THE MAN OF PROPERTY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 413, 23 May 1947, Page 9

THE MAN OF PROPERTY

New BBC Serial for 2YD

6 HE MAN OF _ PROPERTY," one of the best known books in John Galsworthy’s classic, "The Forsyte Saga," makes its appearance as a serial play for radio, beginning on 2YD at 7.33 p.m. on Sunday, June 1. Muriel Levy’s adaptation of the book is played in 11 episodes, and has been produced by Val Gielgud, Drama Director of the BBC, and Felix Felton. Instead of introducing an anonymous speaker to link. the story together, the adaptor has used Young Jolyon Forsyte as narrator, and in the first episode he introduces the various members of the Forsyte family at the famous reception given by Old Jolyon.

Soames Forsyte-the man of™prop-erty-and his beautiful wife, Irene, are played by Ronald Simpson and Grizelda Hervey. and you will hear a very strong cast of radio players as the other Forsytes and their relations. Talking of the difference between stage and radio acting, Ronald Simpson, who plays "Soames Forsyte" in tie BBC dramatization of "The Man of Property," considered Soames about the most difficult part he has ever played. That from an actor with a long experience of the London stage who has been broadcasting since the very earliest days of the BBC, "Playing Soames," he said, "is like being on a knife-edge. The character, cold and reserved in manner, but at the mercy of strong passions below the surface, needs the most delicate treatment if the whole effect of a scene isn’t to be ruined. And, of course, there’s only one’s voice to do it with. If you make a slip in a stage play, you have a chance of putting things right later in the scene, perhaps-but you don’t "get that chance in radio. One false note and the damage is done-perman-ently. Luckily, in Val Gielgud we have a producer with an almost uncanny knack of spotting a wrong intonation and keeping you on the right lines." The success of the Gielgud-Simpson combination in this case can be judged by the reaction of listeners when the serial was being broadcast in England. Quite a number of them seemed to regard Soames as an actual person and they wrote infuriated letters about his

behaviour-which is as sincere a compliment as an actor could wish. The following notes on some of the other ac.ors taking part in this serial have been supplied by the BBC: LEO GENN, who plays Young Jolyon Forsyte, was called to the English Bar in 1928, and practised for nearly three years. During that time he became interested in acting as an amateur, and one of his performances so impressed a leading London producer that ‘he offered him a professional contract. So Genn turned from swaying juries to impressing his personality on audiencestheatre, film and radio-and he _ has made a big success of it. As much of his work in broadcasting has been as a narrator, he is on familiar ground in "The Man of Property," where the linking narration is put in the mouth of Young Jolyon. % * * GRIZELDA HERVEY (playing Irene, the wife of Soames Forsyte) learned her job as an actress in ‘that famous training ground, the Benson Shakespearean Company. Beginning with very small parts, she was _ playing Ophelia and Juliet before she left the company. She has been well known on the London stage since the 1920’s and joined the BBC Repertory Company some years ago, x * * GUY VERNEY (who plays Phil Bosinney, lover of Irene and architect of Soames’s house) started young as an actor. When he was 13 he played one of the Lost Boys in "Peter Pan," and since then he has had a busy life in straight plays and musicals for the stage and radio. Before the war temporarily closed down television in England he was televising regularly for the BBC in every kind of show from musical comedy .to "The Pilgrim’s Progress." % * * 5 BELLE CHRYSTALL (playing June, who is betrothed to Phil Bosinney) first joined the BBC Repertory Company in 1941, and, except for a brief. interval, has acted with it ever since. She comes from Lancashire, and concentrated in her early acting days on film work. Her skill in dialect and accent make her a particularly useful member of the "Rep" and producers have cast her in a wide variety of characters, including "Jane Eyre." as * a EDWARD LEXY, g0 convincing as an old man on the air, is still on the right side of fifty, and had not left the army for many weeks when he was asked to take the part of Old Jolyon. After fighting through the 1914-18 war in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (he is an Irishman) he was called to the Irish Bar, but gave it up after two or three years for the stage, which, he says, paid him better than law. He volunteered for the army again in 1939, was given a commission in the Loyal Regiment and served throughout the war as a ship’s adjutant in troopers and assault ships. He helped with the evacuation from Singapore, was in an assault ship at the landings in Sicily, Italy and Southern France and spent two days on a raft in the Atlantic after the sinking of the Empress of Canada. And now he is looking forward to some quiet acting for a change.