How Green Was My Cactus airs its 5000th episode this week on affiliate stations throughout Australia. The show, produced by Grace Gibson Productions, started as a 65 episode parody in response to Paul Keating’s ‘banana republic’ comment, in 1986.

The first series featured Bob Hawke as its main character, although the program usually referred to him as “King Bonza the Charismatic.” The title of the show was adapted from the movie How Green was my Valley, and is a reference to the dramatic, soap-opera elements that frequently characterise Australian political life.

The program is the second longest-running radio serial in Australian history (behind the ABC radio drama Blue Hills, which ran for twenty-seven years) and is the longest-running radio serial still being broadcast in Australia today.

The political satire features characters portraying the ministers and shadow ministers of the Australian parliament, and with the emergence of plenty of new funny voiced personalities in the leadership ranks of this current hung parliament, the series is as funny as ever.

Voice artists Keith Scott and Robyn Moore have worked on the series since its creation, and perform the character voices between them. Series creator and chief writer Doug Edwards has won 5 AWGIE Awards for Best Comedy Script from the Australian Writers’ Guild for the program.

“It’s the radio version of the daily cartoon in the newspaper” says Bruce Ferrier of Grace Gibson Productions. “It’s pithy, to the point and sums up and sends up the news of the day in a very even-handed way…people just love it. It. And that’s what keeps it so fresh and current”.

Each episode lasts two minutes and takes the form of a dialogue between Australian political figures, also frequently lampooning other topical subjects, such as sports and well-known television advertisements.

The program’s website contains information on which stations are broadcasting the landmark episode (click link below).