Английская Википедия:Blue Hills (radio serial)

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:EngvarB Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Italic title Шаблон:Infobox radio show Blue Hills, created and written by Gwen Meredith, is an Australian radio serial about the lives of families, set in a fictional typical Australian country town called Tanimbla. The title "Blue Hills" itself derives from the residence of Dr. Gordon, the town's doctor.

Blue Hills was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) for 27 years, from 28 February 1949 to 30 September 1976. It ran for a total of 5,795 episodes, and was at one time the world's longest-running radio serials. Each episode lasted 15 minutes. It succeeded another Gwen Meredith serial The Lawsons, with many of the same themes and characters, and which ran for 1,299 episodes.

History: background

The Lawsons was the brainchild of play editor Leslie Rees and Frank Clewlow of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (then Commission), which had been approached by Government in 1943 to publicise the need for farmers to grow more soya beans as part of the war effort. They reasoned that a popular radio programme would be more effective than ordinary propaganda, and approached Gwen Meredith to write a radio drama. She was an unlikely choice as she lived in Melbourne and production was to be in Sydney, and she was a city girl with little knowledge of primary production. But she accepted the contract from the ABC's Rural Department and spent some weeks on a sheep station in Gunnedah to gather background. The show went to air on 21 February 1944 and slowly achieved a loyal country audience.

The story revolved around the farmer John Lawson (Vivian Edwards), his wife Ellen (Ailsa Grahame), and their 19-year-old daughter Sue, played by Jane Holland. The original remit was extended to enable modern farming methods and seasonal information to be passed on to farmers, as well as the usual fare of soap operas. As the war ended, Grahame and Holland left for England, and were replaced by Ethel Lang and Joan Lord. Under producer Charles Wheeler, who insisted of actors that they use a natural conversation style rather than stage voices, the show lasted five years before it was terminated, at Meredith's request, to make way for a similar program of greater scope.

The last episode of The Lawsons was aired on 25 February 1949, a Friday, and Blue Hills commenced the following Monday, 28 February 1949.

Production and broadcast

Blue Hills was broadcast from the ABC's capital city stations 2FC, 3AR, 4QG, 5CL, 7ZL and their regional networks at 1 pm AET and repeated, for city listeners, at 6:45 pm, Monday to Friday, though the Friday episode was dropped in 1954. Due to limitations imposed by the telecommunications of the time (and no doubt also the two-hour time difference), it was initially broadcast only in the Eastern States and South Australia. 5DR Darwin (later 8DR) began broadcasting the program in September 1952, and 6WF Perth and Western Australian regional stations began in January 1955, using transcription discs and, later, magnetic tape sourced from Sydney. The duration of each episode was 15 minutes apart from the finale, which needed 30 minutes to round up each character.Шаблон:Cite news The first words spoken in the first episode were by Queenie Ashton as Mrs Gordon, and as Granny Bishop the last words ("good bye") in the final episode some 27 years later.

List of actors

Among the many Sydney actors, perhaps hundreds, who played in Blue Hills were:

