Carter Brown Mysteries was a crime detection thriller series produced by Grace Gibson Radio Production and first broadcast in 1957. This episode is an adaptation of the Carter Brown detective novel Curves For A Coroner, published in 1955.

Author Carter Brown introduces and concludes this story where a group of entertainers are stuck in the English countryside in the middle of a snowstorm, a common thriller set-up where travellers seeking shelter get entangled in a mystery and in this case discover the secret in the cellar.

The story was either presented over four episodes as Carter Brown Mysteries or as a complete story over an hour as Carter Brown Mystery Theatre.

The Carter Brown radio series, as with many Grace Gibson Productions, successfully sold to other territories such as New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the British West Indies.

Image: detail from Carter Brown Mystery Theatre publicity. NFSA title: 356337. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

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The Golden Cobweb, a drama series in which Interpol agents unravel an attempt to rule the currencies of the world’s most powerful nations, was produced by Grace Gibson Radio Productions and first broadcast in 1956.

This series was inspired by real-life events such as Operation Bernhard, the code name for the Nazi operation to forge British currency during the Second World War, as well as the intrigue surrounding the British spies, Burgess and MacLean.

The series features major talents in the world of Australian radio drama – actors Lloyd Berrell, Guy Doleman and Lyndall Barbour – together with the veteran theatre and radio drama director Lawrence H Cecil.

Image: the staged dramatic photo includes (left-right): an unidentified woman, actor Lloyd Berrell, Warren Paine (a studio panel operator) and Valerie Vine (production manager for Grace Gibson Radio Productions). A cut-down version of this photo was used to promote the series in The Age newspaper on 6 April 1956. NFSA title: 1124056. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

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Unknown Quantity was a romantic mystery serial produced by Grace Gibson Radio Productions, in which Sarah Travers becomes caught in a web of murder and deception when she agrees to let a young lawyer pose as her husband.

The drama was adapted by Kathleen Carroll from a 1953 novel written by American author Mignon Eberhart.

Directed by Lawrence H Cecil, the main cast included Patricia Kennedy, Phyllis Best, Lloyd Berrell as Jake Dickson and as Sarah Travers, Margo Lee. Other cast members included Beulah ‘Babs’ Mayhew, Philip Collidge and Alan Herbert.

Unknown Quantity was first broadcast in 1956.

Image: Kathleen Carroll (left) and Grace Gibson. Courtesy Grace Gibson Productions.

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Mystery is My Hobby was a crime series produced by Grace Gibson Radio Productions and broadcast from 1954.

It was adapted for Australian audiences from American scripts and featured the adventures of Barton Drake, criminologist and 'man about town'.

Bruce Stewart played the lead with Lloyd Berrell as Inspector Danton.

Image: Publicity image for Mystery is My Hobby. NFSA title: 358748. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

Dragnet was an American radio police drama that drew on the case books of the Los Angeles Police Department for its stories. It was later successfully adapted for US television and also became a series of feature films.

The radio series was adapted for Australian audiences from the US scripts. It starred Frank Waters and Joe McCormack, with narration by Howard Craven.

This episode was broadcast in 1952. It was directed by Reg Johnston, who had died suddenly the previous year, on 17 August 1951.

Image: Frank Waters, who played Detective-Sergeant Joe Friday in Dragnet. NFSA Title No 353568. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

SoundCloud cover Image: Detail from Dragnet publicity. NFSA Title No 356337. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions

This mystery thriller radio serial tells what happens when Gail Barrie and her friend Margaret Allen are kidnapped on their way to claim a million dollars from Gail's father.

The cast includes Charles Tingwell, Guy Doleman, Richard Ashley, Lynne Murphy and Wendy Playfair.

Pictured left-right, sitting: Richard Ashley, Lynne Murphy, Kathleen Carroll (scriptwriter) and Charles Tingwell; standing are Guy Doleman and Wendy Playfair. Panel operator is Rod Tremayne. Circa 1951. NFSA title: 1341451. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

This serial was adapted from a number-one bestselling historical novel by Rachel Field, based on the true story of a notorious French murder case.

After joining the de Praslin household as governess, Henriette de Luzy falls in love with the Duc, enraging his wife and setting in motion a chain of events resulting in jealousy, murder, imprisonment and – eventually, true love and happiness.

A 1940 Hollywood film adaptation of the novel starred Bette Davis and Charles Boyer.

Image: Detail from All This and Heaven Too publicity poster. NFSA Title No 775466. Courtesy Grace Gibson Productions.

A thriller series based on two Raymond Chandler novels, The Lady in the Lake and The High Window.

This Grace Gibson Production starred Reginald Goldsworthy as super-sleuth Philip Marlowe, with Leonard Bullen, Aileen Britton, Paul McNaughton and Lyndall Barbour.

Image: Detail from publicity portrait of Reg Goldsworthy. NFSA title: 1487040. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions.

