THE BAGMAN [STORIES]
[RADIO-SCRIPTS]
Stories scripted by the husband-wife writing team of Ruth Parks and D’Arcy Niland…
[The Drums Go Bang (1956)] [arriving a week early to work at a station outside Gilla Gilla] “We
didn’t know it then, but it was that combination of circumstances which set us on the road to
radio. It was the beginning of a career in sound.”
“By the light of the hurricane lanterns the cookhouse was a lonely, eerie place, a stimulus to the
imagination… In this atmosphere we conceived the idea of a series of ghost stories, but quickly
saw their greater suitability for the medium of radio.
“We had no knowledge at all of the technique of radio writing, so we just put the dialogue down
baldly. The sound effects were minutely detailed and mostly impossible: brush of leaves on
window-pane, man turning somersault, billycan being removed from the fire.
“The first play was called The Beast, and at the conclusion of it Tiger was nearly frightened to
death and peopled the short distance between the kitchen and her little wooden hut with
terrifying lurkers. So was born the series Night Tales of a Bagman. Our first notion was to try
them on commercial stations, and we saw ourselves churning out hundreds of episodes, for each
of which, we imagined in our ignorance, we would be paid at least ten guineas.
“But after an impersonal scrutiny of the four plays we had written our spirits dropped
sickeningly. They were not right. The suspense had mysteriously vanished from them. The tension
with which they had originally bristled was no more.
“But why?
“‘We’ll just have to work more on them,’ said Tiger.
“‘Sure,’ replied Evans. ‘But in what way? Why don’t they jell? What’s missing? Can you tell me?’”
“She couldn’t. But still we were convinced that somewhere in those little ghost plays was the
germ of a radio feature.
“‘They’ll keep,’ said Evans. ‘Some day we’ll know enough to tell at a glance where we went wrong
with them, I hope,’ he added cautiously.” [pp. 63-64]
“…lanky swagman who had got himself a job as piece-picker. He was a true track-man, his life
mated to the sun and wind and the endless roads… There was no end to the stories this man could
tell… He had a unique narrative style, rough and ready, but vivid and biblically expressive.”
“Evans had often reflected on the ghost plays and wondered what it was that they lacked. Now
he had an idea.”
“‘Get busy and take those ghost plays out of mothballs. I think I’ve got the gimmick. We’ll use a
bagman narrator to tie them up. He introduces the programme of four plays, and then each story
separately. He also winds up each one in narrative. Get the idea?’
“‘It sounds fine. But what about the bagman?’
“‘Oh, I’ve got him. He sleeps on the floor next door to us.’”
“‘I’ll knock out the narrative bits for the bagman and post them down to you. See if you can type
them out and bung off the series to the A.B.C.’” [pp.85-87]
“Every word that fell from his mouth was a jewel. He was absolutely the pattern of the narrator
in our Bagman radio plays.” [p. 94]
“[letter to Ruth] ‘A bloke named Leslie Rees has written from the A.B.C. to say he likes the
Bagman Plays, all except one, and if we replace it he’ll accept them. The one he doesn’t like is The
Beast. Remember how it scared you? Well, it doesn’t scare him. Together they will make a hour-
length show. We’ve hit it, kid.’” [p.101]
“The time was drawing near for the A.B.C. to produce our Bagman Plays. It seemed very long
since we had written them, and they had receded into an impersonal place in our lives. We had no
radio, and on the broadcast night we went over to Uncle Looshus’ little room to listen in.
“We listened with agony. We had never heard anything so stiff, so amateurish, so completely
unreal… on the way home all we could say to each other was that the plays showed some promise
and maybe if we slugged away at it we’d learn to write effective dialogue.
“Yet one paper gave those plays the honours of the week. Another said they were minor classics
of the Australian outback, and had opened new ground in radio. They have been repeated
innumerable times on National and State broadcasts, overseas and on shortwave.” [pp.117-118]
“Then one day a letter from the A.B.C. fell through the slot in the door. It was from the Federal
Director of Drama, F. D. Clewlow… Not only was he going to repeat the NightTales of a Bagman,
but he wanted us to write another lot.” [p. 143]
“…at the Municipal Library…we came across a collection of plays by the crack American scripter
Arch Oboler… We were fascinated…by his ability and the clarity of his methods…
“Arch Oboler, though he never knew it, taught us more about radio writing than he could have
dreamed.
“We worked hard and nervously on the second Bagman plays, feeling that this was a
consolidation of our big chance. The plays were again successful, excellently produced and acted,
the sound effects and voice levels being so well done that we knew the A.B.C. had got more out of
the scripts than we had put into them. The surest sign of the Bagman’s success was that, after this
third airing, he began to have his imitators on the commercial stations.” [p. 145]
[IAN GRIEVE] According to Ruth Park in her Autobiography (Book 2 – Fishing in the Styx)
There were 6 Bagman series commencing with the first – Night Tales of the Bagman. The ABC
said there was a splendid response to their first Adult dramatic effort Night Tales of the Bagman
and that the ABC was going to repeat them, and would like some more ghost stories in the same
format. Getting the ideas for the ghost stories was no problem. Ruth recalled old bush stories her
Father had told her and D’Arcy suddenly remembered goose-pimpled evenings when he and the
other tikes listened to the Irish stories of Grandma Niland. Years later the stories were also
broadcast on the BBC and some of the 15 minute scripts were converted into television programs
in other languages.
