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Seasons Greetings – may it be a joyous time for all, and here’s hoping 2023 is a year made memorable for all the right reasons...
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We have a total of five new products in the lead-up to Christmas – different genres, different episode durations – all very entertaining and great gift material! There’s also a wide range of season discounts for you to explore - available until midnight on 31st December.
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This Newsletter covers four pages, so please allow your eyes to meander through what’s on offer – and read the excellent new review by Peter Philp (author of Drama In Silent Rooms).
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The Case Of The Purple Cow - (available now)
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To open the story, Dan Steel of the “I Find ‘em” Detective Agency discovers there’s a phoney death notice in the newspaper – because he’s the person reported to be dead! Next he’s visited by a ‘society dame’ who is looking for her missing dog – which just happens to bear the same name as her deceased husband...
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This slapstick comedy/satire of the ‘classic detective series’ is set in Hollywood of the 1950s and was written by Warren Glasser for Donovan Joyce Productions. A silly serial for a silly price.
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104 x 12 minute episodes $30.00
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Hunt The Man Down – Vol 13 (available now)
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A new volume in this ‘best seller’ series...
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Investigations International, a worldwide organisation, retains the services of their top London agent (Dick Mallory) to carry out their most dangerous assignments.
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When life is quiet with International Investigations, Mallory accepts private commissions that promise hazardous living in any of the far-flung corners of the world.
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15 x 24 minute episodes $35.00
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Whispering Streets – Vol 4 (available now)
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Whispering Streets is a serialised series of human interest stories, each a self-contained episode with a permanent character who introduces each story – Hope Winslow.
Adapted from US scripts for Australian audiences, Lyndall Barbour stars as Hope Winslow
50 x 12 minute episodes $30.00
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Out Of The Dawn (available 1st December)
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Out Of the Dawn is a story woven around the lives of men and women who live in a world at war. It’s the story of a man made an invalid by wounds received in the terrible conflict of 1914-1918, and with anguish in his heart, watches war clouds gather for the second time in 21 years.
He watches as his son – a youngster who stands poised to knock on the door of life – is overwhelmed by the greatest man-made tragedy of all time.
52 x 12 minute episodes $40.00
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Oasis of Shalimar (available 14th December)
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Kent Richards, a scientist from New Zealand, is recruited to undertake a search for the mysterious element KR4 in the desert near Bundi, India. This element is needed by the Western allies to guarantee that they stay ahead in the nuclear weapons race – all part of the plan to ensure peace. When Kent arrives in Bundi, he hears of a beautiful French woman, Mademoiselle Marie De Mettre, and of her hatred for all whites. Although married, Kent becomes fascinated by this intriguing lady.
Adapted for radio by Allan Trevor from the novel by FJ Thwaites, this series stars James Condon, Lola Brooks, Sheila Sewell and Moray Powell.
52 x 12 minute episodes $40.00
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New titles to look out for include:
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Specials
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Need to complete your collection of these titles? Make the most of these massive discounts...
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The Passing Parade - $20.00 per volume Night Beat - $20.00 per volume
Address Unknown - $20.00 per volume
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Along with titles that suggest activity (don’t we all need that during feasting season !?!). Just $30.00 each:
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Escape Me Never
Girl On A Tightrope
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RADIO DRAMA REVIEW - by Peter Philip
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By Peter Philp, Radio Historian.
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Author of Drama in Silent Rooms – the history of radio drama in Australia
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In my last review of radio drama, I began with Donovan Joyce’s rejection of Lindsay Hardy’s story, Dossier on Dumetrius, the first of the trilogy about Major Gregory Keen of MI5. I ended the review with Hardy packing up and heading for the US.
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I begin this review with the same man, Donovan Joyce.
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Successful and high profile business people are loathe to admit their bad decisions. In my interviews with Joyce for the history of the Australian radio serials, Drama in Silent Rooms, I questioned Joyce about the three prodigious dramas that he handed to his opposition on a plate. Not prepared to offer an outright admission, one could readily identify Joyce’s regret about his and Hardy’s intransigence.
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Six years later there were no intractable deals when the opportunity came knocking again. Aware that things were going sour for Lindsay Hardy in Hollywood, Joyce offered the author a contract to write a series of dramas for his studio, including new Gregory Keen stories. Hardy had been reluctant at Grace Gibson Productions to write further sagas about the MI5 operative beyond Dossier on Dumetrius. It was only due to a very persuasive Miss Grace Gibson, that Hardy reluctantly gave in. Again on hard street, Hardy was only too pleased to adhere to Joyce’s demands.
