On the very first day of ABC television in South Australia, drama did not feature heavily. Apart from the Western adventure series, Wells Fargo, there was only one other scripted drama that day. Boyd QC.
Although this was SA’s first meeting with Michael Denison’s erudite Queen’s Counsel, Richard Boyd, television viewers in Sydney had already been enjoying his courtroom adventures since May 1958, and in the UK since 1956.
Boyd QC continued its run on Australian television until at least 1967. The last instance I have found in SA TV listings, so far, was January of 1967. For quite some time prior to that date, repeat episodes of the show were being broadcast at 3.30pm five days a week! In its day this program was hugely popular with articles celebrating it and its star in newspapers, television listings magazines, and Australian Women’s Weekly.
Yet, despite its popularity in the 1960s, there is very little information online today about this show and it is one that, until recently, had completely escaped my notice. Why?
Boyd QC was produced in the UK from 1956 until 1964 by Associated Rediffusion. This company, the first to be awarded a commercial television licence in the UK[1], had only been in operation for two years when Boyd first made his appearance. Created and written by an assize court official, Jack Roffey, this half an hour courtroom drama came across the world to Australian televisions about 18 months after it began its long run in in Britain. It focussed on the varied cases of the title character, Richard Boyd QC, as related by his loyal clerk, Jack, played by Charles Leno[2]. The popularity of the show in Australia was typified by Australia Women’s Weekly TV writer, Nan Musgrove, in 1961 when she wrote “Boyd Q.C., a drama of the English courts on ABC TV, is delightful TV…[3] I turn ‘Boyd, Q.C.’ on and know I can trust Boyd to give me a half-hour of good entertainment.”[4]
In eight years, 84 episodes of Boyd QC were produced and it appears that many, if not all, were shown in Australia multiple times. However, by the late 1960s a half hour black and white series about a London QC had perhaps outstayed its welcome. Times and viewers’ tastes had changed, and Boyd faced his final Australian verdict.
Having disappeared from our screens long before I became a TV viewer it might not seem strange that I had not come across this show prior to my exploration of Archive TV. However, there are a huge number of shows of a similar age that I was exposed to through late night reruns and nostalgia programming. Not so for poor Boyd QC. He suffered the same fate as a multitude of UK and Australian produced television shows when, in the late 60s and 1970s, he was expunged from the Archives to save space. Presumably a similar fate confronted the Australian film prints, either being returned to Britain for destruction, or run through a bandsaw at the ABC and binned. At the time of my writing only ten episodes of the original 84 are known to exist. If not for the recent work of the UK film preservation charity, Film is Fabulous! there would only be six.
Two episodes of the show can be found on YouTube and I have naturally watched them both. They make interesting viewing, even though they display some extremely cringe worthy 1950s attitudes. However, seeing just two episodes out of 84 does not give a true taste of what this show may have been. I would love to have the opportunity to see more episodes and discover what made this show such a popular one in the 1960s.
So, the question remains, in 2026, 70 years since it was first produced, who now remembers Boyd QC?
[1] BFI Screenonline: Broadcasters and Industry Bodies > Associated Rediffusion / Rediffusion Television
[2] Boyd QC – Nostalgia Central
[3] Australian Women’s Weekly 19 November 1961 – pg21
[4] Australian Women’s Weekly 25 October 1961 – Pg 19
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