London Mixture

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 455, 12 March 1948, Page 8

London Mixture

TATION 2YA’s big Saturday -night show The Voice of London lasted a full hour, and. listening to it was like being given table d’héte (To-day’s Special -Curate’s Egg) when you would have preferred to order a Ja carte. The programme, in my opinion, laboured under two serious disadvantages-the first the fact that this tour of London’s theatreland was somewhat over-conducted (our cicerone was such an enthusiastic young man and introduced his finds with such eulogy on past exploits and present entertainment value that I listened with the wariness of one being sold a pup), and secondly the vociferous presence of a studio audience, which always has the effect of making me, a mere radio listener, feel somewhat de trop, particularly if the studio audience expresses loud appreciation of visual clowning (Stanley Holloway’s facial contortions, for example) which I am not in a position to enjoy. However it is possibly churlish to let faults in the service blind you to the merits of the dishes served. Stanle Holloway’s story of little Albert swallowing a sovereign was fit to set before a king, and George Robey pulled off a plum with his modern version of "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." Colonel Chinstrap amply upheld the honour of ITMA, somewhat compromised by the introductory exhibition of mutual backscratching indulged in by Tommy Handley and the compére. The session ended on a loftier note with Anna Neagle ("The First Lady of the British Screen") in her role of Queen Victoria, commenting at a safe distance on the suitability of the Royal Match, an item which in manner and subject matter could not be further removed from Our Albert, who opened the programme. The Voice of London certainly had both quality and variety, but it was a curiously unhomogenous entertainment.