Ralph Rashleigh and the Bushrangers

Ralph Rashleigh and the Bushrangers is a 1953 Australian radio play by Edmund Barclay based on an 1840s novel by James Tucker.

The novel had been republished in 1952, edited by Colin Roderick who claimed that he discovered James Tucker was the author. This event ignited a great deal of public interest in the novel which would be adapted for radio three times over a two-year period: twice by the ABC, and once by commercial radio.

There was another ABC radio adaptation of a Tucker work, Jemmy Green in Australia.

Premise
The October 1953 adaptation did not cover all the novel by focused on Ralph Rashleigh's adventures with bushranger Foxley.

According to ABC Weekly "Edmund Barclay takes up Ralph’s story when he is tramping to Campbelltown. He has been assigned as convict labour to “Lunnon Bob” Arlack. His heart is light, for he is walking away from two bitter-bad years served at the Government agricultural settlement, Emu Plains: two years of the whip and the bludgeon, two years of shackles and shame. But though Ralph is optimistic, further troubles are waiting close round the bend. Hair-raising experiences are the result of his entanglement with Poxley and a desperate gang of bushrangers."

Cast of ABC Version

 * Robert Cubbage as Ralph Rashleigh
 * John Ewart as Phil Foxley
 * John Tate as McCoy
 * Jerry Wells as Smith
 * Ron Whelan as First Quoit Player, Shanovan
 * Keith Jarvis as Second Quoit Player
 * Ida Newton as Sally Arlack
 * Sheila Sewell as Mrs. Marshall
 * Frances Worthington as Jane
 * Alan Herbert as Bob Arlack
 * George Simpson-Lyttle as A Constable
 * Lionel Stevens as Old Sobersides
 * Sidney Chambers as Robbie Marshall
 * Rosemary Miller as Lucy
 * David Butler as O’Leary
 * Nigel Lovell AS Jem McGuffin

Reception
According to the Adelaide Mail "The rather ponderous narration was irritating at first, but after a while the elaborate language... had the effect of adding to Roxley's enormities and giving them a kind of Dickensian grotesqueness. The burning of the con stables, the attack on the farm while a party was in progress, the terrible scene when Foxley captured McGuffin. a former overseer — all these gave a pic ture of savagery and brutality that must for ever be an ugly smear on Australia's early history."

1952 ABC Reading
The novel had already been adapted as a serial for ABC radio starting in November 1952, adapted by Colin Roderick. Episodes went for fifteen minutes and the show was broadcast at 8.45am. Alistair Duncan read out the novel.

1953 Commercial Serial
In January 1953 it was announced Fidelty, an Australian company, bought the rights to serialise the novel for commercial radio. Coral Lansbury did the adaptation. Lasbury married radio producer George Edwards in February 1953 while working on the serial.

Episodes went for sixty minutes and broadcast for 60 minutes on Sunday nights on 2UW.

Reception
The Sydney Daily Telegraph said Lansbury "is making a neat, workmanlike job of the adaptation. However, if you happen to be interested in Mr. Rashleigh's heliotrope period you will most probably enjoy this serial. The actors seem to have given more thought than usual to its characters, who are drawn with quite a compelling sympathy for the crude comradeship, of the period."

Cast

 * Leonard Bullen as Ralph Rashleigh
 * Brenda Dunrich
 * Owen Ainley
 * Lou Vernon
 * Atholl Fleming
 * Nellie Lamport
 * Kevin Brennan