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The release of Two Roads to Samara and Smell of Terror naturally brought forward serious comparisons from listeners between the Gibson and Joyce produced ‘Keen’ serials with opinion generally weighted in favour of the original trilogy. The first is frequently rated the best - be it film, hit record or radio drama. My vote would always go for the Grace Gibson Productions stories.
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However, to make an objective comparison, some realities need to be taken into consideration. The casting for example. Everybody, including Donovan Joyce, would have selected Bruce Stewart as Keen and Ivan Vander as Tom Coutts. Unfortunately, Bruce was in Britain and Vander was no longer in the business. In those intervening years, radio had changed, and the call was for sleeker scripting particularly now on the eve of television when the little screens would be inundated with fast talking and speeding car cop shows. Hardy had been part of that scene for a number of years and knew the drill.
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None of the new Hardy dramas for Joyce had the chance to mature and promote themselves in an all-radio environment like the first stories.
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Alan Trevor was one of Australia’s finest actors, usually playing the sinister and warped thug, and the contrast between Bruce Stewart and him may have been too great for those ardent Gregory Keen listeners. Never-the-less what had not altered was the skilfulness of Lindsay Hardy’s creativity. The depth to which he would take one’s imagination; his judicious mind for detail; his superb flair for characterization and his mastery for word smithing, remained at their best.
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Two Roads to Samara takes the listener at high speed through the Scottish Highlands and to France while at a slightly reduced speed we are involved in the London underworld but allowed a brief and wonderful moment of Dossier on Dumetrius nostalgia, recalling Keen’s first love Hedi Bergner, meeting again Inspector Charles Fraine of Scotland Yard and mentions of Tom Coutt’s dear old aunt Minnie. The fictious story reminds us of the reality that excessive power and wealth stalks even the most secure pillars of democracy. And violence and fear allow it to keep operating.
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You have to have experienced life in Latin America under a military dictatorship to appreciate the true value of Gregory Keen’s predicament in The Smell of Terror, now a powerless civilian. Bruce Stewart or no Bruce Stewart, this is one of Hardy’s frighteningly real portrayals of modern-day terror when the goon and death squads are the state security forces; where major democracies are in league with deadly repression and why inhuman poverty is a necessity to sustain these corrupt systems.
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Guy Doleman (Dumetrius and Felix Huberman) is brilliant as Captain Von Gebhert, head of the state security, and whose iron fist is only matched by the old Gestapo - and his lust for sex is another tool in his chest of tyranny. Moray Powell (the impeccable Colonel Fentruiss of MI5 in the earlier series) plays the dictator, General Mendoza, ruthless, cunning, yet fearful for his own survival. There is no hint of his other notable performances. The Smell of Terror is a new characterization that Powell portrays with measured finesse.
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If you have enjoyed the first series of Gregory Keen or have heard these two newer serials with a little disappointment, like me, have another session with them because Two Roads to Samarra and The Smell of Terror require good concentration, being divorced from the earlier stories - and appreciate the different era.
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This is radio drama par excellence.
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Here’s a tip...want to ’try before you buy’, or not entirely sure if that’s the show you’re after?
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Click the ‘Sample Episode’ tab on our website and you can hear the first episode of each the titles we currently have available (don’t forget we’re constantly adding new shows to the line-up).
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Sometimes you’re asked to ‘grab a gift’, having been told the intro sounds something like ‘this’ … other times there’s confusion with a similar sounding title of a show … a visit to ‘Sample Episode’ can help solve the problem.
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Alternatively, call us for a sample CD and we’ll put one in the post for you, along with our catalogue.
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Order Options:
Website: gracegibsonradio.com and use the Paypal secure payment system or phone us on (02) 9906-2244 with credit card details,
or fax (02) 9906-2114, or send a cheque or money order to:
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Grace Gibson Productions, PO Box 7377, Leura NSW 2780.
If sending a cheque or money order please ensure you nominate what you are ordering and include your address details for dispatch.
If you do not wish to receive further updates, please email us at info@gracegibsonradio.com with REMOVE in the title line and include your details, or phone us on (02) 9906-2244 or fax on (02) 9906-2114.
A Few Important Notes… Please Consider Carefully Before Ordering:
mp3 Format on CDs (may not play in some CD players); mp3 on USB Flash Drives; m4a (AAC) on Downloads
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Audio Quality - Whilst we go to great lengths to ensure the audio quality we offer is the best we possibly can - including processing our material through the worlds best audio processing from CEDAR Cambridge - the programs offered herein have, in many instances, been retrieved from original recordings produced on 16 inch, 12 inch and 10 inch record albums and may therefore reflect the recording and reproduction fidelity of their times. In offering these programs for sale to the general public, we cannot accept responsibility, nor offer refunds, for any disappointment with the audio quality that some of these serials may exhibit.
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