The format was simple. A Bagman or wanderer sitting beside a campfire with his friends, telling
ghost stories of the countryside.
[RESEARCH] D’Arcy’s story “The Web” was anthologized in 1977 in the Hamlin collection The
Best Horror Stories. Lynn Picknett
“Gramps moves in with his daughter's family. They accept the blind old man from the first, but he
has to work on the boy, Joe, who's remote, wary .... until he learns of the old man's aversion to
spiders and cash signs flow before his eyes. Will he live long enough to win a Young Businessman
of the Year award?”
[CHRONOLOGY]
(2FC, SYDNEY—ABC)
[Saturday—8:00-9:00 PM]
April 10, 1943 “Night Tales of a Bagman”
[MELBOURNE ARGUS: “…Tales of a Night Bagman [sic], play by R. Park
and B. Niland…”]
[“…Characters: The Bagman; Stan Bennett; Bunny MacFarlane; An Echo;
Old Bill; Mr. Creighton; Mrs. Creighton; Tom Murray; Thompson; Harry
Grosvenor; Joe, his son, etc…”]
SCRIPT: D’Arcy Niland, Ruth Park.
PERSONNEL: Charles Wheeler (producer).
CAST: John Bedouin, Alfred Bristowe, Vivian Edwards, Athol Fleming, George
Hewlett (The Bagman), Rosalind Kennadale, Hal Lashwood, Fred McDonald, Les
Warton.
[OG-NOTE: In June of ’43 a photograph of George Hewlett was published in the
Kilmore Free Press with the caption: “Versatile Radio Man… actor, story-reader and
film reviewer in A.B.C. programmes.”]
n.d.
[???????]
“‘Night Tales of a Bagman,’ produced by Charles Wheeler from the A.B.C.
Sydney studios last Saturday night provided an entertaining hour’s listening. The
tales are told by ‘The Bagman’ (George Hewlett) to his cronies, and concern queer
stories he has heard in his travels in the Australian back country. Here is a jolly
good mystery feature with a genuine Australian atmosphere. The tales are linked
together effectively with the use of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as theme song.”
WEDNESDAY PLAY (2FC, SYDNEY—ABC)
[Wednesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
March 8, 1944 “The Bagman on the Wallaby”
[HOBART MERCURY: “…by Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland…”]
[OG-NOTE: The script for this program is archived in the Fryer Library of the University
of Queensland. It is catalogued under the title The Bagman on the Wallaby: Australian
Stories of the Weird and Uncanny. Authorship is credited to both Ruth Park and D’Arcy
Niland. The individual stories are cited by title: “The Man with Two Shadows,” “The
Swamp,” “The Green Lizard” and “The Phantom Shearer.”]
MAY 1, 1944:
[Portsland Guardian—“Stars of the Air—‘Ruth Park—Newest
Children’s Writer’”]
“Newest and most prolific of writers for the A.B.C. Children’s Session is Ruth
Park, a New Zealand journalist who, before her marriage to Darcy Niland, well-
known short-story writer and radio playwright, was children’s editor and special
reporter for the ‘Auckland Star.’
“…In her odd moments she writes stories for adults, some of which have been
published in the A.B.C. Weekly. Others have found their way into American
anthologies. Her second series of ghost plays, ‘Night Tales of a Bagman,’ will
shortly be broadcast through National stations.
“Asked how she manages to find time to write so much, as well as to look after
her six-months’ old baby daughter, Miss Park replied: ‘Oh, my husband and I pop
the baby into bed at six o’clock and then we are pretty well free until she wakes up
at six in the morning. That gives us about twelve hours. We do most of our
writing at night. When we collaborate on a play…one of us dictates and the other
one types. Then we switch over. Of course, we have terrific arguments about the
development of our characters; in fact, that is the only thing we ever do argue
about…”
TUESDAY PLAY (3LO, MELBOURNE—ABC)
[Tuesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
August 8, 1944 “Night Tales of a Bagman”
PERSONNEL: Douglas Kelly (narrator).
(7ZR, HOBART)
[Tuesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
August 22, 1944 “Night Tales of a Bagman”
(3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Thursday—8:00-9:15 PM]
Dec. 14, 1944 “The Bagman Tells Another”
[MELBOURNE ARGUS: “…Four Creepy Tales of Australian Outback…”]
[OG-NOTE: The script for this program is archived in the Fryer Library of the University
of Queensland. Authorship is credited to both Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland. The
individual stories are cited by title: “The Miners,” “The Call,” “The Face,” and “The Joss
House.”]
