George Edwards and his wife Nell Stirling were the first superstars (and the first millionaires) of
Australian radio. In their heyday in the mid-Thirties they were on the air from dawn to dusk and
beyond, doing a breakfast club-type show in the morning, a children’s adventure serial in the late
afternoon, an episode from the casebook of Inspector Scottanda literature-based serial in the
early evening, and some other type of dramatic anthology series later on into the night. Plus on
Sunday evenings would come the dramatic highlight of the week, theGeorge Edwards Sunday
Play. And, starting about ’37 or ’38, the long-running rural-humour serial,Dad and Dave.
Nell appears to have been the business brains of the team, and after a couple of years doing a
grueling schedule of live broadcasting all day long, she negotiated with another Sydney station to
take on all their productions as transcriptions. Thus the George Edwards Company was able to
expand out to many markets, including the BBC’s chief rival in those days, Radio Luxembourg.
One of the reasons that George Edwards became so popular with listeners was his great and
almost uncanny skill to do several characters at once within the same sketch (which, before radio,
he had mainly done just as a “parlor trick” for friends). It became a national past-time to tune in
and try to guess which and how many of the voices in the night’s episode or drama belonged to
George Edwards. Later, in the 1940s, he cut back on his multi-voicing and generally played just
one role per sketch, but since the cast was never announced at show’s end, many listeners
continued to believe that most of the parts per show were still being played by the star.
George Edwards Productions, Sydney, New South Wales (electrical transcriptions).
Circa 1942.
[
The Australian OTR Database notes that the serial ran on 3KZ in 1943.]
George Edwards (producer), Betty Roland (scriptwriter).
George Edwards (Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde), Nell Stirling, et al.
Complete 52-episode serial.
A BBC series done during the Sixties.
November 22-December 6, 1961.
None.
A sub-series of theStorytimeseries.
Radio 4, London (BBC).
January 31, 1977-
G. S. Emslie (producer), Leonard Maguire (adapter).
Unknown.
Joss Ackland reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel.
Radio 2, London (BBC).
January 5-February 9, 2001.
Joss Ackland (reader), Jane Marshall (producer.
Jan. 5, 2001
Story of the Door”
Jan. 12, 2001
The Carew Murder Case”
Jan. 19, 2001
Incident of the Letter”
Jan. 26, 2001
The Last Night”
Feb. 2, 2001
Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”
Feb. 9, 2001
Henry Jekyll’s Statement”
Yvonne Antrobus (scriptwriter—2007,TheSaturday Play),
Claire Grove (director—2007,The Saturday Play),
CAST [2007,The Saturday Play]: Sam Dale (Lanyon), Adam Godley (Dr. Jekyll), David
Horovitch (Utterson), Christine Kavanagh (Mrs. Utterson), Joseph Kloska (Poole), Ian Masters
(Sir Danvers), Emma Noakes (Girl / Maid), Mark Straker (Enfield), Bethan Walker
(Housekeeper).