First Uploaded October 18 2001

In 1972 as part of the BBC's 50th Anniversary celebrations, the original Barton team was reassembled to perform an abridged version of the first story. This story has previously been available on audiocassette, and in June 2001 has finally been made available on CD.

1972 remake of the first story.

Dick Barton & Snowey perform in the 1940s, while a junior programme engineer provides sound effects.

Rather than just taking the BBC's productions of the serial (which may not have been available in any case), Australian company, Australasian Radio Productions secured rights to the format (a standard practice with US shows) from the BBC, and also the scripts by the Edward J. Mason and Geoffrey Webb. This allowed the producers to more closely tailor the programme to it's Australia audience.

Dick Barton was played by Melbourne actor Douglas Kelly. The show was sponsored by Cadbury-Fry-Pascall Ltd, and made "by special arrangement with the BBC".
    The series was still set in England and Europe. Later a novelist, Morris West did the the adaptations.

In total, over 350 episodes were produced from the late 1940s onward. The series was also broadcast in New Zealand.

The 20 x 15 minute per story format, seems to have been followed.

Unlike the BBC's version, most of these episodes have been preserved, although only a couple of episodes have been commercially issued. They feature on this CD from ScreenSound Australia  - Radio After Dark, along with episodes from four other shows.
If anyone has any more information on the Australian shows, please email me.