THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 78, 20 December 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

OW that the Centennial year has managed to dispose of New Zealand’s history during the first 100 years, it is necessary to dispose of the history of the Centennial year before 1941 comes upon us. It has been a busy year, with exhibitions, pageants, celebrations, unveilings, and the outside world rocking. There is much to be remembered, and much to be recorded. The NBS is attenipting this big job at present. In course of preparation is a feature programme which will be used on the last day of the year. We shall have more details of it by next week. Meanwhile, listeners may rest confident that the deficiencies of all the diaries begun last January 1 and discarded last January 2 will be made up for them. When Christ was Born Last year, during Christmas week 2YA had the first New Zealand broadcast of the Nativity Play by Dorothy Sayers: "He That Should Come." This year, Auckland listeners are to hear it, from 1YA, on Christmas Day, at 8.4 p.m. Such a subject still seems strange for the pen of an author generally known as a writer of modern mystery stories. But. Dorothy Sayers is much more than a composer of thrills at a penny a dozen. All her work has strong character in it; much of it is first-class English prose. In this Christmas play she endeavours to lend actuality to the

event of the birth of Christ. Her dialogue lines out the people of the time, and their problems, and makes from the story. a picture that is decidedly more satisfying than the traditional tableau. Thirst : A tale of thirsty men will be told from 4YA on Friday, December 27, at 7.12 p.m. by Michael Terry, whose story was told in The Listener when he was in Wellington recording these talks some time ago. "Thirst in the Desert"

describes a journey across Western Australia. The author and a friend set out in a motor car, with directions about their route to the nearest station across trackless wilds. They ran out of petrol, and had to walk the last part of the journey. The can in which they carried water was found to ‘be fouled. It is only the fact that Mr. Terry is so obviously alive to tell a lively story thet will persuade listeners not to anticipate a tragic ending. CBS Christmas Christmas is coming also to the Commercial Service. The ZB’s have a special programme called "Christmas Story and Song," which presents some little known facts about Christmas, together with a sprinkling of carols, some familiar, some not so well known. For instance, we are reminded that while it celebrates the Mass of Christ, the festival has roots in the Roman Saturnalia: and the celebration by the Norse and German tribes of the turn of the year. Part of the feature which tells those and other facts has already been heard, but there will be further instalments from all the ZB stations on December 23, and December. 25, at 7.15 p.m. The Musi Remained Because he was wearing a belt containing about £4000 worth of gold (he was suspicious of banks) Enrico Granados was drowned when the steamer "Sussex" was torpedoed in the Channel during War 1. But his music remained and Andersen Tyrer is to play some of it in a piano recital from 2YA on Friday, December 27. The. feature will be "Prelude and Six Pieces of Spanish Folk Songs," some of the music Granados wrote for the instrument he played so well himself. Granados’s music is rarely heard in New Zealand, which is a pity, because he presents vivid scenes of Spain and Spanish life. His death came in 1916. He and his wife were crossing the Channel when the

ship was blown up. A few were killed, but the " Sussex" was towed into Boulogne. Before that, however, several lifeboats overturned, and it is presumed that the weight of his money caused the death of the composer. 502-Retired With a score of 502, " Margaret" is retiring. She began her talks for the NBS in May, 1938, and for a long while was heard every day over the four main stations. Then she spoke twice a week. Her talks now total 502, and she thinks she deserves a rest. It is a good scorehow good you may judge if you think what it means to find 500 subjects and be bright about all of them. There have also been 502 recipes, so " Margaret" may claim to have brightened the lives of New Zealand men as well as New Zealand women. In next week’s programmes she appears as usual during 2YA’s morning session on Monday, December 30 (10.45 a.m.). This will be her last appearance at that time. The Shadow Salome receives word of the birth of a child in Bethlehem with great displeasure. She fears that her brother Herod pays too much attention to the Jewish prophecies. To her side she calls Caius, Roman centurion. She demands that he should, out of his love for her, go with her to slay the infant. They travel to Bethlehem, and Mary shows them to the place where the child is sleeping. The shadow of the Centurion’s sword falls across the infant, but it is

the shadow of the hilt, and it makes on His brow the sign of the cross. Salome the princess becomes Salome _ the woman. " See," she says, "it is a child, with its little fingers moving." The sword is stayed and the child is saved. This simple story was used for his Christmas play, "The Shadow," by Richard Matthews, author of the script from which the NBS. produced the item 4YA will broadcast at 7.30 p.m. on Christmas Day. At the ZB Stations While special Christmas features are naturally clamouring for time on the air on Christmas Day, the ZB stations will be playing many of their usual features. Station 2ZB, for instance, will broadcast both "Tusitala, Teller of Tales" and " Easy Aces." However, 2ZB has a number of novelties to offer, including two interesting relays from the Home of Compassion and St. Mary’s Home, ‘Karori. Listeners will be able to eavesdrop on the children celebrating. Further 2ZB highlights include Christ-

mas. carols at nine in the morning, a special hospital request session at noon, "Cavalcade of Famous Artists" at 3 p.m., "Let’s Go to a Party," at 3.45, a special children’s session at 6.30, "Christmas Story and Song" at 7.15 "Old Christmas Customs" at 8.30 and "The Family Tree" at 9.30 p.m. So even if you’ve mislaid your calendar, you're pretty sure to know it’s Christmas Day. Who Wrote That? That we speak poetry and history without knowing it, is one of the things brought out in a series of conversations 2YA is broadcasting on Sunday afternoons under the title of "Who Wrote That?" One of the three friends who meet for a yarn is surprised when he is told that in the course of talking a minute or so he has used five quotations. The antiquity of sayings is also illustrated. We are accustomed to think that "the Empire on which the sun never sets" applies to the British Empire, but it was shown in the first of these talks that the description goes back to the Spain of Philip and to the Roman Empire. Music is an important part of these discoveries. Songs and orchestral pieces are played, and interesting facts about them brought out The third talk, at 3 p.m. next Sunday, December 22, will bring in sayings about Christmas. Who said " Christmas comes but once a year"?