THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 28, 5 January 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

HERE is material enough for dozens of books in a hundred yards of the Thames. Almost every inch of Dover’s cliffs could tell volumes. So many things have happened in the Yorkshire dales that half a dozen libraries could not tell the whole tale. So that in one half-hour, the merest infinitesimal glimpse of England can be gained. But perhaps if you tune in to 4YZ Invercargill at 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 9, to the "Ports of Call" series, you will be rewarded with a sniff of Kentish air, a moment on the Sussex downs, a glance at the Lake country, and a soupcon of London. From 2YD Wellington, on the same night at 9.20 p.m., a visit to Australia will be paid. Red Noses and Beards That veteran radio entertainer, Tommy Handley, used to work in a toyshop. He spent his spare time disguising himself with the aid of his first make-up box, so that rumours went round of strange men with red noses

and long beards who had been seen roaming through the store. Nowadays his name is a household word in England and listeners can’t think of radio humour without thinking of Tommy Handley. He comes into the 4YA programme with an item on Friday, January 12, at 8.48 p.m. Think! Touching belief that we do think at all is displayed by the dramatic novelty, "What Do You Think?" Taking our mental processes for granted, this item gives us something to chew over. One week recently you were asked, for instance, whether a man who, after being innocently sentenced to imprisonment for committing a murder could commit that murder seventeen years later and be sentenced for it again. Most of the "What

Do You Think?" items are of a gory nature, but then perhaps you agree with Ronald Frankau who "likes to see a murder when he’s out." These problems are calculated to induce a bit of head scratching, and the one to be broadcast from 2YA at 8.32 p.m. on Friday, January 12, may give some of you a headache. The NBS is compassionate, however, and the answer to the problem will be broadcast at 8:45 p.m. Rake’s End You’ve probably heard people refer to somebody as a "real Don Juan" but did you know, what was meant by it? The character of Don Juan (in Italian, "Don Giovanni") has become almost a legend, thanks to the poet Byron and many others. He typifies the wilful, impetuous lover who comes to a bad end (we were going to call him the typical Lothario, but that might need explaining too!). Anyway, Mozart wrote an opera called "Don Giovanni," the story of which takes place in old Seville. It tells the story of the libertine whose numefous indiscretions at last catch up with him. The rake’s end .is a sorry one; he is claimed by the statue of a man he killed and is dragged by demons down to hell. "Don Giovanni" (Part I.). will be heard from 3YA Christchurch, at 9.25 p.m. on Sunday, January 7. Scandinavia Next week we shall be going all Scandinavian. Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, have led the world in many things, from Ibsen to Arctic and Antarctic exploration and co-operative agriculture. They also have music, as next week’s programmes take note of, with items about Musical Denmark, and The Music of Finland. With these for a background, listeners will be all the better able to appreciate the playing of Haagen Holenberg, when he comes to the piano at the Exhibition Studio for a relay with the NBS National String Orchestra, through 2YA in the evening programmes of Tuesday, January 9, and Thursday, January 11. This fine pianist’s career has already been sketched in The Listener. Sufficient now to say that he typifies a fine musical tradition, Thanks In these troubled times there may be some cynics to say that the world has little to be thankful for; but optimists will be pleased to discover that the programmes of 2YA and 4YA both feature Thanksgiving Services

during the coming week. A national Thanksgiving Service will be relayed from the Centennial Exhibition by 2YA at 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 7. In Dunedin, 4YA will relay a United Thanksgiving Service from the Town Hall, also at 3 p.m. The Dunedin service is under the auspices of the Council of Christian Congregations, and is to be a special Centennial effort. Stamps in Finland Just how many Finns are able at the moment to keep up their correspondence we can’t say. But even the Finns write letters, no matter how uncivilised the Russians may be saying they have been; and when you write letters you need stamps. Finland has produced a number of interesting varieties, as may be expected from a country which the world has known for its progressive ideas. An authority on stamps, E. Philpot Crowther, will discuss Finnish issues from 2YA on Monday, January 8, at 7.40 p.m. Philatelists will not be too busy with the new local issues and special covers to spare a little time to listen to a recognised expert. Prehistoric Music It would be a mistake to think that the prehistoric eras were entirely without refinement. Life was not solely a matter of swinging on branches, evading dinosaurs, eating roots and dying your face a blithesome blue to scare the other monkeys to death. Actually, nearly 2,000 years B.C. men were laying the foundations upon which culture and art were later to rest. Denmark is one country which enjoys the distinction of possessing tangible relics of musical life in prehistoric times. In’ a Copenhagen museum are nineteen §pecimens of an instrument called a Lut, dug from peat bogs where they had rested from between 1,800 and 900 years B.C. And although, if they could be played now, their bleats might awaken the dead, they give an idea of the long musical heritage which Denmark possesses. We do not think you will be entertained by numbers on the Lur, but we do know you will hear some fine music of more recent times if you listen to the item, "Musical Denmark," from 2YA Wellington, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 7. Diet for Aucklanders Perhaps more than any other city, Auckland has followed the development of dietetics. From the beginning it has heard this theory and = examined that, taken its proteins without its carbohydrates, or mixed them, as the mode of the moment has dictated. It has even fathered

a prominent dietitian, Dr. G. B. Chapman, who has gone so far as to write a book. Now it is to be given a different dose. Dr. Elizabeth Bryson, whose crusade for sense in making meals and eating them began in Dunedin, has been on the air from 2YA and will broadcast a series of talks from 1YA, beginning on Thursday, January 11, at 7.40 p.m. Her talks about "What Shall We Eat?" should appeal to Aucklanders who are used to Dr. Chapman’s essentially practical and non-faddist views on the food problem. Belinda and the Bugs Belinda, as you can see, is looking askance, in spite of the friendly beam in the eye of the bug. But this, as usual, is only another artistic whimsy. Russell Clark has only to see a point and it’s as good as missed. However, the title of Belinda’s talk (2YA, Thurs-

day, January 11, 10.45 a.m) will correct any false impressions: "Our Friends in the Insect World." Perhaps we should also point out that Belinda is not a politician or a Public Servant, but one of several new personalities engaged by 2YA to put resolution into the morning programmes during the New Year. Others are mentioned in a note elsewhere in this issue. 26% Popularity Proven Two items whose popularity has been proved by test through station 2YD will go on the air for Auckland listeners next week. "Out of the: Silence," a serial thriller, which starts from 1YA at 8 p.m. on Monday, January 8, is an imaginative play built around the discovery, in Australia, of a buried city. "Radio City Revels," which 1YA will broadcast on Saturday, January 13, is a hot stuff variety show which starts red hot and gets hotter. .