Spoiled Darlings

Spoiled Darlings is a 1940 Australian romantic comedy radio play by Edmund Barclay that was broadcast nationally on the ABC.

Its light hearted treatment of Australian history was unusual for the time. Leslie Rees write in 1940 that “I don’t know of a single Australian historical play other than Barclay’s that could be called jolly.”

The play was very popular and was produced again several times. There were productions in 1941, 1951, and 1954 (with Ray Barrett and Reg Lye).

Geoffrey Thomas, reviewing the 1954 production, called it "gay and charming... and, if it is, perhaps, a little overstrained in its mannerisms (I can’t believe that people were ever quite so flowery either in their rudeness or in their politeness to one another!) yet it is pleasant to pretend that even Sydney once had time for such leisurely behaviour." Leslie Rees referred to it as "a witty souffle of a comedy... a play of light intention, it doesn’t dissect or probe, it does chuckle!"

A copy of the script was published in a collection of Australian radio plays in 1946.

The ABC later used Ralph Darling's regime as a background to the 1962 mini-series The Patriots. Filmink magazine argued that Spoiled Darlings was a superior treatment of this period.