'The Great Escape' and 'Reach For The Sky' - Radio

[Dave Homewood]

I have just found these two radio serials made by the same people who made The Dambusters, the fantastic serial that many of us have downloaded and loved listening to, exist in the National Film and Sound Archives of Australia. Here's a listing I found of all their radio holdings from 1930-1970
www.nfsa.gov.au/site_media/uploads/file/2011/12/05/NFSA_Radio_series_collection_amended.pdf

Some of the more interesting holdings include:


THE GREAT ESCAPE
Series: 82094
Summary: The story of the mass escape of R.A.F. officers from the German prison camp at
Sagan. Dramatised from the book by Paul Brickhill.
Contributors: Paul Brickhill (AUT, NRT), Morris West (SCR), Gordon Grimsdale (PDR).
Cast: Guy Doleman, Kevin Brennan, Bruce Stewart, David Eadie, Harp McGuire, Rod Taylor.
Label: ARP, ART
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 26
Broadcast details: 1954- ; Tuesday on 2UE at 9.00pm; Evenings on 3DB.
Notes: Related series: ‘The Dambusters’ and ‘Reach for the Sky’ which are also adaptations
from books by Paul Brickhill. -- ‘All male cast.’
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-26


REACH FOR THE SKY
Series: 226077
Summary: Adventure series following the true story of Wing Commander Douglas Bader the
famous British World War II fighter pilot.
Contributors: Australasian Radio Productions (PDC), John Saul (NRT), Gordon Grimsdale
(DRT), John Winbrill (Special effects), Morris West (SCR), Paul Brickhill (AUT).
Cast: Rod Taylor (Bader), Bruce Stewart (Bader), Dinah Shearing, Richard Davies, June
Salter, Edward Howell, Margo Lee, Allan Trevor, Ray Barrett, Babs Mayhew.
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 52
Broadcast details: 1950s-1960s.
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-52

NO HIGHWAY
Series: 239349
Summary: Radio suspense drama about when Theodore Honey, a ‘boffin’ with the Research
Structural Department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, England, develops
a theory that the latest British airliner, the ‘Reindeer’, will crack up due to metal stress, after
running approximately 1,400 hours.
Contributors: Nevil Shute (AUT), Richard Lane (SCR), Roly Barlee (PDR).
Cast: Brian James (Theodore Honey), Terri Aldred (Marjorie Corder), Mary Ward (Monica
Teasdale), Frederick Parslow (Dennis Scott), Douglas Kelly (Capt. Samuelson), Kenrick
Hudson (Director of Farnborough Aircraft), Joan Harris (Shirley Scott).
Label: ART
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 52

THE AIR ADVENTURES OF BIGGLES
Series: 81248
Summary: Radio series based on the books by Captain W.E. Johns about the world famous
figure in aviation fiction, Squadron Leader James Bigglesworth.
Contributors: W.E. Johns (AUT), Michael Noonan (SCR), Brian Wright (SCR), Harry Howlett
(SCR), J. Colin Craigen (PDR), Amalgamated Wireless (Aust.) (PDC).
Cast: Rex Waldron (Biggles), James Mills (Biggles), Moray Powell (Biggles), Walter Sullivan
(Bertie), Diana Perryman (Pat Kendall), Max Osbiston (Algy), Leonard Bullen (Ginger).
Label: AWA
Broadcast details: 1949-1954 ; Monday to Thursday on 2GB at 6.15pm.
Notes: Biggles appeared briefly on 2CH in 1945 and on 2KO Newcastle in 1946 with scripts by
Maurice Chapman.
Sub Series: 82180 ‘Arctic Airways’, 211629 ‘Deal with a Pirate’, 212170 ‘Desert Broom’,
212883 ‘The Freedom Party’, 215644 ‘Lost Oasis’, 211619 ‘Treasure of the Incas’, 143560
‘The White Prophets’.
NFSA Holdings: Eps 209-1178
Radio Series Collection Guide15

THE AIR ADVENTURES OF HOP HARRIGAN
Series: 143573
Summary: The story about a former wartime pilot and a couple of his mates who set up a
charter business and hire themselves out for adventures anywhere in the world.
Contributors: Jim Bradley (PDR), Walter Pym (PDR), Nigel Lovell (PDR), Russell Writer
(PDR), Brian Wright (SCR), Michael Noonan (SCR)
Cast: Bruce Stewart (Hop), Stewart Ginn (Hop), John Ewart (Tank Tinker), Marcia Hathaway
(Gail Nolan), Maurice Travers (Excellency).
Label: Artransa
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 1024
Broadcast details: 1954-1958 ; Macquarie Network.
Notes: The series was at first based on American scripts, but later Brian Wright wrote original
scripts for the series.

