HE MADE GOOD EARLY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 251, 14 April 1944, Page 11

HE MADE GOOD EARLY

Radio Star From N.Z. HE trouble with New Zealanders who go abroad is that the brighter they are the less likely they are to come back. But there are exceptions. Radio talent comes back to us even when its owner stays away, and that has happened with Lloyd Berrell, now of Australia. He was born in Wellington in 1926, and went to Wellesley College. But after a brief stay there he was moved to Australia, where he completed his schooling at Neutral Bay and La Salle College, Ashfield, with a view to following in his father’s footsteps as a doctor. He has been in Australia ever since, not however, studying medicine, but working as a radio actor. Lloyd Berrell’s radio career began when he was 11 years old, and "at that

time he was the youngest announcer in Australia. Now, just seven years later, he has established a reputation as a radio actor which has spread throughout Australia. New Zealand has heard his voice recently in some of the George Edwards Productions. He takes the part of the narrator in Mr. Thunder at present playing from 4YA, and of Chris Mallow in Girl of the Ballet playing now from 2YH. Lloyd Berrell made his name in the ._ Youth Shows, where his work was so outstanding that it received comment in all the radio papers. Now he plays for George Edwards, for Macquarie Studios, and in ABC productions, acts as compere for many programmes, and reads the yarns in the Nine O’Clock Stories over a network of stations. His list of characterisations is large-the lawyer in Third Degree, the "Show-off" in the production of that name, Ned Kelly in Douglas Stewart’s play, the clergyman in Mrs. Miniver, Lennie in Of Mice and Men, and Ben Hur. Lloyd Berrell rides, swims, wrestles, and plays the piano. But since he turned 18, he has interrupted his dramatic career to become a member of the Australian Air Force.