tragic downfall. The cast of this gripping serial also includes Monty Maizels (who produced and appeared in the long running radio saga Lavender Grove), and Mary Ward (from Prisoner: Cell Block H, Sons & Daughters, and The Young Doctors).

Judith – A Woman of Vengeance is a mighty biblical tale which was adapted from the Old Testament by Coral Lansbury. We are transported to Israel where the Jews are caught between two mighty powers – Egypt in the south and Babylon in the north. As she has grown up Judith has witnessed the barbarities inflicted upon her downtrodden people, they are taxed to the hilt and are treated like animals by their oppressors. Set in one of the most turbulent and violent periods in history, Judith’s story is one of a woman who is determined to seek vengeance, and she will be driven into murdering the man she loves to liberate her people from bondage.

When the serial was first transmitted in 1965 listeners were hooked as they were taken through the fall of Jerusalem, the capture of the Jewish King, and the leading of the Jews into captivity in Babylon. The Jews have chosen to revolt because they have had enough of their lot in life but will Judith have what it takes to defeat their foes? All will be revealed in this epic saga which stars Sheila Sewell, James Condon, Judi Farr, Lou Vernon and Brian James.

If you are one of those super-efficient people who plans way ahead for Christmas then you might like to get your order in for Letters to Santa. Written and voiced by Jim Pike, this is a quirky and funny production which tells of the happy, poignant and disastrous things that can happen when not a creature is stirring. We never usually hear from Santa of course, he’s always too busy sorting out Christmas gifts but he has some wonderful stories to tell, particularly when not every delivery goes entirely smoothly!

All of these classic Australian radio serials and a wealth of others can be ordered by listeners worldwide exclusively from the Grace Gibson Productions website. 

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