Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly is a 1942 radio play by Douglas Stewart about the outlaw Ned Kelly. It was later adapted into a stage play which was in turn adapted for television. The play was first produced as a radio play on the ABC, 21 June 1942. It was originally written for stage then adapted into radio but was broadcast on radio first. Stewart wanted to follow The Fire on the Snow "with a play that would be its reverse —a study of the heroic will perverted. Looking for a character who would thus be a kind of Miltonic Satan, a hero yet thoroughly bad, I thought about doing a celebrated New Zealand murderer, but decided he was too repulsive a figure to put on the stage. Then I thought of Ned Kelly.” He said he wanted his play to be “a study of the fascinating mixture of good and bad in Ned’s character —the boisterous good humor that made him popular, the arrogance that made him hated; the murderous impulses that could lead him to attempt to wreck a train; the amazing courage he showed when his plans went wrong; the laughter of the man and the loneliness of the outlaw; the pride that sustained him, and the pride that led to his destruction.” The play was published in book form in 1943.