"BIG SISTER"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 354, 5 April 1946, Page 5

"BIG SISTER"

Sir-Like "Nelsonian" I have long since ceased to be interested in "Big Sister," but I have never ceased to be amazed. I exercise my prerogative to "turn the knob," but sheer fascination forces me now and again to turn it back to see if she is still indulging in her amazing adventures. She never fails me

and I have long regretted that in all the 30-odd years I have lived in the land of my birth I never realised that such a romantic and thrilling life was ' possible. Or was it? To think what might have been just around the corner had I just waited a little longer! But alas, never could I have emulated the faculty for getting myself and my friends and relativés out of all sorts of predicaments as Big Sister does, Never could I have announced with such soulfulness and such naiveté that I must refrain from doing such-and-such even at great cost to myself, because so-and-so "needs me." Ah me, I’d have been "done in" at the first adventure! But not Big Sister; no, she goes serenely through the world hither and thither, from hamlet to city and back, at disconcerting intervals, organising people’s lives, righting people’s wrongs, fighting © people’s battles. converting wrongdoers, and in her spare moments warding off all the males who fall at her feet. The last time I turned the knob back I found that still another man had keen so overcome by his hopeless passion that he had attempted suicide. Incidentally, since when have doctors’ wives been allowed to haunt their husbands’ hospitals and have their fingers in all the pies? It occurs to me that if we could only find Big Sister’s prototype and pop her into power somewhere, the country would be saved an enormous expense, as Ruth would have everything put right in two ticks and all. politicians could be pensioned off. And if only she and Ma Perkins could get together, well why bother with UNO? There is just one snag. If Ruth were let loose like that, we would just have to pack all

the menfolk off to some lonely isle and who knows, perhaps there wouldn’t be any problems to solve then! But to come back to. earth; it is a pity some better vehicle is not found for the really excellent cast of actors. It is certainly one of the best and most naturally-acted serials we have had and it is hardly fair to the players that the foolish vehicle puts one off listening to the original of Ruth when heard in other plays. A bright new spot has come in the last few episodes with the advent of Aunt Mamie, a delightful nit-wit with her unexpected epigrams. excel-

lently portrayed.-

AUSTRALIAN—AN

ORDINARY ONE

(Waiuku).

(Abridged.-Ed.)