THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 372, 9 August 1946, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Fresh Heir ESCRIBED as a glorious*comedy of tempestuous hilarity, Fresh Heir has | just taken the place of The House That ) Margaret Built as 2YD's Tuesday evening serial at 8.0. It is an adaptation | of the novel by Joan Butler, produced in Australia. Grandpa Gadsire, of | Marple Manor, thinks everyone is after | his money--and he’s partly right. But | when his grandson Master Jack from the Bowery, New York, turns up, it looks as if the fate of the Gadsire fortune is in the bag. The new claimant’s | unique charm, not to mention his system of cheating at cards, makes him a hot favourite. Mr. Martin, Gadsire’s solicitor, takes a hand in the game, suspecting all and sundry. Before long he turns a sceptical eye on Hiram W. Babcock, the bearded man of mystery, who eventually proves to be the long-lost son of Gadsire. Mr. Martin’s habit of leaving no stone unturned while bringing to light a number of interesting facts endears him to no one but Gadsire’s granddaughter, Patricia Charters. And he is ' not the one to be turned aside by sour | looks or even a poke in the eye. In the | fullness of time he holds all the strings, |and a little deft manipulation ensures | mot only that truth and justice prevail, | but even that love conquers all. Lost Horizon FROM the same source as the halfhour condensations of Moby Dick and Treasure Island, 2YD brings a radio version. of Lost Horizon, which will be heard at 9.2 p.m. on Wednesday, August 14. Lost Horizon was written by James Hilton 12 years ago, and in the meantime it has become well-known all over the English speaking world, as a book and later as a film, and the name of Shangri-La has become so familiar that it is hard to believe this symbol of 'escape fron? reality was of such recent _invention. The part of Conway is taken in this recording, by Ronald Colman, who ) played the part in the film. The music |is composed and conducted by Victor | Young (composer of music for For Whom the Bell Tolls), and the adapta- | tion and direction is by George Wells. The Gioconda Smile RADIO adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s gtory, "The Gioconda Smile" will be broadcast by 2YA at 8.0 p.m. /on Wednesday, August 14. How the Si enges (and now the listener) interprets | this story is left to himself. When Huxley wrote ""I'te Gioconda Smile" he left his central figure open to condemnation or pity, according to the reader’s outlook. Denis Constanduros, who adapted the story for radio for the BBC, has successfully preserved the atmosphere of the original, and he leaves the listener with a little problem in ethics to solve for himself. Ralph Truman takes the main part, and the producer is Felix Felton. Lyric Baritone NEWTON GOODSON, the young baritone who has been giving studio recitals from Station 2YA (and who will be heard in songs by Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf at 8.25 p:m. on Thursday, August 15) is a New Zealander, formerly of Wellington, who was in the .

R.A.A.F. for four years. Before the war, he broadcast here from the National Stations, and in commercial programmes from 2ZB, He toured in the South West Pacific in 1945, visiting New Guinea and Borneo, with an Army entertainment unit. He came back to New Zealand a few weeks ago, but intends to return to Australia to do commercial broadcasting in.a few months. Music by Stravinsky N its Saturday evening Classical Programme for August 17, Station 2YC will broadcast music by Igor Stravinsky, including two new works, a Symphony in Three Movements, and Ballet Scenes, written for the dance sequences done by Anton Dolin and Alicia Markova in the New York Revue The Seven Lively Arts. The Symphony, which is not the same Symphony in C that was heard here two or three years ago (also on American special recordings), but anew one written since that one, has no "prozramme." Its first movement is an alle-

gro, a kind of orchestral toccata. The second is a delicate intermezzo, and the third has a psalm-like introduction leading to three divisions in the style of variations, the whole ending with a fugue. Between the Symphony and the Ballet Scenes, listeners will hear The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky’s musical idiom, as heard in these works, has sometimes been compared with the style: of Picasso in painting. The portrait of Stravinsky printed here was drawn by Picasso, The Elusive Te Kooti N wars among themselves, the Maoris produced at least two commanders who ranked "high by European standards. It could be said of Hongi and Te Rauparaha that, had they been tested in wider theatres of war, they might have made a name as tacticians. In wars with the British, only one Maori general stands out for really impressive ability. Hone Heke owed his success largely to the incapacity of his foes until Grey came on the scene, and Rewi of Orakau lives for his indomitable spirit. But Te Kooti was a guerilla leader of genius. He had the mind of a strategist and in movement was as slippery as de Wet; and he kept his hold on his followers through hardship and defeat. The tale

of the pursuit of Te Kooti up and down the Urewera country, with excursions to Rotorua and Taupo, is one of the great stories of New Zealand adventure. Thousands of New Zealand boys whose eyes pop at tales of Red Indian warfare are unaware that same sort of thing went on in their own country. The story of Te Kooti, warrior and prophet (he founded a church which still exists ) will be told from 2YA on the evening of Friday, August 16, by W. B. Nicholson, of Lower Hutt. As a boy in the Bay of Plenty, Mr. Nicholson remembers Te Kooti in the days after his pardon, when his movements kept settlers and the authorities on the alert. The King’s Poets

NOTHER Book of Verse programme, this time on "The Poets Laureate" will be broadcast by 3YA at 2,30 p.m. on Sunday, August 18. It is written and narrated by Joyce Rowe, whose great-great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Rowe, was Poet Laureate from 1715 to 1718. There have been court poets since a long time ago, but John Dryden was the first official Laureate. Charles II. appointed him poet to the Royal Household with a pension of £300 and a butt of Canary wine. Dryden, happily for us, wrote as he pleased, and escaped the horrors of the "obligation "by sack and pension" that smeared the pages of later Laureates with fearsome birthday and New Year Odes. Since then, many great names and much fine poétry have adorned the Laureateship. The verse readers in this programme will be the poet Dylan Thomas and the actor Valentine Dyall (see photograph, page 25). Dyall was the narrator of the BBC programmes, "The Harbour Called Mulberry" and "Radar," and acted in the film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.