AIR HOSTESS
Series: 81123
Summary: Radio series of self-contained and individually titled adventure stories centred
around an air hostess and the people she meets on her travels.
Contributors: Peter Yeldham (SCR).
Cast: Margaret Christensen (Diana Drew).
Label: AWA Radiola
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 52

AIRPORT
Series: 81112
Summary: Drama centred around the world’s great airlines.
Contributors: Ed Adamson (SCR), Gordon Grimsdale (PDR).
Label: ART, ARP
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 52
Broadcast details: 1950s
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-52

SQUADRON AIRBORNE
Series: 239649
Summary: Adaptation for radio of a best seller book by Elleston Trevor about a wartime fighter
station.
Contributors: Elleston Trevor (AUT), Richard Lane (SCR).
Label: ART
Episodes produced: 13
Broadcast details: c1959
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-13

THE AVENGER
Series: 81364
Summary: In 1942 during the war, Australian pilot Stanley Baker is entrusted with the secret
mission of safely delivering the Sultan of Bahan’s personal fortune to the Allies. Due to the
treachery of four people who were to accompany him, the mission was never completed and
Baker, having been shot in the back, was left for dead. Twenty years later he returns to
avenge himself on the four people who had tried to kill him.
Contributors: Grace Gibson Radio Productions (DSR).
Label: AWA
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 104

CHESHIRE V.C.
Series: 238246
Summary: Story of the famous British Flying Ace.
Contributors: Grace Gibson Radio Productions (PDC).
Label: EMI
Episode duration: 30 mins (15 mins)
Episodes produced: 4 (8)

THEIR FINEST HOUR
Series: 222914
Summary: Serial inspired by events of World War II.
Contributors: John Hickling (PDR), Catherine Duncan (SCR), John Hickling Productions
(PDC).
Cast: Robert Burnard, Keith Eden, Clifford Cowley, David Reid, Beryl Walker, Marcia Hart
(Jill).
Label: ART, 3UZ
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 80
Broadcast details: 1943- ; Tuesday on 2UE at 8.00pm; Tuesday on 2UW at 8.00pm.
Notes: The ART series runs for 52 episodes and was produced in 1957.
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-52 (ART), 93-102 (3UZ) (incomplete)


And some non-aviation but interesting-sounding titles

GIMME THE BOATS
Series: 143563
Summary: Dramatisation of J.E. MacDonnell’s best selling novel of the Royal Australian Navy
in wartime.
Contributors: J.E. MacDonnell (AUT, SCR).
Label: AWA
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 26
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-26


FIVE FINGERS
Series: 212972
Summary: A true spy story based on the novel of the same name. It is the inside story of the
espionage sensation of World War II.
Contributors: Australasian Radio Productions (PDC), Morris West (SCR, DRT), L.C. Moyzisch
(AUT).
Label: ARP
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 52
Broadcast details: 1940s
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-52


THESE WERE THEIR YESTERDAYS
Series: 239709
Summary: Dramatisation of the great deeds performed by Australian servicemen throughout
the campaigns of World War II and their part in shaping the history of the world.
Contributors: Major Dudley McCarthy (AUT).
Cast: All roles are taken by ex-servicemen.
Label: AWA
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 52
Broadcast details: 1950s- ; Tuesday on 2CH at 9.00pm.
NFSA Holdings: Eps 19-52 (Incomplete)

WHITE COOLIES
Series: 143564
Summary: True stories based on a diary written by an Australian Army nurse, Betty Jeffrey
during World War II while in a Japanese prison camp. Dedicated to those nurses who did not
return.
Contributors: Sister Betty Jeffrey (AUT), Fifi Banvard (PDR), Gwen Friend (SCR).
Cast: Ruth Cracknell, June Salter.
Label: ARP, ART
Episode duration: 30 mins
Episodes produced: 52
Broadcast details: 1955-.
References: ‘Once upon a wireless’ oral history interview with Gwen Friend.
NFSA Holdings: Eps 1-52


WRECKERS MUST BREATHE
Series: 239844
Summary: Fast moving, suspenseful radio serial based on a novel by Hammond Innes and set
in Cornwall in 1939 at the start of World War II. Freelance reporter Walter Craig and newfound
friend Dan Logan, a fisherman, follow a man they suspect is a German spy, but are caught by
a landing party from a German U-boat.
Contributors: Grace Gibson Radio Productions (PDC), Hammond Innes (AUT).
Label: Grace Gibson.
Episode duration: 15 mins
Episodes produced: 89
Broadcast details: 1970s

[Dave Homewood]

I'd really love to hear The Great Escape and Reach For the Sky. Hopefully the radio versions were a lot closer to reality than the films which both contain a certain amount of "licence" with the truth.