A Rum Affair

A Rum Affair is a 1940 Australian radio play by Alec Coppel.

Although Coppel was Australian, most of his career took place overseas. A Rum Affair was a rare work of his that debuted in Australia. It premiered in 1940 on the ABC as part of a series of Australian plays.

Leslie Rees called it "a short, irresponsible comedy of fantastic situation... Alec Coppel is willing to take types and settings that have served in other plays; his originality is in his wit and deft sense of situation and holding... of suspense... A Rum Affair is a saucy morsel."

Another critic called it "the most suave and delicately balance radio script we have seen for years, only a trifle... but a trifle that is like a waffle that melts in the mouth. We don't often say, don’t miss this; but, don’t miss this. "

The play was produced again in 1942, 1946 and 1958.

The 1946 version starred Peter Finch and was directed by Frank Harvey. A review of this production called it "a pleasant enough trifle, proving a good starring vehicle for Peter Finch. For a while he stayed in the substrata of understatement, but on the entrance of the ghost a mos seductive shade played by Sheila Sewell, things got going so you could hear them. Outstanding was a nice piece of character from erstwhile A.B.C. producer Charles Wheeler. Production, by Frank Harvey, ideal."

The play possibly was adapted by Coppel as The Story of an Inn, a stage play he announced in the 1940s but which doesn't appear to have been produced. It was called a comedy dealing with social regeneration. The play was postponed reportedly due to its large cast. A 1943 article asked Coppel, "We’d like to see it. We’ve heard a lot about it. You’ve often been about to produce it but never got very far. Now’s the time. Give yourself and Sydney a chance. "

Premise
A travelling young man, Peter, pulls in for a night at a Kentish village that was once on the sea, but is now inland, because the sea has receded. The inn is haunted by a female ghost, Helene. He also encounters a man called Clifford and a yokel.