RADIO VIEWSREEL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 411, 9 May 1947, Page 16

RADIO VIEWSREEL

What Our Commentators Say

Rookery Nook VER since our parents discouraged us from seeing the film some 15 years ago we have been interested in Rookery Nook, and nothing (not even Mr. Kehoe’s talk on Westland from the rival station) could keep us away from 2ZB last Friday night when the first instalment was broadcast. We were not disappointed. To be sure, the lily has been gilded to make it fitter material for radio. (The opening announcement referred to Ben Travers as a brilliant novelist, but we feel sure he was not brifliant enough to invent the obvious Daweism "As one liquid stocking said to the other, ‘What’s holding us up?’") And speaking of Clem Dawe, we must confess it was something of a shock to hear that lower-middle-class voice of his aping (to mix our animals) the refined braying of Ralph Lynn. But the play’s the thing, and Gerald Popkiss’s sudden descents from sublime and chivalrous asininity to low comedy are unnerving but (except perhaps to the author) immaterial. Pure as Driven Snow PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL chose an inspiring hero and a satisfying villain for his story "Ski-ing Nine Hundred Years Ago." It was surprising, however, that Professor Wall, a stickler for fitness in the use of words, should have picked so misleading a title, and should moreover have presented his story as two .talks, thus neglecting the opportunity of luring a larger audience to hear Hard-Hearted Hadrada or The Viking’s Vengeance. Both talks, whatever their Hooperating may have been (though it is possible that even for statistical purposes a skier-is worth two ordinary men), were admirably presented. Professor Wall might have taken his narrative straight from the AngloSaxon Chronicle, so simple was iis language and yet so starkly dramatic, so devoid of wild flowers of speech. In human interest the second talk far surpassed the ‘first. The first seemed to concern itself with the athletic exploits of Hemming, the hero, and the Hem-ming-directed villainies of Harold Hadrada, but the audience was required to infer Hemming’s virtue from the fact that he was the hero. In the second talk Hemming’s virtue and his heroic qualities were adequately tested. Moreover, because Hemming was now seen in contact with people we know, Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwitson, William of Normandy, we got him in some kind of historical perspective; myth faded and reality took its place. But an artificial reality, since history, as written by the early chroniclers and relayed to us by Professor Wall, shows us that 900 years ago good men were whiter and bad men blacker than generally speaking is the case to-day-largely because the points of difference 900 years ago were fewer and more cleafly marked, and the ways of settling them more direct. "Sii-ing 900 years ago" was as clear-cut in effect as an early Western film and as exciting, but had the added purity of driven snow, since time has obliterated from it all love-interest. . Anniversary Present [N true trouper tradition 2ZB took as its Tenth Anniversary’ motto "The Show Must Go On," and we feel sure that Uncle Tom. Wallie Ingram. and all

those other performers whose programmes happened in the prescribed periods from 8.0 to 10.30 and from 1.0 to 4.0, put just as much beef into their broadcasts as they would have done had their listeners been legion. For us the day was heavy with nostalgia, due to

the fact that between power cuts we seemed to _ strike Anniversary Request Sessions, or Melodies You Remember, and wiped a reminiscent tear or two at Bing singing Little Sir Echo (pronunciation assonant with

sirocco) or sadly counted our grey hairs on learning that it was eight years ago since Love Walked In. However we snapped out of it at 7.30, when Quizzing the Quizmasters came on the air. Here our critical self took over, and found grounds for criticism. The idea of giving 2ZB’s Quizmasters ‘a taste of their own whip was a good one, but though We were promised that we would enjoy their discomfiture the fact was that im the first ‘place, being young gentlemen: with a certain amount of savoir faire and savoir répondre, they were not discomfited, and in the second place it was so obvious that they were enjoying themselves that the audience felt a little out'of things. We did, however, appreciate Selwyn ‘Toogood’s twisted tongue, and the final announcement that we were to be listening at the same time, same day; same station, in ten years’ time. We don’t mind waiting. Round Table HE Round Table session from 3ZB after 18 months has now gone off the air. The reasons for this appear to be several. First, one programme cannot remain popular indefinitely, and cutting it off is better than running the risk of a decline. Then again there is the ever-present danger of controversy. The Round Table has been severely and destructively criticised, but one cannot help feeling that for all its faults it was better than no Round Table. Discussion such as it provided is an infinitely more interesting way of serving up information than ‘the straight out lecture, however expert and _ well-in-formed the lecturer may be. The danger of controversy and in the choice of topics is of course a very real one. As Punch once put it: The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone, But we in our refinedness Prefer the microphone. ‘And, like the heathen, we find our little gods more acceptable if they are attractively adorned. Logic with a Difference HE = Slaughter-Carroll version of Through the Looking Glass probably retains about as much of the original dialogue as it is possible to use in such a production. It is difficult to reduce the incidents and dialogue of a work as well-known as this to manageable proportions, and any omission is bound to be’ noticed and deplored by Alice’s many admirers. I was glad to have recalled the Anglo-Saxon messenger who went about in "Anglo-Saxon attitudes," but I missed the "brilliant"

