Yes What?
Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio · 1940–1950
Broadcasts
175
Cadence
Fortnightly
Rated
PG
Since
1940
The run
- Network
- Australian commercial radio
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 175
- Genre
- comedy
Yes, What? was an Australian radio comedy first broadcast in 1936, and is one of the best known examples of Australian radio drama. Originally called The Fourth Form at St Percy's, it was a comedy set in a school classroom. The program ran for 520 episodes and was written, produced and directed by Rex Dawe. Yes, What? began its life as The Fourth Form at St. Percy's. It was based on the radio serial The Fourth Form at St. Michael's by Will Hay, which aired in the 1920s. Rex Dawe, a young Adelaide broadcaster, decided to write the program. 5AD Programme Manager Morrie Chapman granted a fifty shillings budget for the show as well as an additional ten shillings for the writer / producer. The cast were mostly chosen from a youth production group The Kangaroo Club. Fifteen-year-old Ralph Peterson was hired to play the larrikin Bottomly and is often described a being a classroom rebel himself. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “0225-yes-what-episode-225-poets-and-their-phone-numbers”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. 0003-Yes What Episode (03) · Date unknown
- 2. 0219-Yes What Episode (219) Fishing Tackle · Date unknown
- 3. 0248-Yes What Episode (248) Greenbottle's Orange · Date unknown
- 01
0003-Yes What Episode (03)
Date unknown · 12 min
- 02
0219-Yes What Episode (219) Fishing Tackle
Date unknown · 13 min
- 03
0248-Yes What Episode (248) Greenbottle's Orange
Date unknown · 13 min
- 04
0287-Yes What Episode (287) The School Fete
Date unknown · 11 min
- 05
0520-Yes What Episode (520) The Last Episode
Date unknown · 11 min
- 06
0211-Yes What Episode (211) Chemistry
Date unknown · 13 min
- 07
0237-Yes What Episode (237) Bottomly Is Caught Cheating
Date unknown · 13 min
- 08
0282-Yes What Episode (282) Latin
Date unknown · 12 min
Also on Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while Yes What? was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
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