(3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Saturday—3:00-4:00 PM]
February 10, 1945 “The Bagman on the Wallaby”
[MELBOURNE ARGUS: “…tales of the Australian bush…”]
[“…Australian stories of the weird and uncanny…”]
PERSONNEL: Ian Maxwell (producer).
(3LO, MELBOURNE)
[Tuesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
February 20, 1945 “The Bagman Tells Another”
[MELBOURNE ARGUS: “…Four Creepy Tales of the Australian Outback, by
Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland…”]
(7ZR, HOBART]
[Tuesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
March 6, 1945 “The Bagman Tells Another”
(3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Saturday—3:00-4:00 PM]
April 28, 1945 “The Bagman Tells Another”
(7ZL, HOBART—ABC)
[Thursday—8:00-9:00 PM]
July 26, 1945 “The Bagman Camps Again”
(7ZR, HOBART—ABC)
[Tuesday—8:00-9:00 PM]
May 14, 1946 “Night Tales of a Bagman”
(3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Thursday—8:00-9:00 PM]
July 11, 1946 “The Bagman Swings His Billy”
(5CL, ADELAIDE—ABC)
[Friday—9:00-10:00 PM]
June 6, 1947 “The Bagman Tells Another”
[ADELAIDE ADVERTISER: “…Four creepy tales of the Australian
outback…will be presented…”]
(4QG, BRISBANE—ABC)
[Friday—10:30-11:00 PM]
October 17, 1947 “The Bagman Camps Again”
[BRISBANE COURIER-MAIL: “…Play by D’Arcy Niland…”]
(4QN, TOWNSVILLE—ABC)
[Friday—9:30-10:30 PM]
November 28, 1947 “The Bagman on the Wallaby”
SATURDAY PLAY (3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Saturday—9:00-10:00 PM]
May 1, 1948 “The Bagman Takes It Easy”
[OG-NOTE: The script for this program is archived in the Fryer Library of the University
of Queensland. Authorship is credited to both Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland. The
individual stories are cited by title: “The Vanishing Man,” “The Women at the Nine-
Mile,” “The Clock,” and “The Gum-Climbers.”]
RADIO REPERTORY (5DR, DARWIN)
[Sunday—7:00-8:00 PM]
June 27, 1948 “The Bagman Takes It Easy”
[DARWIN NORTHERN STANDARD: “…by Ruth Parke [sic]…”]
(3AR, MELBOURNE)
[Saturday—8:00-9:15 PM]
September 25, 1948 “The Bagman’s Best”
(5AN, ADELAIDE)
[Saturday—9:00-10:00 PM]
October 9, 1948 “The Bagman’s Best”
[ADELAIDE ADVERTISER: “… ‘The Bagman’s Nest [sic]’…”]
(5AD, ADELAIDE)
[Friday—8:45-9:45 PM]
October 28, 1948 “The Bagman Swings His Billy”
PERSONNEL: Stafford Dyson (producer).
(7ZL, HOBART—ABC)
[Friday—9:15-10:15 PM]
April 14, 1950 “The Bagman on the Wallaby”
June 23, 1950 “The Bagman Camps Again”
(5CL, ADELAIDE—ABC)
[Sunday—3:40-4:45 PM]
July 9, 1950 “The Bagman on the Wallaby”
[ADELAIDE ADVERTISER: “…Stafford Dyson will produce the Australian
play, ‘The Bagman on the Wallaby’…”]
(7ZL, HOBART—ABC INTERSTATE)
[Friday—9:15-10:15 PM]
July 21, 1950 “The Bagman Swings His Billy”
MATINEE (5CL, ADELAIDE)
[Sunday—3:40-4:45 PM]
July 23, 1950 “The Bagman Camps Again”
(7ZL, HOBART—ABC INTERSTATE)
[Friday—9:15-10:15 PM]
October 20, 1950 “The Bagman Takes It Easy”
(2FC, SYDNEY—ABC)
[Saturday—8:00-9:00 PM]
April 24, 1954 “The Bagman Camps Again”
(5AN, ADELAIDE)
[Saturday—9:00-10:00 PM]
May 15, 1954 “The Bagman Camps Again”
(7NT, HOBART)
[Tuesday—7:15-8:15 PM]
June 1, 1954 “The Bagman Camps Again”
SEPTEMBER 10, 1954:
[Townsville Daily Bulletin—“Open Road” by Bob Bloodwood]
“…whilst on the subject of swagmen, I’ve met hundreds in my time, and there
were some pretty queer coves amongst them, but until a radio station put over
that play ‘The Bagman Camps Again’ the other night I’ll be hanged if I ever
heard one with an Oxford accent. It literally made my blood boil to see genuine
swagmen lampooned like that…”
TALES OF A BAGMAN (ABC)
[Monday—
December 16, 1957
[AUSTRALIAN OTR DATABASE: “15m… First broadcast… Kelly Douglas
(narrator)…”]
Ruth Park D’Arcy Niland