All Our Brains Commend Him

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 465, 21 May 1948, Page 14

All Our Brains Commend Him

AVING heard Donald McCullough for the first time for some years (it seems a long time since 2YA relayed recordings of the BBC Brains Trust) I am prepared to endorse all the nice things that prompter-pens-than-mine have found to say about him. He is that rare thing on National, as opposed to Commercial networks, a microphone personality, and as I listened to What Would You Say on a recent Monday night the thought occurred to me that in a previous incarnation (perhaps a little too previous?) he might have been one of those successful Edwardian hostesses encountered in memoirs of the period. Gracefully he welcomed and gracefully introduced his "scintillating selection of agricultural intellects." Taking his place as usual at the head of the table he brought forward, one by one, apt topics of conversation, topics designed to show off becomingly his guests’ several talents, and to provide good listening as well as good exposition. His personality was strong enough to ensure that most of the conversation was general, but not so quelling as to prevent the occasional riposte between players of opposing views. His the will-o’-the-wisp remerk that rescued the speaker bogged in deep waters, his the anchor that pinned down the speech that showed tendency to drift from the prescribed shore. And though our Edwardian hostess could not conceivably have been placed in the impossible position of imposing a strict time-limit upon her lun-cheon-party I feel sure that if so placed her apologies could not have been more graceful,