Following the popularity and critical acclaim of their 1937 radio series As Ye Sow, Edmund Barclay and producer Laurence H. Cecil embarked on another ambitious historical project, Into the Light, 'a serial romance of the middle ages.'
'The serial begins in England in the year 1500 when the country still cowered exhausted from the brutal wars of the Roses, which, with the earlier plague of the Black Death, had spread a shroud of misery and fear over the land. Meanwhile the world around her was passing through changes more momentous than anything it had witnessed since the victory of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire...' ('New Barclay Serial,' p. 9).
The first episode in the weekly series went to air on Monday 7 February 1938.
Known episode titles are:
Brother of Mankind
Sydney
:
1938
9927757
1938
single work
radio play
historical fiction
'The story treats of Peter Lacklove's pilgrim search for a talisman at whose touch men become, as gods. The period of the serial is the end of the Middle Ages and historical characters who enter into this particular, episode Include Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, La Giaconda and Cesare Borgia' (Leslie Rees. 'We Shall Have Drama', p. 6).
The Huon and Derwent Times (Tasmania) provides additional insight into the play:
Lacklove, whose hopes for the formation of an Italian Utopia appeared almost to have been granted at one stage, receives a sudden check in his negotiations with My Lord Sesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna, who has been endeavoung to absorb the Republican city of Florence. Because of the machinations of a vindictive woman, Peter's ideals are crushed but, undaunted, he journeys to Venice in furtherance of his quest for the fabled philosopher's stone' ('National Broadcast Features: A True Pilgrim,' p. 2).
'The Barclay-Cecil combination after a short spell following "As Ye Sow," are soon to be heard again. Edmund Barclay has written a new serial, entitled Into the Light, which will be produced by Lawrence H. Cecil on national relay... ('New Barclay Serial,' 9).
'The Barclay-Cecil combination after a short spell following "As Ye Sow," are soon to be heard again. Edmund Barclay has written a new serial, entitled Into the Light, which will be produced by Lawrence H. Cecil on national relay... ('New Barclay Serial,' 9).
