Cirrus@Austlit

'Written by Max Afford in 1942, this is a classic impossible crime novel about a villain dressed as an owl terrorizing a quaint village.'

Source : publisher's blurb

An adaptation of Josephine Tey's novel (published six years earlier) about the disappearance of Betty Kane and her subsequent reappearance, badly beaten and claiming to have been kidnapped by two respectable country women.

'In the new adventure, Jeffery and Elizabeth Blackburn are contentedly retired to a cottage in Kent, raising tulips. Jeffery awakes on the morning of his 45th birthday to find himself and Elizabeth involved in a fantastic crime sequence.'

Source:

'Women's Interests on the Air', Sydney Morning Herald, 13 August 1953, p.7 [Women's Section].

'David Noble, son of a wealthy Australian cane farmer, returns from abroad with his English wife, Vinnie. David has told Vinnie of the comfort and luxury of his father's creeper covered home, set in the wide cane fields, but from the moment Vinnie sets foot there and encounters Ann Berriman, capable, matter-of-fact daughter of the neighbouring farm, she realises the bitter, latent antagonism which permeates the old house.

'David's father deliberately contrives a situation which tests the young people's endurance to the utmost; how they face up to it forms the basis for a drama of conflict between human frailty and the relentless natural forces of the land.

'It is a story that excellently catches the mood and colour of the cane lands.'

Source:

'Saturday Playbill: Out of This Nettle', South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 21 January 1952, p.2 [feature section supplement].

'The lives of three families who migrate from England to Australia are traced in Max Afford's serial, Stranger, Come In... Those represented are the Wingates, a middle-class family living at Tonbridge Wells, Kent; the Bradleys, who keep a "pub" at Lambeth; and a Polish family, the Ruslcas.'

– The Age, August 16, 1951

A story of sudden death and industrial espionage in a mining town.

Silver Ridge began airing immediately after Afford's adaptation of The Franchise Affair, but received considerably poorer reviews.

'Alice Morton, wife of a wealthy Sydney bookmaker, took time off from her "full rich life" of card parties, committees, fashion parades and race meetings to send a food parcel to England. Her conscience salved, she immediately forgot the action. But it was recalled twelve months later when Valerie Hickman, a young woman from London called on Mrs. Morton to thank her for the gift.

'Bill Morton, young and impetuous, was immediately attracted to Valerie. She became introduced to the Morton set–wealthy, irresponsible, selfish. Valerie also met Greg Broderick, a disabled war hero, in whom she confided her fear that the moral decay of the Australian people had placed this country in grave danger.'

Source:

'Lazy in the Sun', South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 10 December 1951, p.3 [supplementary feature section].

Characters

ANNOUNCER

ALICE MORTON

ARTHUR MORTON

GRACE Alice's sister

ANNA the housekeeper

VALERIE HICKMAN

BILL 

GREG

CONSTANCE 

HAL

'The story revolves round a young girl whose early fascination for a foreign ventriloquist leaves her with his doll, £1,000, and an accompanying "dark enchantment".'

Source:

'Australian Play "Needs Overhaul"', News, 28 June 1949, p.15.

Based on Afford's earlier radio play, one of the adventures of Elizabeth and Jeffrey Blackburn.

Clem and Carla are adamant that they will never bring a child into a world ravaged by war—a world where cancer tragically takes people’s lives. They see senseless death all around them. After travelling very far to see Sir Earnest in his Consulting Room, they are dismayed to discover that they do not have an appointment. However, in this mysterious, fantastical place, they will find themselves in the company of a young man and an elderly spinster who will change their lives forever.

A fantasy drama, described in contemporary newspapers as 'Locale midway between life and death; characters, the unborn, the living, and the dead; moral — boosting the birthrate.'

Source:

'Radiopinion: You Can Say What You Like', Sunday Mail, 13 June 1948, p.6.

Characters

CARLA

CLEM

NURSE

MISS EDWARDS

SIR EARNEST

DOCTOR

DAVID