LANGUAGE IN SERIALS
Sir,-I would like to protest most vigorously against the language used in some of the Radio Serials-"Submarine Patrol," for example, My boy of 12 hangs over the radio listening breathlessly and to please him, I sometimes listen too. On every occasion I have been treated to a spate of so-called Cockney slang (pre‘sumably, for it certainly isn’t a New Zealand accent) heavily loaded with "flamifig, perishing and ruddy." It’s bad enough to have to put up with this kind of thing (and much worse) im tram and ‘bus where men no longer seem to care if women have to listen to their hateful conversation-but to have it broadcast over the air, and to listen in embarrassment with one’s children, is even worse. Of course we're not obliged to listen, and I’m well aware that my young ‘son has a far wider vocabulary of swear‘ing than this effort. He enjoys his serial, and yet the tacit agreement on decent language in the home is broken in my presence, and most unwillingly on his part. I’m perfectly certain it is possible to create a Cockney character without so much noise and ugly talking. While on the subject of serials, I would like to ask why we in this country of normally intelligent people without any violent class distinction should swallow unhesitatingly so many classconscious serials. I will admit I have ‘mever been sufficiently interested to follow one from first to last, but I can think of two, now happily extinct, which give a ridiculous and utterly false sense of values. One was "Ravenshoe,"’ the story re-hashed once more, of the heir of a great estate who is brought up as a servant-imagine it, good New Zealanders! And then of course there are endless ramifications and lovely women ‘and. the false heir is denounced, etc., etc. I believe this thing ran for months, or maybe its still going the rounds ‘somewhere in New Zealand. The other ‘was even worse: "Tradesmen’s Entrance." ‘Whatever is the use of perpetrating such ‘a life-the life of the "lower orders" in a by-gone England in this changing world? Couldn’t we have’ stories of ordinary people, acting not in melodrama, not as pseudo-aristocrats, not as gangsters, but the rich pattern of an ordinary family life. And why make them a joke like Dad and Dave?
H. B.
S.
(Sumner).
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451005.2.13.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 328, 5 October 1945, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
393LANGUAGE IN SERIALS New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 328, 5 October 1945, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in