# Blue Hills (radio serial)

Blue Hills was an Australian radio serial that was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) for 27 years, from 28 February 1949 to 30 September 1976. It ran for a total of 5,795 episodes, and was at one time the world's longest-running radio serials. Each episode lasted 15 minutes.
Created and written by Gwen Meredith, the series focuses on families who reside in a typical Australian country town, called "Tanimbla". The series title itself related to the residence of Dr. Gordon, the local G.P.
Blue Hills succeeded another Gwen Meredith serial The Lawsons, with many of the same themes and characters, and which ran for 1,299 episodes.

## History: background

Blue Hills followed an earlier similar style series written by Gwen Meredith called The Lawsons, which was the brainchild of play editor Leslie Rees and Frank Clewlow of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (then Commission), which had been approached by Government in 1943 to publicise the need for farmers to grow more soya beans as part of the war effort. They reasoned that a popular radio programme would be more effective than ordinary propaganda, and approached Gwen Meredith to write a radio drama. She was an unlikely choice as she lived in Melbourne and production was to be in Sydney, and she was a city girl with little knowledge of primary production. But she accepted the contract from the ABC's Rural Department and spent some weeks on a sheep station in Gunnedah to gather background. The show went to air on 21 February 1944 and slowly achieved a loyal country audience.
The story revolved around the farmer John Lawson (Vivian Edwards), his wife Ellen (Ailsa Grahame), and their 19-year-old daughter Sue (Jane Holland). The original remit was extended to enable modern farming methods and seasonal information to be passed on to farmers, as well as the usual fare of soap operas. As the war ended, Grahame and Holland left for England, and were replaced by Ethel Lang and Joan Lord. Under producer Charles Wheeler, who insisted of actors that they use a natural conversation style rather than stage voices, the show lasted five years before it was terminated, at Meredith's request, to make way for a similar program of greater scope.
The last episode of The Lawsons was aired on 25 February 1949, a Friday, and Blue Hills commenced the following Monday, 28 February 1949.
Blue Hills was broadcast from the ABC's capital city stations 2FC, 3AR, 4QG, 5CL, 7ZL and their regional networks at 1 pm AET and repeated, for city listeners, at 6:45 pm, Monday to Friday, though the Friday episode was dropped in 1954. Due to limitations imposed by the telecommunications of the time (and no doubt also the two-hour time difference), it was initially broadcast only in the Eastern States and South Australia. 5DR Darwin (later 8DR) began broadcasting the program in September 1952, and 6WF Perth and Western Australian regional stations began in January 1955, using transcription discs and, later, magnetic tape sourced from Sydney. The duration of each episode was 15 minutes apart from the finale, which needed 30 minutes to round up each character. The first words spoken in the first episode were by Queenie Ashton as Mrs Gordon, and as Granny Bishop the last words ("good bye") in the final episode some 27 years later.
The finale episode is available at the National Film and Sound Archive.