logic of most of the White Knight’s conversation. A. P. Harper, in his book Memories of Mountains and Men, tells a story of Carroll-or rather Dodgsonin which the latter actually puts his delightful false logic into practice. Dodgson’s favourite jest, it appears, was to go into a pastrycook’s shop and, having chosen a cake, at the last moment change his mind and choose another instead. Whén the unfortunate shop-girl asked him, as he was leaving, to pay for the cake, he would ask innocently, "Which cake?" "The one you have there, Sir." "But I gave you the other in exchange for it." "Yes, Sir, but you didn’t pay for the other." "Of course I didn’t," from Dodgson, with supreme logic, "Because I didn’t take it!" All no doubt quite as confusing to the girl as "Jam yesterday and jam to-morrow" was to Alice; but we are relieved to hear that he ended by payihg for both cakes. Early Canterbury. ‘THE early days of Canterbury should provide material of very wide interest for a Winter Course series-for South Islanders, that is. It is a good idea to relieve the monotony of one-person-talking and make it two-people-talking; but unfortunately even two people talking does not necessarily constitute a discussion, and is perhaps rather a lame sort of compromise. The second of the series on Shipping dealt with the advent of steam, There were, it is true, moments of genuine interest in which some light was really thrown on this subject-we learnt, for instance, that the early steamships preferred to sail down the coast, only getting up steam in order to chug proudly but painfully into the harbour. But on the whole it gave the impression of having been culled from the official records, with little or no help from less prosaic if less unquestionable sources. The short space into which the information had to be crammed was, of course, a disadvantage; but it did seem a little unnecessary to include a list of ships’ names when there must be any number of eye-witness accounts of the early days-a_ trifle highly-coloured by memory, perhaps, but certainly more* palatable than the no-colour of officialdom. The Orchestra T the time of writing this, I have heard the first Dunedin concert of the NZBS Symphony Orchestra, but not the second (a much more interesting programme) which I intend to hear and see at the same time. In my opinion, the Symphony Orchestra is very, very good indeed-and I can’t help feeling that anybody who tells me otherwise is a perfectionist who will never be musically satisfied until he attends in person a concert by the immortals themselves. There is another type of critic who annoys me in the matter of these orchestral concerts: this is the person who tells us in a condescending tone that this is a unique ‘opportunity since we poor benighted New Zealanders, of course, nave no idea of what a symphony orchestra sounds like or looks like either, and our knowledge of performances is limited by what we have heard on the radio. This presupposes that no cultured New -Zealander ever travels beyond the borders of his own country; and, alternatively, that no symphonic combination has ever existed in New Zealand apart from visiting overseas orchestras. I am not for a moment (continued on next page)

RADIO VIEWSREEL (Cont'd)

(continued from previous page) suggesting that local effort has ever before produced anything like our newest orchestra, but I think it worth remembering that’ there have existed a collection of enthusiastic and hard-work-ing amateur orchestral bodies who for many years managed to give symphonic concerts to enthusiastic audientes and thus educate listeners, in théldays before radio, in the possibilities of orchestral playing. It can safely be said that without early training in concerted work received in amateur societies, players would not have been so readily available for the nucleus of a professional

orchestra. So the National Orchestra is not, as is sometimes sugges.ed, an entirely new phenomenon, It is a natural growth of our musical culture, its performers drawn from the ranks of our own hard-working amateurs and professionals, and its audiences from those musically-minded and intelligent people of the community without whose patronage no true culture can hope to flourish. Talks by Experts Now is the time when the attention of Otago listeners should be drawn to the forthcoming series of Winter Course talks from 4YA, since H, M.

Gilmore, in his introductory talk, has sketched for us a series of subjects which should provide much interes.ing material for the selected speakers. Not so’ long ago I made a plea for better use of the brains of the community on the radio, and it would seem that my prayer has partly been answered. The selection embraces a wide and varied range of subjects, and each speaker seems to be an expert on. his subject. Two points of criticism only occur to me. In the first place, a quarter-of-an-hour is little enough to allow each speaker, and it might allow more scope and a more detailed treatment of the subject if the period were half-an-hour. In the second place, music seems to take a back seat here-we were promised "perhaps" one or two talks on modern composers, but were not told who the speaker will be, or even whether these talks have definitely been arranged for. I hope they will be. In the meantime, we have, luckily, the continuation of the Masterpieces of Music series by Professor Galway, whose commentaries, unlike those of many radio speakers on music, are not merely comment, but an intrinsic and explanatory elucidation. of the music itself. Authentic Mansfield "HE lover of Katherine Mansfield might await in some trepidation any radio presentation of any of hef ‘stories, fearing that in the precarious process of adaptation some, if not all, of her unique quality might vanish into thin air. But the BBC presentation of The Daughters of the Late Colonel was, instead, immensely successful in capturing the authentic Katherine Mansfield atmosphere. A mixture of reading and dialogue," done by well-selected, pleasant, and sufficiently differentiated voices, it maintained an air which I can only describe as one of muted hysteria. I can’t remember when I actually laughed aloud at a radio play before, but the silly episode of the meringues wrung from me an unnatural chuckle; at the same time the depiction of the pathetic, extraordinary, useless, and tragic life of the two women made me want either to scream or cry £-I can’t decide which. All of which suggests that, if a Katherine Mansfield story can be dene successfully once, it can be done again-perhaps by the NZBS production department?