Blue Hills (radio Serial) - History

History

The Lawsons was the brainchild of play editor Leslie Rees and Frank Clewlow of the Australian Broadcasting 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, New South Wales 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 nineteen year old daughter Sue, played by 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.

Blue Hills was broadcast from the ABC's Interstate and Country networks at 1pm AET and repeated, for city listeners, at 6:45pm, Monday to Friday, though the Friday episode was dropped in 1954. It was broadcast in all states of Australia except, due to technical limitations, Western Australia. The duration of each episode was 15 minutes. 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 twenty seven years later.