THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 397, 31 January 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Just William TATION 3YL Christchurch is to begin broadcasting the BBC series Just William on Thursday, February 6, at 6.0 p.m.-an hour that should suit the young and the old. Just William is, of course, adapted from the famous books of Richmal Crompton, and the adaptation has been made by the author herself in collaboration with Rex Diamond and Alick Hayes. When the BBC started this series, parents all over the country resigned themselves to the fact that the family radio would be taken over by the children when Just William was on the air. But as often as not, fathers were just as keen fans as their sons, and so peace was preserved. But Charles Hawtrey, who plays Hubert Lane (the villain of the stories) youches personally for this story: he was sitting in a front room at his home, and through the open window heard two boys talking in the street. One boy told the other, im tones of awe, that Hubert Lane lived in that house. "You're kidding," said the other. "Yes he does. Cross my heart he does," said the first. "Coo!" said the other, "let’s throw a brick through the window and make him feel at home." Siam Resurgens NDER the title which heads this paragraph, Charles Letts, an Englishman from Siam who recently spent some weeks in New Zealand, has recorded a talk for the NZBS, which is to be broadcast from 3YA at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 4. Mr. Letts worked in Siam for several years before the war, was a member of a prisoner-of-war gang employed on the Burma-Siam ra.1way, and stayed in Siam for a year after being released in August, 1945, by the Allied forces. An interview with Mr. Letts was printed "two weeks ago in The Listener. He recorded his talk at 1YA just before leaving for Sydney. Father Knows Best ENERAL STRATEGY, the play to be heard from 2YD at 9.02 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, is a brilliant little comedy for three characters, written by Norman Edwards, a popular BBC playwright (and author of The Case of Lady Talond). Listeners will be presented with the figure of General Strategy, who is worried about his son (the son wants to marry a girl of whom the General disapproves) and may follow his endeavours by means appropriate to his name to see that h:s son is content, after gil, to marry the right girl and not the wrong one. In this campaign, Gene- _ ral Strategy has the co-operation of his butler. The play has been produced by the NZBS. Farmers-Your Queries? XPERT information can be had by the farmer who submits his queries, through Station 3YA, to be answered in that station’s weekly farmers’ session by members of the staff of Lincoln College. or the Department of Agriculture. The session is held each Monday at 12.35 p.m.-after the weather report. Organisations contributing talks to the 1947 session are the Federated Farmers, and its Women’s Divis:on, the Department of Agriculture, Lincoln College, and

the Young Farmers’ Clubs. The session opened on January 13, with an introductory talk by C. G. Warren, and in the following weeks there were talks. by T. K. Ewer, of the Veterinary Department of Lincoln College, on "Hurry Up That Lamb Fattening" and by Mrs. Coop and another representat.ve of the Women’s Division, Federated Farmers, on the housekeeping work of the division. The fourth session will be on Monday, February 3, when farmers will be able to hear of the activities of the Young Farmers’ Club movement in Canterbury. The speaker will be M. D. Hurford, chairman of the Canterbury Young Farmers’ Clubs’ Council. Blitz at 3YA N this page last week we had occas:on to notice a piquant programme title. from 3YA-‘Limericks and Landler."’ Now, in the same station’s programme for Saturday, February 8, listeners will

find (at 8.26 p.m.) "Ordeal by Music: A Primitive Custom in Modern Dress." From such advance information as we have about the programme, it sounds more like a full-scale musical blitz than a common-or-garden ordeal. Those whose ear-drums are tough enough to stand the racket will hear half-an-hour of rough-hewn modernity, ranging from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to the Steel Foundry of Mbossolov, and including Haba’s duo for two violins in the sixthtone system, Octandre by Varese, and a dance composition by Bela Bartok. .... 10 Chase the Flying Hours With Glowing Feet [OR those who enjoy dancing, but feel that they do not always put the:r best foot forward, 3YA is to present a series of eight talks on’ baliroom dancing by A. L. Leghorn-the first on February 6 at 9.30 p.m., and the others on succeeding Thursdays at the same time. Mr. Leghorn (who has given talks on dancing before from the Christchurch station) will cover the quickstep, waltz, and foxtrot, in the new series, and immediately after each lesson appropriate dance music at the correct tempo will be played. Khachaturyan "TWO concertos by the Armenian composer, Aram Khachaturyan, will be heard over the air next week-his violin concerto in 2YA’s classical hour, on Friday afternoon (February 7), and his piano concerto from 4YO at 8.27 p.m. én Wednesday (February 5). These concertos both made their appearance in England in the early years of the war, and this is what William McNaught, of the BBC Listener, wrote about the

violin concerto in 1942: "The way this composer goes on and on is a marvel... There is no suggestion of mental labour of any kind in his music. He just chatters on glibly and cleverly, always keeping to his chosen grade of pungency and point, never failing in resource .... I know of no composer who. is so. adept at keeping the game alive, and we must admire an adept at any game.’ And in defence of the piano concerto, Mr. McNaught said this in 1941: "It is true that the concerto is stocked with cheap Eastern gauds from music’s bargain basement. But its confections are put together with an accomplishment that is genuinely musical . . . . You never catch him fumbling. The music may not be gold, but it glitters well; and what it sets out to be, it is." Prize-Winning Play HUNGER STRIKE, the play which 4YA will broadcast at 9.28 p.m. on Sunday, February 9, won @ prize in the radio play competition conducted last year by the NZBS. It is a comedy written by H. McNeish, and its setting is a tramp steamer under the command of a mean old captain. The ship’s cook, with the connivance of the captain, serves the men bad food, and at the same time runs a little canteen on his own behalf where the men find they have to buy the nourishment they can’t get from the meals. Their retaliation becomes a hunger strike, which makes them so weak that they can no longer man the ship. And when . danger threatens the ship-and the cook, and the captain-the crew win their argus ment. ;