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Clip description
Shannon Jones (Liddy Clark) and her colleagues Reggie (Alfred Bell), Andy (John Warnock) and Hilda (June Collis) are recording a radio serial, Ma and Her Little Darling. Sound effects are done live in the studio and the cast collapse in laughter during a take.
Curator’s notes
The radio serials were the original soap operas and had vast audiences who tuned in to listen to their idols’ latest adventures as faithfully as any TV series fan would today. Some of the best fun in this series comes out of the scenes depicting Shannon’s career as a radio presenter and performer. A nice touch in the writing in this clip is the contrast drawn between the atrocities being perpetrated in Europe, being read as a news broadcast, and the relative innocence of life in faraway Australia as depicted through the radio script.
The cast of Ride On Stranger is full of actors who cut their teeth on radio. Margo Lee, who plays Lucy Rossingdale, Shannon’s introduction to the world of radio, was a genuine star of the medium. She was always referred to on air as ‘the beautiful Margo Lee’, whether in credits or by way of introduction. It was a special clause written into her standard contract .
