AustLit

Good mates Chic Williams and James Brown wake up in their Melbourne boarding house after a 'heavy night' and vaguely remember being involved in a brawl. When they hear that a policeman has been savagely bashed and that the police are looking for a James Brown, they decide to go on the run. Before they can leave, however, a private detective who is also after James arrives on the scene. The pair quickly overpower and tie him up and then make a break for freedom, travelling to Banjarro Station where Chic's old drinking buddy (played by Joe Valli) is the overseer. Hoping to lie low until things blow over, they take jobs on the outback property. Within a short time, James becomes romantically involved with Dorothy Parnham's character. The story takes a twist when the private detective arrives at the station. Rather than arrest them, the detective tells them that he has been charged with tracking down James to tell him that his uncle has died overseas and left him a large inheritance. It also soon becomes clear that the only people James and Chic bashed were a group of thugs who had assaulted the policeman; one of the thugs was also called James Brown.

Lanky and phlegmatic Chic Williams and his short and resourceful friend Joe Mulga face ten days in the stockade for absconding with five jars of rum from the Quartermaster's stores. At the same time, a British intelligence officer, Sir Guy Gough, is seeking to outwit a German spy ring, run by Von Schieling and a French adventuress. Chic and Joe, Corporal Joe McTavish, and Captain Jack Fisher help trap the spies and gain invaluable information. They are rewarded with ten days' leave in London, where Captain Fisher has a romantic involvement with a young woman named Alison.

Diggers primarily concerns the adventures of two Australian 'cobbers,' Chic Williams and Joe Mulga, who are serving in the A.I.F. in France during 1918. Much of the narrative is based on three of the Famous Diggers' more popular live sketches: namely, an incident involving the stealing of some rum (Rum Doings), the hospital scene where Chic and Joe feign illness (Chic and Joe in Hospital), and a scene set in a French estaminet (Mademoiselle from Armentieres). An unidentified Brisbane review held in the Pat Hanna Collection (Performing Arts Centre, Melbourne) records, for example, that 'Diggers made its Brisbane premiere at the Regent Theatre on Saturday. Many of the incidents have been played by Pat on the Brisbane stage, but they are worth repetition... There was a laugh when Pat feigns deafness in hospital so that he will not be sent to the front lines. He even remains motionless when a revolver is fired next to his ear, but when a champagne cork pops from the bottle it is too much and he reveals the sham' (n. pag.).

In the first sketch, Chic and Joe, who are typically anti-authoritarian, convince a fellow digger, Bluey, to help them steal some rum from the Quartermaster's store. The second sketch is played out in hospital, where Chic, Joe, and Fatty feign battle fatigue and illness in order to avoid being set back up the line. They are questioned by a medical officer who finds all but Chic to be malingerers. Although he successfully convinces the MO that he is the only genuine case (even when a pistol is fired behind his head), Chic later gives himself away by reacting to the pop of a champagne cork. The final sketch is based on the Famous Diggers' theatrical rendition of the song 'Mademoiselle from Armentieres.' Combining a mixture of romance and pathos, the narrative concerns a young French girl and her Australian lover shortly before he returns to the front. She later learns that he has been killed.

A comedy sketch comprising lots of physical slapstick, the story revolves around Chic and Joe meeting Joe's girl and her family.

Original military episodes in two panels: 1. 'What we say' and 2. 'What we would like to say.'