As Ye Sow

As Ye Sow is a 1937 Australian radio serial by Edmund Barclay. It told the story of six generations of Australians in early colonial Australia.

It was "regarded by many critics as the greatest contribution to Australian historical drama."

Premise
The story of an Australian family from 1788 to 1938, beginning with convict woman, Prudence Dent, and the Rum Corps officer, Gilbert Teal.

Background
Barclay had written an earlier saga about an Australian family for radio Love o' Land but that was a one off drama not a serial.

Barclay later said, "I lived with the characters in As Ye Sow for six months prior to writing the story."

He added, "In my heart, I felt that Janet in As Ye Sow deserved a happier ending, but I couldn't let personal feelings interfere... I had dozens of letters protesting -against my treatment of Bluey and Mary... I can only say that it just had to turn 'out' that way."

The series was heavily publicised by the ABC.

The serial ran into September, after which it was followed by another Barclay serial, Into the Light, set in medieval Europe.

Reception
The Bulletin said it "is not, as done, as good a thing as it might be. " However the same magazine later said "the production shines because of its  excellent radio technique. To portray  character, suggest scenery and limn every situation definitely and unmistakably by sound alone is a difficult job, but it has been accomplished in this case with signal success."

Leslie Rees called it: "A pioneer in historical-personal writing for Australian radio... There were faults of sentimentality and strained pattern-making as well as other shortcomings... but the story also had epic progress, characters who could become more real than one’s own circle, and the liveliest interest in the Australian chronicle... It gathered a tremendous following from coast to coast. No one had ever before tried to recreate the whole course of Australia’s history in one dramatic chronicle... Barclay’s success, more particularly in the first dozen episodes, was in projecting a group of characters as real as the members of one’s own family, with side-philosophies humorous and human, and in a confident flow of action." Clement Semmler called it "an early ABC triumph... written by a prolific and usually hack radio writer."

The series was very popular. There was another version in 1941, 1947 and 1951.

In the late 1940s there was discussion the drama would be filmed in Hollywood.

Select episodes

 * Ep 1 (4 Jan 1937). Seed Time
 * Ep 2 (11 Jan 1937). Wavering
 * Ep 3 (18 Jan) Crossing the Rubicon
 * Ep 4 (25 Jan) Tillage
 * Ep 5 (1 Feb) The First Australians
 * Ep 6 (8 Feb) The Golden Fleece
 * Ep 7 (15 Feb) Governor Bligh
 * Ep 8 (22 Feb) Over the Mountain
 * Ep 9 (1 March) Broadacres
 * Ep 10 (8 March) Gilbert the Second
 * Ep 11 (15 March) Reap in Joy
 * Ep 12 (22 March) Harvest Home
 * Ep 13 (29 March) Evensong
 * Ep 14 (5 April) The New Era
 * Ep 15 (12 April) The Gold Rush
 * Ep 16 (19 April) The Eureka Stockade
 * Ep 17 (26 April) Ploughshares into Scales
 * Ep 18 (3 May) Sydney Siders
 * Ep 19 (10 May) Coming of Age
 * Ep 20 (17 May) Town and Country
 * Ep 21 (24 May) Reaping Enquiry
 * Ep 22 (31 May) Many Waters
 * Ep 23 (7 June) The Rift
 * Ep 24 (14 June) Black Wednesday
 * Ep 25 (21 June) The Last of the Old
 * Ep 26 (28 June) The Barren Harvest
 * Ep 27 (5 July) Federation
 * Ep 28 (12 July) Nearing Today
 * Ep 29 (19 July) Prelude to War
 * 30 (26 July) Anzac
 * Ep 31 (2 August) Turn of the Tide
 * Ep 32 (9 August) The Last of the Teals
 * Ep 33 (16 August) The Bubble Bursts
 * Ep 34 (23 August) Prudence and Gilbert
 * Ep 35 (30 Aug) Big John Intervenes
 * Ep 36 (6 Sept) The New Crop (last episode)