Cirrus@Austlit

A series of radio serials starring the adventurous husband-and-wife team of Jeffrey and Elizabeth Blackburn. Jeffrey Blackburn (and another recurring character in these serials, Chief Inspector William Read) had already appeared in three of Afford's novels: Blood on His Hands!, Death's Mannikins, and The Dead Are Blind.

On the differences between the novels and the radio plays, Afford noted:

In the novels, Jeffery enjoyed single blessedness. His closest companion was Inspector Read. But when I wrote my first radio serial, 'Fly By Night', it was necessary to inject a love interest. And so Elizabeth was created. At the end of the serial, I married Jeffery quite happily to Elizabeth, believing that the man would be far too bowed down with his domestic cares to worry any further about criminology. Then I was commissioned to write a second Blackburn serial, so Elizabeth just had to tag along with Jeffery. ('Radio and the Printed Page', Kilmore Free Press, 30 September 1943, p.4).

At least six serials were broadcast. The University of Queensland also holds a manuscript copy of a seventh, The Golden Scorpion, which is included in this list. However, no production details can be found for this serial. It may have been produced under a different title: since Sax Rohmer also published a work called The Golden Scorpion, which was produced for Australian radio during the period in which Afford was active, this is a strong possibility. Alternatively, it may never have been produced: various newspaper articles describing Double Demon as the fifth Blackburn serial and Murder's Not for Middle Age as the sixth suggest that this might be the case.

The series also included some standalone radio plays.