Name	Role	From	To	Notes/Ref
Alexander Archdale	Richard Darbyshire
Queenie Ashton	Lee Gordon (married to Dr Gordon)	1949
Queenie Ashton	Rose Bishop (married to Ed)		1964
Queenie Ashton	Grannie Bishop (mother of Ed and Meg)		1976
Philippa Baker	a Scottish nurse			Шаблон:Citation needed
John Barnes
Ray Barrett
Lola Brooks	Fanny
Lola Brooks	Judy Macarthur
Barbara Brunton	Sally Howard		1952
Keith Buckley	Nick Macarthur (son of Jim)
Alma Butterfield	Mrs Jenkins	1950
Neva Carr Glynn
Amber-Mae Cecil	Jackie Macarthur			replaced Myrna Dodd
Amber-Mae Cecil	Emmie Lawson (married Ted in 1951)			replaced Sheila Sewell
Rupert Chance	Ted Lawson (married Emmie in 1951)
Peg Christensen	Emmie Lawson
Marie Clarke	Mary Howard (love affair with Peter Macarthur)
Reg Collins	Joe Walters			the original Joe Walters
Reg Collins	Ned Walters (Joe's brother)
Ruth Cracknell	Ruth Lawson
Patti Crocker	Mandy Gordon (younger daughter of Dr Gordon, married Dr Frobisher)	1949	1952Шаблон:Efn
Patti Crocker	Meg Macarthur
Patti Crocker	Anne (Meg's daughter)		1976
Marshall Crosby	Josh Roberts
Therese Desmond	Amelia
Ed Devereaux
Myrna Dodd	Jackie Macarthur
Maiva Drummond	Jean Lawson
Maiva Drummond	Rose Bishop (married to Ed)	1964	1976
Tom Farley	Jim Macarthur (married to Meg)
Winifred Green	Martha Walters
Gordon Grimsdale	Dr Neil Gordon	Dec. 1949
Anne Haddy	Elizabeth Ross-Ingham
Marcia Hathaway	hospital nurse
Madelaine Howell
Nellie Lamport	Hilda (the Lawsons' cook, aunt of Emmie) married Joe Walters late in life	1949
Ethel LangШаблон:Efn	Dr Gordon's charlady	1949
Ethel Lang	Meg Macarthur (married to Jim Macarthur)		1976
Hal Lashwood	Chris Lawson
Camilla Lay	Maisie Jenkins	1949
Nigel Lovell	a Polish airman
Paul Maclay
Charles McCallum	Ed Bishop (son of Granny, married to Rose)
John McCallum
Robert McDarra
John Meillon
Coralie NevilleШаблон:Efn	Trixie Gordon (daughter of Dr Gordon)	1949
Ida Newton	Auntie Gertie	1949
John Norman	Jerry Walters
John Nugent-Hayward	Dr Neil Gordon	March 1949	Шаблон:Efn
Max Osbiston	Dr Frobisher (married Mandy Gordon)		1976
Pat Pearson	Judy Macarthur
Gwen Plumb	Emmie Lawson (niece of Hilda; married Ted in 1951)		1953
Madge Ryan
June Salter	Sally Howard	1952
Thelma Scott	Aunt Laura
Sheila Sewell	Emmie Lawson (married Ted Lawson in 1951)	1953
Georgie Sterling	Claire Throsby (love affair with Anderson Roberts)
Nancye Stewart	Mabel Ross
Rod Taylor	Anderson Roberts (love affair with Sally Howard)
Ngaire Thompson	Jenny Roberts
Morris Unicomb	Bruce Gordon (son of Dr Gordon)
Lou Vernon	Col. Ross-Ingham

Producers included:

• Frank Harvey
• Robert Montgomery
• Eric John, to whom Gwen Meredith credited much of the show's success.

Signature tune

The famous opening signature tune was taken from a short orchestral piece called Pastorale by the British composer Ronald Hanmer. Until Hanmer moved to Australia in 1975, he had no idea that his work had been used by the ABC and had become so famous in Australia (although few Australians could have identified its composer). He later re-worked this short piece into a longer orchestral work titled Blue Hills Rhapsody, which he recorded with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The recording first used was played by the New Century Orchestra.

Books

Файл:Blue Hills dustjacket.jpg

Book cover, First edition 1950

Several books based on the show were written by Gwen Meredith:

• The Lawsons (1948)
• Blue Hills, Angus and Robertson (1950)
• Beyond Blue Hills (1953)
• Into the Sun (1961)

In preparing the radio serial Blue Hills for publication I have not been set such a formidable task as faced me with The Lawsons, since up to the present date Blue Hills has been presented by the Australian Broadcasting Commission for little more than a year. This means a mere half million words to contend with! But since the publisher sets a defensive maximum of eighty thousand words, intending readers should be warned—and perhaps heartened by the warning—that in that editing, a great deal has perforce been discarded. However, I think the main elements and characters have survived the massacre and the book brings the story to the point reached on air at the time of writing. GWEN MEREDITH. (Author's note, Blue Hills (1950))

See also

• The Archers – the present 'world's longest running radio soap opera' (it has broadcast over 19,200 episodes up to 2019).

External links

• Listen to the theme from Blue Hills on australianscreen online
• The theme from Blue Hills was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2008.
• Visit the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Women in Early Radio collection for more information about the history of women in radio in Australia, including Queenie Ashton, Ethel Lang, Amber Mae Cecil and Grace Gibson.