THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

| A Kun Through The Programmes

High Places HRISTOPHER JOHNSON is a wellknown figure in mountaineering circles, both as an active climber and as editor of the New Zealand Alpine Journal. He is one of those people for whom mountaineering is a lifetime’s passion, and was an old climbing colleague of Scott Russell, whose recent book Mountain Prospect, contains descriptions

of several expeditions they undertook together. Mr. Johnson is an English master at the King Edward Technical College in Dunedin, and next week Dunedin listeners. will hear the first of four mountaineering talks which he has

written under the title l’m a Mountaineer. "What do I get out of it?" is the title of the first of the series, and it will be heard from 4YA at 7.15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22. Listeners can get an idea of what the rest of the talks are about from their titles, which are respectively, "Learning the Ropes," "On the Trail,’ and "Peaks and Pavements." Waxworks Mystery VISITOR to a ‘waxworks touches what appears to be the waxen effigy of a notorious murderess lying on a couch and discovers that it is a real body. . . . From that point Charles Hatton, who wrote The Waxworks Mystery, retraces the steps of the queér story that ended in the visitor’s strange discovery. Listeners can hear what happened in the BBC recording of this play, which will be broadcast from 2YA at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23. Dorothy Sayers’ Thriller ‘THE Dorothy Sayers’ play’ Where Do We Go From Here? is a thriller with only three characters and no more action than lies in what they have to say to each other. But into the space of 30 minutes Miss Sayers has packed as much interest and as many surprises as find their way into many a full-length novel. | The play is one of a number contributed by members of the British Detection Club to the BBC’s Mystery Playhouse series, and was produced by Martyn C. Webster and played by Charles Leno, Ivor Barnard and Betty Hardy. Where Do We Go From Here? will be broad-’ cast from 4YA at 10.0 p.m. on Thursday, March 24. Roast. Pheasant YOUNG English couple are motoring to a friendly Christmas in the country when their"car gets stuck in a snow-drift. So they do what anyone else in the circumstances wduld, and call at the nearest house for help. But there is something mysterious about the house they visit. The door opens at a touch, a fire is blazing in the hearth, a delicious smell of roasting pheasant comes from the kitchen-but there is not a soul in the place. They wait for a while and then another couple arrive, also apparently travellers stranded by the snow. But when one of the quartet no-

tices blood trickling from under a locked door, it looks as if a serious crime had recently been committed-or had it? Listeners will discover what happened if they tune in to Pheasants for Four, an NZBS play to be broadcast from 3YA at 8.5 p.m. on Thursday, March 24. Opera on the East Coast HAWKE'S BAY listeners who find it impossible to. get into Napier, Hastings, or Gisborne during the coming week will be pleased to hear that three of the touring Grand Opera Company’s East Coast performances will be broadcast from Station 2YZ. Complete relays

will be made from the Hastings Municipal Theatre of The Barber of Seville (at 8.0 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23) and Madame Butterfly (at 8.0 p.m. on Thursday, March 24). At the same time on Friday, March 25, 2YZ will relay the whole of La Bokeme, which is. being presented on that night at the Municipal Theatre in Napier. Do You Live in a Lighthouse? Mest people know’ of Women’s Institutes. They have branches in every city and in almost every small town and country ‘district. There are, however, Many isolated women-women who live on lonely hill stations, or in lighthouses, or who are cut off from their fellows by sickness. And these women may not have realised that they too can join a Women’s Institute, by becoming what is called‘a "lone member." How this can be done is explained in a talk "A Call to Isolated Women," to be broadcast in .3YA’s Country Women’s Session at~10.0 a.m. on Thursday, March 24. The speaker will also describe the advantages for lonely women that such a membership contains. Restoration Romance LARGE gentleman was strolling from group to group in one of the great galleries of Whitehall. He was a foppish dandy, adorned with all the coloured silks, velvets, and furbelows which that Year of Grace, 1668, demanded. He wore a heavy peruke on his head, with flowing’ dark curls that reached over his breast and below his shoulders, and he carried his plumed hat in his hands. Once or twice he swept a low bow to some lady of his acquaintance, but for the most part he was

occupied with the courtiers who were present, smiling lazily but with his brown eyes bored and expressionless. His height, and the breadth of his shoulders, made him easily distinguishable from the throng, for he was the most noble Marquis of Roxhythe, King Charles’s favourite, who had been with him on his travels, fought beside him at Worcester, and entered London in his train in 1660. A man of great wealth and a*polished courtier. Roxhythe lived in troubled times, and he experienced many strange adventures in the service of his King. Listeners to 2YA will be able to make the acquaintance of this gallant gentleman at 10.40 a.m. on Friday, March 25, when the first episode of the serial The Great Roxhythe will be broadcast. The story is adapted from Georgette Heyer’s novel. Lindisfarne HERE is a good reason why Lindisfarne should be called "Holy Island," as listeners will hear from Alan Melville’s talk in the BBC series, Jslands of Britain, from 2YA at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, March 27. It was to Lindisfarne that St. ‘Aidan came 600 years after Christ died, and from there he started the spread of Christianity through England. The history of this island, just off the East Coast of England near the Scottish border, is not all steeped in the odour of sanctity, however, for there was a time when the islanders were described as quite. redoubtable ' wreckers. Alan Melville comes from Berwick-on-Tweed which is not very far from Holy Island. In 1932 he won a literary competition and gave up his job with the family timber business to become a writer. Four’ years later he joined the BBC as a scriptwriter and producer, and left the staff early in the war to join the R.A.F. Since the war he has concentrated on writing for the stage and films.