Still Some Thrillers
. THINK we have reason to be grateful for the time-lag that insulates us from the immediate effects of happenings abroad. The BBC ban on certain kinds of thrillers, for example, will take some time to come into effect, and meanwhile we have the chance to enjoy A Nice Cup of Tea, and other productions of similarly high quality, Last Wednesday I heard two half-hour plays from 2YA, the NZBS Mr. Jericho (an extravagant farce about a man who loses his voice and gets it back so squeaky that it shatters glass) and the Nice Cup of Tea, and it seems to me that any comparison between radio thriller and tadio farce must result in a victory for the former. Half-an-hour is too short a time for a radio audience (limited to the one sense) to develop an interest in character, which means that plots must be based upon incident. Death being a most significant incident, audiences tend to pay more attention to whodunits than to stories of gentlemen who shatter glass at every word, or sprout wings at every abstinence from alcoholic liquor. Moreover, the discipline of thriller-writing, despite unaesthetic aspects of the subject matter, makes for an austere shapeliness in the finished product particularly gratifying to those who embrace the functional in art.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19490225.2.21.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 505, 25 February 1949, Page 8
Word count
Tapeke kupu
217Still Some Thrillers New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 505, 25 February 1949, Page 8
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in