THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 430, 19 September 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

More About the Films HEN we consider the fact that films ate probably the staple form of entertainment for New Zealanders today, some attempt to assess their value, either as pure.entertainment or as an educative or social force, should not be out of place. In a series of talks shortly to be broadcast from 2YA the opinions of several experts in entertainment and education will be given for the benefit of listeners. The first speaker will be W. J. Scott of the Wellington Teachers’ Training College, who will be heard at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, September 22. His subject will be "The Film as a Social Force," and he will discuss, among other things, the effect of films on our superficial behaviour (manners, fashions, ways of speech), and whether they have any bearing on such social problems as crime and juvenile delinquency. Further talks at the same time on succeeding Mondays will consider "The Film as Entertainment" and "The Film as Education." Towards a Better Speech OST readers will remember the recent series of articles on New Zealand speech by A. R. D. Fairburn in The Listener. His concluding words were: "Good English speech is neither hangdog nor affected ... . nor pedantically ‘correct’ .... The case for the defence rests." Amongst the numerous letters which followed these articles, one. correspondent suggested that talks on the subject should be broadcast. Now an opportunity to hear more about it will be given to interested listeners. Frances Fancourt, of Christchurch, is to broadcast from 3YA (at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesdays) six talks on The Way to Good Speech. Mrs. Fancourt does not claim to be an authority, but she is a teacher, and an enthusiast who has had practical experience of the difficulties to be met with in trying to help New Zealanders to speak well. These talks will be of particular interest to those who want to learn more about the fundamentals of good speaking, and such technical matters as correct breathing, resonance, and relaxation will be discussed, as well as the problems of pronunciation, Some-

thing will also be said about the "artistic side" of speech, together with a brief description of verse (or choral) speaking. The first of this series of talks will be heard from 3YA at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 23. Novel Centennial HUNDRED years ago this year Becky Sharp threw Johnson’s dictionary out of the window as she drove away from Miss Pinkerton’s Academy in the Sedley carriage. The thud of that defiant gesture is still reverberating round the world. It was early in 1847 that one of the greatest of English novels-and the one with the best title -began to appear in monthly parts. Publication went on until July, 1848. Vanity Fair was Thackeray’s first novel,

and it brought him lasting fame. He would be a bold man who would leave Vanity Fair out of a list of the best English novels. The centennial of Vanity Fair is marked by a dramatization of the novel by the BBC. This will be first heard from station 2YA on September 24, at 9.30 p.m. Listeners will hear the start of the story actually presentedBecky’s rebelliousness, Miss Pinkerton’s majesty, Amelia’s appealing softness, and Jos. Smedley’s fat shyness. There will be 12 instalments of the serial. Becky

Sharp, immortal type of the likeable adventuress, is played by the famous Fay Compton. Affectionate Friends N the "Mr. Lillyvick and the Kenwigses" programme from the BBC series Dickehs Characters, we get a glimpse into the family life of some of those minor characters with whom _ Dickens crowded his pages so generously. Mr. Lillyvick and the Kenwigses have practically nothing to do with the plot of Nicholas Nickleby, but Dickens drew them with such obvious enjoyment that Dickens lovers look on them as affectionately as many of the more prominent characters. "Mr. Lillyvick and the Kenwigses" will be heard from 4YZ at 8.30 p.m., this Friday, September 19. Eliland . | ISTENERS to 3YA on Friday, September 26, will hear (at 8.33 p.m.) Kenneth Ayo (baritone) and Ina Stephens (piano) in the song cycle Eliland, by Fielitz, in English translated by Dr. Theodore Baker. Alexander Fielitz was bern in Leipzig in 1860, and studied in Dresden under Edmund Kretschmer (composition) and Julius Schulhoff (piano). In 1886 and 1887 he conducted under Nikisch, and then, for health reasons, went to Italy for 10 years, where he composed piano pieces, songs, two suites for orchestra, and two operas. Fielitz, subsequently, became professor at the Stern Conservatorium in Berlin, and was appointed conductor at the Theatre des Westens in 1904. In the

following year he went to the United States to take a teaching post and conducted a symphony orchestra in Chicago. He is chiefly known as a songwriter and the cycle Eliland, which contains 10 separate pieces, is his most important work in that field. The Iron Duke Lost N the leisured days when letter-writing was a fine art and not just a troublesome alternative to telephone or telegraph, there were some notable clashes on paper. And, as fine manners counted for much in those times, the writers brought to a high state of perfection the art of being rude in the most dignified manner. The BBC made some research into these wordy feuds, and the result was the short series of programmes, This Cortespondence Must Now Cease. In the first of these, to be heard from 3YA, on Saturday, September 27, at 8.41 p.m., listeners will be told what happened when Benjamin Robert Haydon, the artist, and the Duke of Wellington were the antagonists. Haydon’s output of pictures was prodigious in every sense, for he persisted in produc, 4 ‘ing enormous canvases that no would buy. The corrg¢spondence lister » will hear in this programme arose ~ of Haydon’s wish to paint the Duke, whom he admired devoutly. But Wellington was unimpressed by the honour of being immortalised on canvas by Haydon and there followed an exchange of letters, obsequious on Haydon’s part, and increasingly acid on the Duke’s. Haydon, as it happened, won in the end, but we will leave the programme to tell you how he did it.