Jimmy's Run

The "Jimmy's Run" radio play podcast tells the entertaining story of the trials and tribulations of  Sonya Bird, a city lawyer, and her journey into Australian bush politics. Country politics, business, football and long straight roads frame this place. It is into this world that Sonya arrives to oversee an inquiry into Local Government corruption. 

As is often the case, everything is not as it seemed. This world has many traps for the uninitiated city visitors, particularly those seeking to bring order like Sonya Bird. The local strongman, Jimmy O'Brien, is a wirily old campaigner who is not ready to toss it all in for a city woman. Into this mix is thrust Justin Murphy, global governance policy expert and Wills Reach refugee forced to return to the land of his origin and colourful extended family. That family includes one Jimmy O'Brien. 

The Radio Play Podcast

The radio play podcast is performed by Andrew Blackman, Annabelle Tudor, Karlis Zaid and Jackson McGovern. It is directed by Andrew Blackman from the Complete Works Theatre Company, and the sound recording and editing is done by David Ross.

Jimmy's Run was written and produced by Joseph Connellan by first-time novelist Joseph Connellan (www.josephconnellan.com). It is based on a short novel of the same name  (available on Amazon)

Jimmy's Run is available on podcast apps, including  Spotify and Apple Podcast.  

A 2-minute trailer of Jimmy's Run, "How did I end up here?",  is available on all apps.

"..it has all the elements of a classic Australian yarn. Small country town, men in the pub, the footy team, power and politics. " – Helen 

"Fun story about local corruption for a good cause - bringing a football championship to an outback town. Seems too ridiculous to believe. But it isn't."  - Lydia 

"Every town has or should have a Jimmy O'Brien."  - Joseph Connellan, the author

Joseph Connellan, Writer and Producer    

Email: [email protected] Mobile: 0438 388 444 

Website: www.josephconnellan.com  

Sonya Bird, skilled city governance expert,  confronts Jimmy O'Brien, a wirily local community politician,  at the Wills Reach Council hearing, prompting her to ask the inevitable question of  "How did I end up here?"

Jimmy's Run Radio Play Character List 

• ALICE, Murphy’s boss, is never seen but rather heard as she shouts instructions from her office window to Murphy as he sits in the Café below. She is constantly on the move, hustling and networking to keep the Governance Foundation afloat.  
• THE BARMAN is resplendent in his fluorescent  Wills Reach RSL shirt is a quiet man who knows everything and everyone in the Reach but only in a helpful, not busybody way. 
• BUSHY is as wide as he is tall. He is clothed in clean, washed workman clothes that carry the creases and stains of his profession, a fuel truck driver.  
• DARYL McCANN is a prosperous country lawyer in his early forties dressed in a well-priced business suit. His flabby condition and constantly flushed cheeks reflect his liking for the good life and an early start to conference drinks. 
• GRANT McCABE is a shortish man who has risen to the peak of power as the Premier’s confidant and fixer. He wears his expensive suits comfortably over an ever-expanding waistline. He has the politician’s knack for switching language from rural to city, work to play, and mate to business at will.
• JAMES LOCKETT was a relaxed, tall man of some years with an unfashionable sunburn. His vast experiences in being part of and dealing with bureaucracies put him at ease in the Enquiry.  
• LENNY is a skilled young man adroit at managing his bosses’ competing and sometimes unreasonable demands, especially by Sonya Bird. His demanding job provides him with the funds to continue to sculpt his athlete-like figure and explore the worldly delights of inner-city bars. 
• Councillor Mark Lord, a rotund older man with a tattered hat. His comfort around the shearing shed and sale yards does not extend to appearing before an Enquiry.
• JUSTIN MURPHY is a slightly rumpled man in his mid-fifties, towards the end of a long career working on policy in Government and not-for-profit think tanks. He is dressed in expensive inner-city grunge wear. His country origins barely show.
• JIMMY O’BRIEN is a large, heavy-set man dressed in a faded but well-made sports jacket and moleskins framed by a narrow-brim Akubra hat and worn RM Williams boots. He is the wirily long-serving country Shire President and the subject of the Enquiry.
•  VINELAND RECEPTIONIST is middle-aged and elegant, often surprised to find he has ended up so far from the plush hotels where he worked in his youth. Those years of experience allow him to toy with the city types who came to Vineland demanding what Vineland does not have and they had not paid for.  
• SALLY has had a long career as the waitress in the Earth Song café funding her years-long journey into yoga and the healing powers of crystals. 
• SONYA BIRD is a confident and successful Melbourne lawyer and partner at a city-based governance advisory firm. She dresses elegantly in a corporate city style ill-suited for the rural areas where she is headed. 
• UNCLE BILL is a short, engaging man with a friendly demeanour. He is a distant relative of Murphy’s and of indeterminate age. He has a commanding knowledge of all things Wills Reach. His own history is less clear.
• UTE FLIGHT ATTENDANT is an older, nattily dressed man with a moustache who does all of the work for the UTE Airlines flight except fly the plane. He wears a jacket with FLY WITH UTE emblazoned on it.

Jimmy's Run author, Joseph Connellan, talks about the origin story of Jimmy's Run and announces that the Jimmy's Run Radio Play will be out in late January 2024. To keep in touch with progress or send a query go to www.josephconnellan.com or email the author [email protected].