Cirrus@Austlit

'In the desert of Western Australia where the British slew many Aborigines, there grows a scarlet flower. The Spanish monks who also settled there in the 1850s cherished both the flower and the Aborigines.'

Source:

Radio Times, 31 January 1991, p.83.

Another Roger Mirams production, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin was a spin-off from Mirams's previous series, Secret Valley. In this series, Professor Poopsnagle, grandfather of one of the Secret Valley children, is kidnapped while working on a means of stopping air pollution. The children, in an effort to save him, complete his half-built steam zeppelin (a combination of an old bus and a hot-air balloon) and set off in pursuit of six golden salamanders: each salamander contains the name of a mineral, and the six minerals combined will complete the professor's formula.

The children are aided by the professor's friend, Doctor García, and opposed by the sinister Count Sator, a retired local land magnate. In the figure of the latter and in the concern with environmental destruction, Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin (like Secret Valley) echoes the concerns of other children's programs such as Falcon Island and series one of The Henderson Kids.

The program also touches on the iconography of the then nascent genre of steampunk: though the program does not borrow the British Victorian or American Wild West settings associated with steampunk, the zeppelin itself is a distinctly steampunk device. Moran notes, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, that 'The effect of the flying bus was achieved through a combination of front projection photography, a double set of models, and front shots and interiors of a real bus hoisted on a crane'.

The program was successful on Australian television, and also aired in Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, France, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom (where, unlike Secret Valley, it was immensely popular).

Akin to other Australian television programs such as Falcon Island (1981) and The Henderson Kids (1985), Secret Valley revolved in part around the attempts of a group of children to protect a ghost town and its valley from the depredations of developers. In this instance, the children form the land into a weekend holiday camp, at which they both work and play; in this sense, Secret Valley is, as Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, something of a successor to Roger Mirams's first Australian production, The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten. Another group of children, led by Spider McGlurk, also live in Secret Valley (in Spider Cave), leading to a number of confrontations.

Secret Valley began as a made-for-television film, and was expanded into a twenty-four-episode series.

Moran notes that the program 'wore its Australianness well, even down to having the Secret Valley soundtrack lyrics imposed on "Waltzing Matilda".' Despite being (in part) a Grundy production, the program first aired on the ABC in Australia, and was sold into Spain, the United Kingdom (where it was a commercial failure when it aired on ITV), and the Netherlands.

Stewart also wrote a radio play called The Hot and Copper Sky, but it seems to have had no similarities with this work; it was a drama about bushranger Ben Hall.

'The sentence for stealing privily from the person is execution, to be carried out on a day following the first Sunday following conviction. However, the court has a certain discretion. News has recently reached this country that there is a shortage of able-bodied women in the penal colony of New South Wales. In consequence, Alice Venning – I sentence you to 15 years' transportation.'

Source:

Radio Times, 12 May 1977, p.37.

A BBC television adaptation of Ruth Park's novel.

'Ben Hall, the notorious bushranger, is on the run, together with his mates Jack Gilbert and the Irishman, Dunn. When fate, or outlaw's luck, leads the trio out of the desert into the little New South Wales town of Canowindra, Ben Hall decides it is time to make startling changes in his way of life. This involves the local elder, Grace, a pioneer farmer with a social conscience.'

Source:

Radio Times, 31 May 1962, p.24.

'An aircraft in transit from Darwin to Brisbane has gone wildly off course and made a forced landing in the desert. When it is found all the passengers and crew have died except one-the captain.'

Source:

Radio Times, 20 October 1960, p.28.

A murder mystery set in Cobar, New South Wales, in the mid-nineteenth century.

It aired first in the UK as part of anthology series ITV Play of the Week, then in the US as part of anthology series The United States Steel Hour, then in Australia as part of anthology series General Motors Hour.

A contemporary review offers the following detailed synopsis:

'The story starts when one of the young men of the town of Cobar, western New South Wales, is found battered to death. A man called Jem was lying in a drunken stupor beside the body and the murder weapon, an iron bar, is found near the scene of the crime.

'Jem is immediately accused of the crime, but floods prevent his being sent to an established court for trial.

'Coldringer, an old German opal prospector, suggests to the townsfolk that they set up their own court and have the trial in the town.

'The locals agree that the best way of ensuring that Jem is given a fair trial is to make Rigger, the father of the murdered man, defend Jem, and let the prosecution be handed by Kirk, who was Jem's employer.

'Neither Rigger nor Kirk is happy with the townsfolks' decision, but they eventually agree to accept the court arrangements.'

Source: 'Murder Trial in a Bush Town', The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1960, p.7

'A play by Bruce Stewart based on the legend of Mrs. Fraser a story they tell in Queensland'.

Source:

Radio Times, 17 January 1958, p.54.

The second of two BBC radio adaptations of Fergus Hume's novel.

For episode titles, broadcast dates, and synopses, see Notes.

'TONY CARROLL accidentally shoots himself while cleaning a gun. From then on he becomes the "corpus delicti," the one unconsidered thread in the great tangle of death investigation. But Tony, being a different young man, decides he will have a voice in the matter, and makes clear his attitude to everyone connected—his wife, Ruth; a friend of the family, Alex.; his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lee; his secretary, Jenny; and the inquiring policeman, Sergeant Blain. How everything works out tor the best, under the benevolent eye of "the corpse" gives this story its novel twist.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 7 July 1951, p.13.