AustLit

'CLARENCE DUNNE (John Tate) was an insignificant and eminently respectable clerk. But there came a day when the calculating of figures in a ledger became an unbearable drudgery. He rebelled, drew £l000 out of the bank, and, abandoning his family, disappeared under the name of Peter Lester. On a train he meets Milly Cobb (Betty Dickson) and her "brother," Eddie (Owen Ainley), a professional gambler, and they fleece the unsuspecting Clarence. Clarence takes odd jobs for a while, then he robs a bank, then decides to return home. When he arrives he finds his wife, Martha (Nancye Stewart), sprawled on the kitchen floor with a knife in her hand and her throat cut. He finds she is still alive and tries to help her. Then his son comes in and the circumstances are such that it looks as if Clarence will be charged with murder if his wife dies. To extricate himself he confesses to the crime he committed in the name of Peter Lester. However, Martha does not die and the confession would seem to have been made in error.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 2 February 1952, p.13.

'TWO orphans, Jimmy (Michael Plant) and Helen (Wendy Playfair), found themselves having to battle with the world when they were barely out of their 'teens. Circumstances separate them and Helen marries, only to find that her husband, Phil Armstrong, is a drug addict. She leaves him and goes to a sea side resort to spend a holiday with Jimmy, who had got himself a job at the shooting gallery on the pier. One evening as he returns home he hears the sound of quarrelling in the flat he and Helen have rented in a block conducted by a Mrs. Gordon (Connie Hobbs). When he enters there is a body lying on the floor. Tension heightens as and Helen try to get rid of the body by placing it on the beach as if it were a man sunbathing. How the situation is resolved and the role of Mrs. Gordon in the business brings this exciting play to a satisfying climax.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABc Weekly, 12 January 1952, p.13.

'A MAN, badly hurt and suffering from loss of memory, stumbled into Scotland Yard one wintry night. He did not even remember his name, so Inspector Scroggs (Jack Raine) called him Terence Drury. For 20 years he lived and worked under that name and became a useful member of the staff. One time he was detailed to investigate the finding of a human skeleton, discovered in a shallow grave in a Devonshire garden. As Drury (Moray Powell) carried out the investigation the dreadful feeling grew upon him that he was in some way implicated in the disappearance of two people. As Terence Drury he continued to do his duty, although it became increasingly clear that he was finally to accuse himself. A surprise denouement merges his past and present life into one.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 5 January 1952.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

'MICHAEL DAWSON, a psychopath, failed to comprehend life. Marrying a beautiful woman, he discovered to his horror that she was steeped in an infamy even worse than his own. Circumstance piled upon circumstance until Nemesis threatened him with a fate he had to accept; a fate which led him out of the life he did not fit.'

Source: 'Radio Roundabout', ABC Weekly, 20 October 1951, p.18.

'The Morrisons are a gay, happy, and completely spoilt family. They have their ructions and family tiffs, but over all their sense of humour prevails. It is into this atmosphere that their English cousin Edward Pilchard steps. He is not an old "drizzlepuss," as the family had expected, but a young and very intelligent fellow, who not only know how to run his own life but is very soon running theirs.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 2 December 1950, p.27.

'Everyone at some time or other has experienced the long arm of coincidence. This story treats of such. In mountainous Wales, Evelyn Harris is driving through torrential rain when she is hailed by a would-be hitch-hiker. The hitch-hiker is, in actual fact, an escapee from prison. Evelyn innocently picks up the escapee, who turns out to be a weird enigmatic little Welshman. He, like more other escaped convicts, is intent on revenge. He intends to murder the man who was responsible for his imprisonment. That man is Evelyn's husband. Playing up to him, Evelyn spins a web of intrigue, leading to a horrifying and unexpected climax.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 30 December 1950, p.27.

'Charles Draper, private detective and gambler, is infuriated by the efforts of wealthy Laura Lee—who obviously carried a torch for him—to become a private detective herself. A bookmaker is murdered, and Draper is horrified to find the suspected murderer in Laura's office. Briskly moving through metropolitan New York, Draper, in a race against death, brings about a dramatic climax in his own office, putting Laura Lee in her place.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 2 December 1950, p.27.

'DONOVAN was an elderly successful businessman from the north of England. He had a pretty young wife, and Charles Ross was his private secretary. A grim atmosphere brooded over the three as Charles plotted and schemed for wealth, power, even love—but the first taste of power destroyed love. There could be more wealth and power if two persons were removed. But for one thing—a letter—Charles Ross would have won all and destroyed all.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 18 November 1950, p.27.

'In a duplex house in a London suburb, two young couples live, and the front doors of their homes are identical. One of the couples is new to the district, and one night the husband of this couple arrives home to a darkened house. He has some doubts about which is his door, and enters to a macabre scene. Two ghouls had been paid to kill a wife. Their job done, the murderers hold the new tenant for blackmail with the threat of death. The final suspenseful scene is played out on the docks of the Liverpool waterfront.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 11 November 1950, p.27.

'Doctor Broneau, of Paris, proposes an experiment—to prove that there are five major restraints to stop normal people from committing murder. His colleague, Doctor Mosher, although opposed to the idea of the experiment, receives information on each step during the experiment, when Doctor Broneau offers himself as the prospective victim to five people, all of whom have good reasons for killing him.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 4 November 1950, p.27.

'This page from the life of a "drive-in" girl—a waitress in the American roadside cafes who serves the customers as they sit in their cars—reveals the twisted mind of an unnamed man. At midnight he came in his car for food, and there was blood on the window ledge; blood which the girl saw and which led to her being kidnapped and spending a night of terror with a maniac on the heights overlooking Los Angeles.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 28 October 1950, p.27.

'This is the story of Oliver Littlefield, a prim little suburban husband and keen gardener, who suddenly finds 17 years in the same subservient job and so many years of nagging routine marriage too much for him. Oliver begins taking drugs which provide temporary relief for his troubles, and at the same time develop a desire [sic] in this meek little man for a pretty girl in his office. This leads to the loss of his job, and an attempt to plan the perfect murder ... of his wife! Having given her poison he is overcome with remorse and the seconds tick by, and he attempts to resuscitate the corpse. Too late he realises she is dead, and he faces the charge of murder.'

Source: 'Commercial Radio Plays for This Week', ABC Weekly, 21 October 1950, p.27.

'Set in Vienna, this is the confession of a psychiatrist, and the story of a man who had returned from the grave. Karl Darosch had to all medical accounts been actually dead for four minutes during an operation, and when he recovered was hounded by publicity men and religious organisations for statements of what he had experienced "beyond the border". However, Karl could remember nothing; but he found that he now had a new and extraordinary power which enabled him to see the future—a power that led him again to the grave, but this time he was never to return.'

Source: 'Commercial Radio Plays for Next Week', ABC Weekly, 14 October 1950, p.27.

A suspenseful half-hour crime series adapted from works of American authors from Australian radio.