Quiz

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 440, 28 November 1947, Page 8

Quiz

N unexpectedly amusing programme was Heather Mixture, a BBC transcription heard recently from 4YA, in which Scottish artists and visiting guests provided a "mixed bag" of entertainment.. One of the best things was the

quiz. There is a vast difference in the quiz programmes heard from Britain on shortwave ("Twenty Questions" being a good example of what I mean), and the average quiz programme heard from any (continued on next page)

‘HESE notes are not written by the staff of "The Listener’ or by any member of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. They are independent comments for which "The Listener" pays outside contributors.

(continued from previous page) New Zealand station. In both countries the quizmaster is good at his job, but alas! the contestants are, speaking genetally, as chalk and cheese. In "Twenty Questions" the people who do the guessing are sharp-witted, keen, and not microphone-shy; in Heather Mixture a delightful addition was the Scottish accent, combined in nearly all cases with an expert knowledge of the subject under discussion. In New Zealand, on the other hand, many of the contestants are either painfully inarticulate or so gushing as to make even the announcer ner.wous; and in addition to this, many of them know so ‘ittle that they can’t ‘waven arrive at an answer after the most obvious hinting and prompting. Possibly the BBC hand-pick their contestants (the presence of Richard Dimbleby in a quiz would seem to indicate that they don’t just ask anyone to step up to the mike), whereas our local stations, seemingly, just take whom they can get, I feel, however, that the entertainment of the listener should be the first considera-. tion, and some judicious procedure might be adopted to make the contestants’ side of the average quiz programme a little more intellectual. But don’t ask me how -I leave that to the experts.