TWO PER CENT.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 496, 24 December 1948, Page 11

TWO PER CENT.

THE RIGHT WAY To RADIO PLAYWRIT

ING. By

Val

Gielgud

Director of Drama, |

BBC. Kolls House Publishing Co. Ltd.

F every hundred plays received by the BBC, only one or two are, on an average, worth serious consideration. These rather depressing figures are quoted by Val Gielgud in his latest booklet, written in the hope that they might be improved. He writes, not for the amateur, but for the craftsman who has already made some impact on the writing game (or gamble?) and who might: conceivably turn his hand to broadcasting. The book is presented from a practical point of view and points (continued on next page)

BOOK REVIEWS (Cont'd)

(continued from previous page) out among other things the pitfalls to be encountered in such matters as adaptation, the use of music and of sound effects, and the types of subjects suitable for a radio audience. The chapter entitled "A Glimpse of the Machine" could be of special interest to New Zealanders because it traces the path of a play from the time it is first received in the BBC's Drama Department up to the time of. its simi over the air. : The book doesn’t tell ‘you so much how to write a radio play, as how not to write it, saying quite bluntly that if you haven’t been fairly successful in other branches of writing, especially dialogue, you will never write a good radio play. But it does at least indicate how you can harness your already established writing ability to that fairly temperamental nag, the microphone.

Isobel

Andrews