AustLit

'A Ride on the Big Dipper was first written and broadcast as a play for television. As such it was widely praised and was selected by TV Times critic F. C. Kennedy as TV play of the year. It's rewriting as a radio play called for no change in the plot or in the main characters, but several minor characters who had lent verisimilitude to the television version were eliminated. For instance, in the television play Hugh was shown, after he arrived in Toowoomba, in four quick cut scenes on building sites, to establish that he had taken over the job and was acting his new role with confidence. These were eliminated because, in sound only, they would have confused the listener. As in all adaptations from television or stage to radio, the emphasis had to be changed from the visual to the orally descriptive' (Ron Harrison, in Take One, p.84).