This 1946 radio drama, produced by Dorothy Crawford, tells the story of opera singer Nellie Melba’s life. The 78 half-hour episodes went to air weekly on Melbourne's then leading radio station 3DB and was broadcast in 17 other countries. Soprano Glenda Raymnd played the part of Melba.

Born in Melbourne in 1911, Dorothy Crawford was a television and radio drama producer. As co-founder of Crawford Productions she made a significant contribution to the company’s success, which not only dominated radio production in Melbourne, but was one of the few independent production companies to successfully transition from radio to television in Australia.

An article for the publication Wireless Weekly written by Lynn Foster, circa 1938, about writing for radio.  Reproduced by arrangement with Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd.

The cover of Radio Pictorial of Australia, from June 1941. The cover features radio actress Nell Stirling.  The coverline reads "NELL STIRLING - one of Australia's brilliant radio stars. In private life Miss Stirling is the wife of George Edwards".

George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr of The Beatles interviewed by Binny Lum in London, England in 1964. Published courtesy of Sharon Terry and Geoff Charter. Transcript by Peta Cassar.

Queenie Ashton (as Lady Isabel) and Ronald Morse (as Francis Levison) in the 1939 radio serial East Lynne.

Advertisement for 'East Lynne', featuring Queenie Ashton and Harvey Adams and produced by Grace Gibson’s BAP and broadcast on 2CH and 2HD, 'Radio Pictorial Australia', May 1939

Much loved coloratura soprano, Glenda Crawford (nee Raymond), known for her role in The Melba Story and later as an Executive Producer for Crawford Productions, also starred in the 1955 weekly radio musical Glenda Sings. 

Queenie Ashton (as the titular queen) and Harvey Adams (as Louis XVI) in the 1939 radio serial Marie Antoinette.

Amber Mae Cecil (as Janie) in the 2GB comedy Life with Dexter, also starring Ray Hartley.

The cast of the popular 2GB family radio comedy, Life with Dexter.

Pictured from left to right, Kevin Brennan, Ray Hartley, Patricia Martin, Harp McGuire, Margaret Christensen, Harry Harper and Willie Fennell and Amber Mae Cecil who at age 15 played the role of the daughter, Janie.

Excerpt from an early 1951 episode of popular crime series D24 (1951–60), based on real files from the Victorian Police Force. Provided courtesy of Crawford Productions Pty Ltd.

Amber Mae Cecil stars as Chichi in the serial Life Can be Beautiful, also starring Roger Climpson and Lou Vernon.

The 1939 play There is No Armour, written by Lynn Foster and performed at the Independent Theatre in Sydney, was also adapted for radio, NFSA title no. 195608

Lynn Foster (1914 - 1985) wrote The Lost Generation in 1945 to assist the Commonwealth War Loan Office’s appeal for people to buy war bonds in the Fourth Victory Loan. She wrote a part for her friend, Peter Finch, and persuaded him to accept a weekly wage so he could save the fare to travel to London where he later became a well-known actor.

Lynn Foster wrote and directed the 1946 radio serial Crossroads of Life featuring Peter Finch and Thelma Scott.

Born in Sydney in 1914, Lynn Foster was an important pioneer in the radio industry, being the first woman in Australia to direct a major radio serial on a national network, as well as the first to write and direct one. She also played a major part in the advancement of the status of writers in the radio industry.

Ethel Lang is heard here in The Hidden Truth, a radio series adapted from American scripts starring the inventor of the lie detector using his own invention to solve crimes, produced by Hilda Scurr circa 1960.

Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories was a long-running radio program that aired in America from 1937 - 1956 and in Australia from 1943 until 1961.

In Australia, Ethal Lang (1902 - 1995) appeared as 'Aunt Jenny' for commercial radio 2UE and narrated each 15 minute episode. After the story, often a tear jerker or cliff-hanger, Lang would offer the listeners her valuable advice and also introduce recipes. The program unashamably targetted a 'housewife' audience.

Binny Lum talks about her interview with The Beatles in London, 1964. This clip is an excerpt from Binny Lum's oral history interview with Denzil Howson in 1994. 

The full oral history interview can be found here on the NFSA Australia Soundcloud channel.

Fred Astaire, American film and Broadway stage dancer, singer and actor interviewed by Binny Lum in Ava Gardner's dressing room during the filming of On the Beach in Melbourne in 1959.

The cover of Radio Pictorial of Australia, from April 1940. The cover features radio actress Kitty Bluett, photographed by Max Shepherd.  The coverline reads "Kitty Bluett, now appearing over 2GB. You will hear her better if you listen with a FISK RADIOLA, Australia's Finest Broadcast Receiver".

A later episode (circa 1963) of long running Grace Gibson Productions radio serial Dr Paul, featuring Brigid Lenihan (Molly), Laurel Mather (Elizabeth) and Amber Mae Cecil (Leota), NFSA title no. 202616