Blue Hills (1950), by Gwen Meredith

For those of us whose childhood featured radio rather than TV, nostalgic memories of favourite programs are of children’s programs.  (The family lore is that I was named at my sister’s command after a character from Listen with Mother on the BBC.) But for adults, it was radio dramas.  In England there was The Archers, which is apparently still going, and here in Australia, there was Gwen Meredith’sBlue Hills. Blue Hills was broadcast from 1949 to 1976, but I never heard it. My parents were oblivious to popular culture. By the time I was old enough to choose my radio programs (and have my own ‘wireless’ in my bedroom!) I was listening to The Beatles…

Still, I seem always to have known about Blue Hills.  I can even hum its theme music because the introductory bars and the announcement (archived at the NFSA’s Australian Screen, listen here