"The Men from the
Ministry"
recorded for Radio South Africa
(1993)
When commercial
station Springbok Radio (broadcast by the South African
Broadcasting Corporation) closed after 35 years, listeners demanded "The
Men from the Ministry" remain on the air, so arrangements were made with
the SABC's Radio South Africa to continue running there. The show
was produced this time by SABC radio drama producer Don Ridgway in the
same studio in Old Fort Road, Durban.
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| The cast of
"Men" were asked to write a short biography on their characters
for Radio South Africa... |
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Tom
Meehan
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John
Simpson
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Roger
Service
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Maureen
Adair
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Tommy
Read
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Frank
Graham
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Click
on a photo to link to the bio
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Below are pics
taken from a promotional video tape made for TV at the first recording session
of the Men from the Ministry for broadcast on Radio South Africa on 2
October 1993. It's called "Pitkinworld here!".
In this episode,
Roland Lennox-Brown and Richard Lamb of the General Assistance Department are
called in to over see the opening of the Stevenage Sewerage Scheme (which has
taken 10 years to complete) and the creation of "London's answer to America's
Disneyland and Disneyworld, to France's Eurodisney, to Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens....
to Blackpool's Tower!" Sir Gregory has, in all modesty, named it "Pitkinworld".
"Wouldn't it be funny if there was a mix-up somewhere."
said Waldo Wagtail from COWSLIP, the Control of Water, Sound and
Light installations at Pitkinworld.
"Mix-up?" said Mildred, "With Mr. Lennox-Brown and
Mr. Lamb miles away from each other? Nothing can happen - not
this time!" .....
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John:
Roger:
Sir G:
Mildred:
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General Assistance Department,
Number One speaking.
Hello! This is Number Two.
Pitkin here!
It's them again, the Men from the Ministry!
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| The original cast: (l-r) Frank Graham,
Tommy Read (background), Maureen Adair, Tom Meehan, Roger Service and John
Simpson with Brian Squires looking on. |
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| Number One and Number Two
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Mildred and Richard Lamb |
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| Dear old Humbert and Lolita Snetherswaite
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Frank Graham playing Waldo Wagtail,
in a scene with Maureen
and Roger. |
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This series
of "Men" played for about 71 episodes on Radio South Africa,
half of which were recorded before an audience in the SABC studios, and
the other half were taken to various locations in and around Durban as
it was very often difficult to get sufficient people to come to the studios
on recording nights. This also happened towards the end of the Springbok
Radio days. People had television to entertain them at home and many people
preferred to stay at home at night.
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Tom Meehan and producer
Don Ridgway |
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| Read an article printed
in the Afrikaans "Keur" magazine when Men closed on Radio
South Africa |
Compiled and published to the Internet
by Robin Davis,
Kloof, South Africa
January 2002
© Robin Davis,
2002
