NEW BRAINS TRUST SESSIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 356, 18 April 1946, Page 6

NEW BRAINS TRUST SESSIONS

HE BBC Brains Trust maintains its popularity and prestige in Britain because it keeps itself alive and up-to-date by a shrewd blending of old favourites with people who are either prominent at the moment, or have won an assured prestige in their own particular spheres. The new series of Brains Trust discussions, the first of which is to be heard from 2YA on Friday, April 26, at 8.28 p.m., should be as popular here, too, for the same reason. It is intended to provide direct broadcasts from a number of other National stations besides 2YA. It is worth while explaining that the Brains Trust speakers do not go before the microphone for direct broadcasting. The whole session is recorded by the BBC, and first-class copies of the records are prepared for the NBS. The New Zealand recording is therefore of the same good quality as that heard in England.

In the first half-dozen of the new series which we have had the privilege of sampling, some notable discoveries were made. Most of us think of Will Hay as the comedian who is always in trouble with the impudent Fourth Form at St. Michael’s. But Will Hay turns up as a guest speaker in the Brains Trust to answer serious questions. The Form-master is Geoffrey Crowther, and Will Hay, for once, is in the class, called upon to answer (among other things) the fascinating question as to whether Earth is the only inhabited planet. He must be taken seriously on this topic, for Wiil Hay is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. "He’s the Brains Trust Minister of Fuel and Power," says the questionmaster in one session, introducing a Durham Labour Member, Emanuel Shinwell. This was first-class anticipation, because during the time taken to prepare the recordings and transport them to New Zealand, Mr. Shinwell actually became a Minister of Fuel and Power in -the British Cabinet. Listeners will have the advantage of hearing this authority discussing nationalisation of coal mines, and the maintenance of coal output. The famous cricketer and allround athlete, C. B. Fry, is another of the new guest speakers-there’s a long and attractive catalogue of this sort. The "Residents" Remain Nobody would like to lose the "residents," and we will hear them again: Dr. Joad-"Well, it all depends on what you mean by... ," or Commander Campbell, or Lt. -Commander Gould, who between them can always provide first-hand stories of nearly all the peoples and the countries of the world. Dr. Malcolm Sargent, so tolerantly informative about music; Dr. Julian Huxley, who makes science easy to understand; Geoffrey Crowther, Editor of The Economist and far from dull on his special subject-they all figure in the new series, with Donald McCullough brightly keeping the discussions going, stopping them before they get dull and occasionally dropping the Questionmaster’s role to submit to discipline himself.