South With Scott
f HE first episode of 2ZB’s new Sunday night serial, With Scott to the South Pole, was a _ disappointment, though it is probably ‘too much to expect a serial to do more than weigh anchor in the first episode, But I think I detect a certain elegiac stiltedness in the atmosphere. The characters are too consistently gentlemanly. The episode opens with Captain Scott and Dr. Wilson discussing their stay in New Zealand ("These New Zealanders have been kindness itself to us’), a pleasant interchange which, though historically probable, does not seem historically significant. Similarly the conscientious script-writer supplies polite affirmatives to simple requests such as "Lend me your glasses, if you please, Dr. Wilson," in case the listener should fail to infer the gentlemanliness of the reply. By the second half of the episode things have begun to warm up a little, since we are now well into the latitudes of high endeavour. There is plenty of scope for radio dramatics in the drama and near-tragedy of the storm and the struggle with the pack-ice, but the relevant extracts from Captain Scott’s Journal which are read throughout the production are much more eloquent than the radio reconstruction, for all its garnishings of shrieking topsail, whinnying ponies, lurching cargoes, and crashing ‘bilge.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19480123.2.35.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 448, 23 January 1948, Page 17
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214South With Scott New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 448, 23 January 1948, Page 17
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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