Ballad of Riverboat bill (26 December 1965)

 Six part children's series. 15 minute episodes.

Written by Cliff Green.

Writer: Cliff Green / Producer: Beverley Gledhill / Director: Peter Summerton

Period children’s comedy drama serial. In the 1890’s Riverboat Bill plies his trade up the Murray River helped by his assorted crew which included a Chinese cook by the name of Harry Curry and Fred Clinker his engineer.

Bill also had a bunyip aboard his boat. Bill’s base was the town of Rivergum.

cast
RON HADRICK as Riverboat Bill
MICHAEL CROSBY
FRANK TAYLOR

Started 26 Dec 1965 in Sydney see here.

Green's papers are here. He did some sequels

Cliff Green Interview with Susan Lever

Well, I was a teacher in the Bush, out in the Malay in Victoria; little tiny school - seven, or eight, or nine kids.  And I wanted to do a Christmas play with the kids, a little drama production.  And I wrote this called Christmas at Boggy Creek. And we had a writer staying with us; an old writer friend named David Martin, who was actually researching up in that area for a book he later wrote called The Hero of Two. And he read the play, and he said, “You want to send this off to the ABC”. He said, “This would play quite nicely”. And he said “television” but I thought, “Oh, that’s aiming a bit high”.

And we actually didn’t have television; I am talking about the 1950s. And so I did what I thought was a radio adaptation of it, and sent it off. And after the requisite six weeks, I got a letter back saying, “This is totally unsuitable for radio. It is all visual. Would you like to have another go and adapt it for television?”

We didn’t have television - there was no television in the country by that time, in Australia. And I had a book which was a BBC publication called How to Write for Television; a slim little volume. It was actually, How Not to Write for Television” or what you couldn’t write for; you know - one set for the window and the door, and all that.

So I did an adaptation of it and I sent that off. And they made it! So here I was - first script produced!And it went on at 5 o’clock, in Children’s Time as it was then; very like the old Argonauts that is on television.

               And then it was my turn to place nothing, of course. But I did get another gig. We shifted up to the Murray; a little school up there. And I wrote a story set on the Murray, about a paddle steamer, Riverboat Bill - a paddle steamer captain. And I had written it as a novel, a children’s book, so I sat down and I adapted that. And I did it in four ten-minute episodes - which they still ran like little ten-minute radio serial episodes. And I was invited to go to Sydney while they did it, which was a big learning curve. And it was made in a little studio; and they created the river with black plastic and plastic waterlilies and so on. And it was done almost pantomime-style.

               And then they said they wanted a sequel. Now, they didn’t commission a sequel - which they didn’t in those days.  And so I wrote a sequel. But then they shifted th children’s programs down to Melbourne, to the Magic Circle Club Adventure Island Group down here. And I was sort of appointed (again no money!) as standby writer for that show. But John-Michael Howson was the writer; he was also one of the performers. And I never got a look-in on that show, don’t worry!

               And then I got contacted - I was teaching out in the Bush, as I said - and they decided to start making educational programs; ABC and the Education Department combined. And the Education Department flushed out anybody, any teachers they had with television experience - writers, or presenters, or whatever.

               So I then wrote a lot of - I wrote a number of twenty-minute pieces; dramas, little dramas for English primary school; a lot of little docos for Social Studies. And one of the producers or directors I had worked with at the ABC went across to Crawfords. And he gave me a ring one day and he said, “They’re desperately short of writers here. I think you would stand muster here”. So he said, “We’re sending you a sort of audition kit”. 

               So you had to write an original Homicide storyline, and write a few scenes. So I sent in. And ultimately I was hired at Crawfords.  So I left teaching - which was quite a jump because I had been in the department for about ten years, and by this time I had a school of about forty or fifty kids and a couple of assistants - or an assistant, and a… and so on.

Age 13 Jan 1966

Age 28 Jan 1967