Cirrus@Austlit

'It is the story of a younger son 100 years ago— a young man who in England, fell in love with the vision of a young girl holding daffodils in her arms; and how he followed her to convict Tasmania and there went through "a starlit valley" to self-fulfilment.'

Source:

'Highlights of the A.B.C. Programme', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 1 June 1940, p.5.

'The play is a psychological study of a repressed office clerk who suddenly and without warning takes power into his hands in a way that not he, his wife, his boss, or his colleagues could have dreamed possible.'

Source:

'What Tutson Does Is Never to the Point', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 8 June 1940, p.4.

'A large two-engined passenger plane waits in the blazing mid-day sun of a Bolivian aerodrome. It is about to take off over its dangerous course and its engines are ticking over. In the cabin is an English explorer with a clipped moustache. Almost as the plane begins to move, the Englishman is joined by a distraught Australian, who seems anxious both to catch the plane and to avoid travelling on it. Has he had a foreboding? Or is he just naturally hysterical?'

Source:

'Highlights of the A.B.C. Programme', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 11 June 1940, p.4.

'In Panama City, in the lounge bar of the Hotel Grand Imperial, a despondent middle-aged Australian sits and drinks — and drinks and sits, amid the hubbub. He has the appearance of a man who, though normally eupeptic, hearty and reasonably happy, is now in a situation of great difficulty. For his story, as it is unfolded to a friendly American, we have to go back to Melbourne, where this man, Bedlam, and his young wife, Elizabeth, live and are visited by a doctor, Vennom, in love with Elizabeth.'

Source:

'Highlights of the A.B.C. Programme', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 18 June 1940, p.3.

'On the verandah of a house on Aitutaki, an island of the Cook Group in the South Pacific Ocean, sits Fisher-Simpson, an Englishman of 60, who has lived 40 years in these parts. It is a starlit night and the tradewind blows gently through the fronds of the palm-trees. By Fisher-Simpson's side sits Rupiala-Hine, his Polynesian wife, 50, gentle, and refined. By what romantic, strange and adventurous paths these two came together, and how they resisted all efforts and temptations to part them, it is this play's business to tell.'

Source:

'Highlights of the A.B.C. Programme', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 25 June 1940, p.4.

A radio play based on the life of William T.G. Morton, an American physician responsible for the first public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic on 16 October 1846. Morton subsequently attempted to patent ether, and spent much of his life trying to establish himself as its discoverer.

Contemporary newspapers indicate that Dunn took a romantic approach to the story:

By the city of Boston, Massachussets, in the cemetery of Mt. Auburn, there is a monument of white marble inscribed to William Thomas Morton, 'Inventor and Revealer of Anaesthetic Inhalation, by whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled; before whom in all time surgery was agony; since whom science has control of Pain.' 'Dishonour Be My Destiny' gives the story of the man who achieved one of the greatest victories the long history of medicine has known, but whose victory was changed to crushing defeat by the selfishness and ingratitude of man.

Source:

'Dishonour Be My Destiny', Northern Champion, 16 November 1940, p.2.

'A radio play by Frank Morgan, based on many versions, both official and unofficial, of the conflict between Ross and Alexandre Hare, for sovereignty of the islands where John Ross the fifth now resigns as hereditary governor. Hare was a governor of Borneo, who had to give up his position when the Dutch bought the island from Britain. Having any amount of money, he set himself, up on the Cocos-Keeling group of islands, with a harem of eighty-four dancing girls, and slaves and orchestra. Ross was appointed his trading partner, but Ross, being a monogamous, God-fearing Scot, soon quarrelled, and lived with his wife on an adjacent island. A curious situation arose, Ross performing the marriage ceremony for members of Hare's harem who escaped with sailors and swam across to Ross's island. It is a diverting tale of a little-known phase of history.'

Source:

'A.B.C. Competition Play No. 7', Kilmore Free Press, 4 July 1940, p.1.

Described as 'a dramatic incident from the earliest white history of New South Wales.' (See Riverine Herald below.)

Based on the life of the poet and painter Wainewright transported to Australia for forgery in 1837.

'The story deals with a Queensland family living in a Brisbane suburb. The action extends over a generation and tells of a domestic crisis due to the return of the mother's childhood lover, now a writer, and one of the daughters, now a successful ballerina.'

Source:

'Radio Notes', Manilla Express, 19 July 1940, p.1.

Funerals for Field-mice ' is set in the milking yards and the kitchen of Jim Cairncross's dairy farm in the Cambroola district during an auction sale of the farm.'

Source:

'Radio Notes', Manilla Express, 26 July 1940, p.4.

'Can we foretell the sex of a child from the appearance and sex of its brothers or sisters? Mr. Peters says that we can; and this play is devoted to an exposition of the means of doing it, incorporated into an entertaining story. Parents or intending parents should give this play their attention–especially those parents who already have two girls (or two boys) and would like a further addition to the family if only they could be certain it would be a boy (or a girl). Mr. Peters claims to have tested his remarkable discovery in thousands of cases and in many lands.'

Source:

'If Only It Had Been a Boy', Kilmore Free Press, 1 August 1940, p.6.

The play 'begins in the office of a Queensland bank. An interview is in progress, between the young manager and a good looking, socially-inclined clerk, who has a confession to make about his use of the bank's money.'

Source:

'Highlights of the ABC', Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 8 August 1940, p.5.

Described as 'A Play of the Spanish Main in Modern Times'.

Source:

'Broadcasting Features from the National Stations', Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser, 2 August 1940, p.12.

This play, which is the second last in the series, tells the story of a phase of Oliver Goldsmith's life–not the famous Goldsmith; but the younger man approaching a critical literary crossroad. One road leads to a life of successful hack journalism, the other to semi-starvation and real writing achievement. It is a hard choice. The play is a study in 18th century Grub-street ways, to be put beside Miss Shepherd's plays of Mary Mitford, Hans Anderson and John Bunyan.'

Source:

'A Citizen of the World', Border Watch, 15 August 1940, p.2.

Described in contemporary newspapers as a 'mystery serial of the Merchant Fleet'.

Source: 'Your Radio', Daily News, 30 August 1940, p.4.