Blue Hills (radio serial)
Encyclopedia
.
Blue Hills, written by Gwen Meredith
, was an Australia
n radio serial about the lives of families in a typical Australian country town called Tanimbla. "Blue Hills" itself was the residence of the town’s doctor.
Blue Hills 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 serial. Each episode lasted 15 minutes.
. 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
.
Blue Hills, written by Gwen Meredith
Gwen Meredith
Gwenyth Valmai Meredith OBE was an Australian author, playwright, and radio writer. She is best known as the writer of the long-running radio serial, Blue Hills.-Life:...
, was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n radio serial about the lives of families in a typical Australian country town called Tanimbla. "Blue Hills" itself was the residence of the town’s doctor.
Blue Hills was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
(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 serial. Each episode lasted 15 minutes.
Actors
Actors who played long-running roles in Blue Hills included:- Queenie AshtonQueenie AshtonEdith "Queenie" Ashton AM was an English-born Australian soprano and character actress who had a long career primarily on radio, although she was also a renowned theatre actress, who also added television and film performances to her impressive repertoire...
- Grant Bailey
- Philippa Baker
- Barbara Brunton
- Neva Carr GlynNeva Carr GlynNeva Carr Glyn or Neva Carr Glynn born "Neva Josephine Mary Carr Glyn" was an Australian contralto and actress born in Melbourne to Arthur Benjamin Carr Glyn , a humorous baritone and stage manager born in Ireland, and Marie Carr Glyn , née Marie Dunoon Senior , an actress with the stage...
- Myrna Dodd
- Gordon Grimsdale
- Nellie Lamport
- Ethel LangEthel LangEthel Isabel Lang was an Australian actress prominent in radio in the '40s and '50s. She married elocution teacher James Brunton Gibb in 1923...
- Nigel Lovell
- Max Osbiston
- Gwen PlumbGwen PlumbGwen Plumb AM BEM was a veteran Australian performer of stage, radio and television.-Biography:Gwendoline Jean Plumb was born in 1912...
- Callum Ross
- June SalterJune SalterJune Marie Salter AM was an Australian actress.-Biography:June Salter was born in Bexley, New South Wales, the youngest of six children. As a child she studied piano and elocution and attended Kogarah Secondary School...
- Zachary Sykes
- Rod Taylor
Signature tune
The famous opening signature tune was taken from a short orchestral piece called Pastorale by the British composer Ronald HanmerRonald Hanmer
Ronald Hanmer was a British conductor, composer and arranger of light music, who spent his latter years in Australia. He was best known for his themes to the Adventures of P.C...
. 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
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra is an Australian orchestra, based principally in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.The QSO played its first concert on 26 March 1947, with the orchestra consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsworth Hall was recruited from the Sydney...
.
See also
- The ArchersThe ArchersThe Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
— the present 'world's longest running soap opera' (its 15,000th episode was broadcast in 2006).
External links
- Listen to the theme from 'Blue Hills' on australianscreen online
- The theme from 'Blue Hills' was added to the National Film and Sound ArchiveNational Film and Sound ArchiveThe National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
's Sounds of Australia Registry in 2008