Import of Brains

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 8

Import of Brains

READ recently in an Australian paper a querulous outcry against the broadcasting service for importing BBC reproductions at the expense of local talent. It is our own house which we have to keep in order, and what goes ‘on across the Tasman need not concern us, were it not for the fact that sporadic protests of the same sort are apt to crop up in regard to our own programmes. That the best local talent should replace the worst overseas frecordings I certainly agree, but when it comes to criticism of the BBC features, surely someone is speaking with tongue in cheek. If the BBC importations were swamping the local programmes there might be cause for complaint; but instead, they are as sparsely set as jewels among the cogs and wheels of a watch. The extremely high standard of these programmes is another thing in their favour. To quote one or two recent ex" amples from the 4YA programmesBertrand Russell on "Science and Democracy," the Brains Trust, and the perennial ITMA. Who would want to throw these programmes out in favour of more local talent? If we possess, blushing somewhere unseen, a thinker of the calibre of Bertrand Russell, a panel of conversationalists to equal the Brains Trust, or even, to descend to less lofty heights, a comedy team with the appeal of the ITMA gang, then let them be produced, and I for one will be willing to allow such paragons the full use of the radio time now taken up by the imported BBC features.