Cirrus@Austlit

Archie Andrews, ventriloquist's dummy, and his 'mentor', Peter Brough, had been behind BBC radio series Educating Archie since 1950. In 1957, they made a visit to Australia, including live performances at the Tivoli, and the ABC radio serial Archie in Australia.

British sources describe Archie in Australia as a single work, and it does appear to have been broadcast in the UK as a single radio play, broadcast first on the Light Programme on 18 September 1957 at 7:30pm (Radio Times, 13 September 1957, p.45) and then repeated, again on the Light Programme, on 22 September 1957, at 2:30pm (Radio Times, 20 September 1957, p.29). There is no indication in either The Times or the Radio Times that the program ever ran as a series in the UK.

Australian newspapers, on the other hand, clearly identify the program as a series. The Australian Women's Weekly, for example, describes the program as 'the A.B.C. series "Archie in Australia"', and the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

The A.B.C. so far plans to use ventriloquist Peter Brough and his doll, Archie, on radio only, beginning its "Archie in Australia sessions early in May. Harmonica-player Robert [Ronald] Chesney and script-writer Ronald Wolfe are accompanying the pair to Australia. They plan to use a cast of Australians in this series, which may be sent back to Britain for transmission over the B.B.C.

Radio listings show that Archie in Australia was broadcast at 7:15am every Tuesday morning between 28 May 1957 and 10 September 1957.

See:

'Just a Living Doll', Australian Women's Weekly, 5 June 1957, p.29.

'Television News', Sydney Morning Herald, 27 May 1957, p.5.