## List of actors

Among the many Sydney actors – perhaps hundreds – who played in Blue Hills, several actors had previously appeared in Gwen Meredith's earlier radio serial The Lawsons.
| Name | Role | Notes/Ref |
| Alexander Archdale | Richard Darbyshire | |
| Queenie Ashton | Lee Gordon (married to Dr Gordon) (1949) / Rose Bishop (married to Ed Bishop) 1954 / Granny Emily Bishop (mother of Ed and Meg) ( 1954-1976) | |
| Julianna Allen | ? | |
| Philippa Baker | a Scottish nurse | |
| John Barnes | | |
| Ray Barrett | | |
| Joan Bruce | | |
| Faye Anderson | | |
| Lola Brooks | Fanny/Judy Macarthur | |
| Barbara Brunton | Sally Howard (?-1952) | |
| Keith Buckley | Nick Macarthur (son of Jim) | |
| Alma Butterfield | Mrs Jenkins (1950) | |
| Neva Carr Glynn | | |
| Amber-Mae Cecil | Jackie Macarthur/Emmie Lawson) (married Ted in 1951) | replaced Myrna Dodd,replaced Sheila Sewell |
| Rupert Chance | Ted Lawson (married Emmie in 1951) | |
| Peg Christensen | Emmie Lawson | |
| Marie Clarke | Mary Howard (love affair with Peter Macarthur) | |
| Reg Collins | Joe Walters the original Joe Walters/Ned Walters (Joe's brother) | |
| Ruth Cracknell | Ruth Lawson | |
| Patti Crocker | Mandy Gordon (younger daughter of Dr Gordon, married Dr Frobisher)/Meg Macarthur/ Anne (Meg's daughter) | |
| Marshall Crosby | Josh Roberts | |
| Therese Desmond | Amelia | |
| Ed Devereaux | ? | |
| Myrna Dodd | Jackie Macarthur | |
| Maiva Drummond | Jean Lawson (The Lawsons)/Rose Bishop (Blue Hills 1964-1976) (married to Ed) | |
| John Ewart | appeared in final episode) | |
| Tom Farley | Jim Macarthur (married to Meg) | |
| Winifred Green | Martha Walters | |
| Gordon Grimsdale | Dr Neil Gordon Dec. 1949 | |
| Anne Haddy | Elizabeth Ross-Ingham | |
| Marcia Hathaway | hospital nurse | |
| Madelaine Howell | ? | |
| Faye Kelton | | |
| Nellie Lamport | Hilda (the Lawsons' cook, aunt of Emmie) married Joe Walters late in life | |
| Ethel Lang | Dr Gordon's charlady (1949)/Meg Macarthur (married to Jim Macarthur) | |
| Hal Lashwood | Chris Lawson (in The Lawsons) | |
| Camilla Lay | Maisie Jenkins (-1949) | |
| Nigel Lovell | a Polish airman | |
| Paul Maclay | ? | |
| Charles McCallum | Ed Bishop (son of Granny, married to Rose) | |
| John McCallum | ? | |
| Robert McDarra | ? | |
| John Meillon | ? | |
| Lynne Murphy | | |
| Coralie Neville | /Trixie Gordon (daughter of Dr Gordon) 1949 | |
| Ida Newton | Auntie Gertie (1949) | |
| John Norman | Jerry Walters | |
| John Nugent-Hayward | Dr Neil Gordon (March 1949 | |
| Max Osbiston | Dr Frobisher (married Mandy Gordon) (1976) | |
| Pat Pearson | Judy Macarthur | |
| Gwen Plumb | Emmie Lawson (niece of Hilda; married Ted in 1951) | |
| Ron Roberts | | |
| Madge Ryan | ? | |
| June Salter | Sally Howard (?-1952) | |
| Thelma Scott | Aunt Laura | |
| Hilda Scurr | | |
| Sheila Sewell | Emmie Lawson (married Ted Lawson in 1951) (appeared to 1953) | |
| Georgie Sterling | Claire Throsby (love affair with Anderson Roberts) | |
| Nancye Stewart | Mabel Ross | |
| Rod Taylor | Anderson Roberts (love affair with Sally Howard) | |
| Ngaire Thompson | Jenny Roberts | |
| Morris Unicomb | Bruce Gordon (son of Dr Gordon) | |
| Lou Vernon | Col. Ross-Ingham | |
| Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell | | |
Producers included:
* Frank Harvey
* Robert Montgomery
* Eric John, to whom Gwen Meredith credited much of the show's success.

## Signature tune

The famous opening signature tune was taken from a short orchestral piece called Pastorale by the British composer Ronald Hanmer. Until Hanmer moved to Australia in 1975, he had no idea that his work had been used by the ABC and had become so famous in Australia (although few Australians could have identified its composer). He later re-worked this short piece into a longer orchestral work titled Blue Hills Rhapsody, which he recorded with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The recording first used was played by the New Century Orchestra.

## Books

Several books based on the show were written by Gwen Meredith:
* The Lawsons (1948)
* Blue Hills, Angus and Robertson (1950)
* Beyond Blue Hills (1953)
* Into the Sun (1961)
   In preparing the radio serial Blue Hills for publication I have not been set such a formidable task as faced me with The Lawsons, since up to the present date Blue Hills has been presented by the Australian Broadcasting Commission for little more than a year. This means a mere half million words to contend with! But since the publisher sets a defensive maximum of eighty thousand words, intending readers should be warned—and perhaps heartened by the warning—that in that editing, a great deal has perforce been discarded. However, I think the main elements and characters have survived the massacre and the book brings the story to the point reached on air at the time of writing. GWEN MEREDITH. (Author's note, Blue Hills (1950))