June 13 (1954-06-13) – August 15, 1954 (1954-08-15)
No. of series
1
No. of episodes
10
Silver Ridge is a 1954 Australian adventure radio series by Max Afford. It was set in Australia at a time when that was relatively rare. The serial was one of Afford's last productions prior to his death in 1954.[2]
A sound recording of the play and original scripts are at the University of Queensland Library.[5]
Reception
The Adelaide Mail thought it "opened promisingly enough... But it fell down completely when characters like railway fettlers, police constables, and hotel hands came on the scene. I found the disconcerting accents of these characters sufficient to detract from the main action of the play. Maybe I'll get used to it in time but I think It would be easier for the actors concerned just to speak like normal people."[6]
The Sydney Morning Herald thought Afford "does not appear to have learned... that there is a germane difference between the credibility of a story and the credulity of an audience."[7]
The Advocate thought "It's not often that one can accuse Mr. Afford of piling cliche upon cliche, but his situations this serial are one long cliche. And, for some obscure reason — possibly the B.B.C. has an eye on this feature as giving a representation of part of Australia—his dialogue is so crammed with what passes for typical Australian jargon that it sounds embarrassingly theatrical and self-conscious. Mr. Afford can do, and has done, much better than this."[8]
The ABC Weekly said "if the dialogue is very limited in range, at least it has a sort of honest thuggery about it."[9]
Premise
A tale of espionage set in the mining city of Silver Ridge.
^"2FC-2NA SUNDAY AUGUST 8", ABC Weekly, 16 (32), Sydney, 7 August 1954, retrieved 26 August 2023 – via Trove
^Philp, Peter (2016). Drama in Silent Rooms. Eureka Media Communications. p. 435.
^"'Silver Ridge" on 2NB". Barrier Daily Truth. Vol. XLVI, no. 14, 525. New South Wales, Australia. 22 September 1954. p. 5. Retrieved 26 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^"People and Programmes", ABC Weekly, 18 (2), Sydney: ABC, 14 January 1956, retrieved 26 August 2023 – via Trove
^"RADIO. FILM". Advocate. Vol. LXXXVII, no. 5165. Victoria, Australia. 22 July 1954. p. 18. Retrieved 26 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Theatre", ABC Weekly, 16 (30), Sydney, 24 July 1954, retrieved 10 September 2023 – via Trove
^"Scene from Sunday Serial", ABC Weekly, 16 (27), Sydney, 3 July 1954, nla.obj-1692598913, retrieved 21 October 2023 – via Trove
