THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 513, 22 April 1949, Page 11

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

The Trials of Being Fagin NYONE who is still under the impression that a film star has a nice easy job should be disillusioned by the BBC's Picture Parade programme which deals with Oliver Twist. In it Alec Guinness, who scored a triumph (and some notoriety too) in his role of Fagin, gives listeners a few facts about his working day while the film was being made. He got up every morning at four, reached the studio at five-thirty, spent three hours being made up, was on the set all day, and got home at seven in the evening. In addition, the mass of false hair on his face made it impossible for him to eat or. drink in comfort. Other members of the cast heard in extracts from the sound track are Robert Newton as Bill Sikes, Kay Walsh as Nancy, Francis L, Sullivan as Mr. Bumble, and John Howard-Davies as Oliver. Peter Hunt talks about the research he did, to ensure that all the period details were correct, and Bernard Darwin, the dis_tinguished journalist and authority on Dickens, discusses the film in relation to the book. Oliver Twist will be heard from 3YA at 5.45 p.m. on Monday, April 25. : Schizophrenic? SCHIZOPHRENIA, a _ pathological, Jekyll-and-Hyde condition of the human mind that is familiar these days to most picture-goers and readers of popular novels, has now entered the world of radio entertainment. In Double Identity a man consults his doctor because he is afraid he is suffering from split personality as the result of a war wound. Death eventually brings to light a@ very cunning plot, the outcome of which can be heard at 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, when this play will be broadcast from 3YC. Double Identity was originally broadcast in the BBC’s Mystery Playhouse series, and it has all the mystery and suspense that one expects from that feature. The script is by Charles Hatton, who has written a great number of plays for the BBC, including the popular series The Man From Hatton Garden. Barrie’s Old Lady J M. BARRIE’S one-act play The Old * Lady Shows Her Medals has become a little classic’ of its’ kind, and even those who have not seen it acted probably know this story of the Scottish charwoman who, feeling that the war did not affect her enough, invented a son in the forces. The scene where Mrs. Dowey is confronted by the soldier whom she © had "adopted" without his knowledge or consent is pure Barrie. A radio adapta-_ tion of the play, arranged and produced by Peter Watts, was recently broadcast from the Glasgow studios of the BBC, and a recording was made at the time by the BBC Transcription Service. Two well-known Scottish radio actors, Jean Taylor Smith and Jameson Clark, play Mrs. Dowey and the soldier. The Old Lady Shows Her Medals will be heard from 1YA at 9.45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27. | sie Titans of the Keyboard of those remarks overhead recently in an all-night opera-seat queue in Wellington-where the mus-

ical cognoscenti are apt to whittle away the hours discussing the relative merits of past and living stars of stage or concert hall-was the question, Who was the most titanic Titan of the Keyboard of all time? Could Paderewski have out-played Liszt? Should Schnabel be placed above Gabrilowitsch or Lamond? What might Chopin say if he could hear

Artur Rubinstein reeling off one of his pieces for a film sound-track? Perhaps Station 4YA will have something to say about this when they present at 7.45 p-m on Wednesday, April 27, All Time Piano Titans, one of four illustrated programmes narrated by Jack Forster from the studio. Black Market eres OHN GUNDRY is perhaps New Zealand’s best-known and most accomplished radio playwright, not confining himself to any particular genre, but equally happy in thrillers such as I. Killed Alexander Collins, literary triflings like Mr. Whistler Meets Mr. Wilde, or religious drama, as in the Good Friday play, Night Winds Telling, an interpretation, of Judas Iscariot. At eight o’clock on Wednesday, April 27, listeners to 2YA can hear his latest play, a thriller this time, You Can Buy Anything, in which Berlin’s black marketeers pit themselyes (unsuccessfully of course) against the superior mental endowment of a British Intelligence officer. The play is fast-moving, and well-interpreted by an NZBS cast. Police Pipers HERE’S a policeman coming" has often been used as a threat to naughty children, To Glasgow urchins, however, it is frequently the promise of a thrilling sight the Glasgow Police Pipe Band march by in all the glory of their Royal Stewart tartan, with plaids and pipe streamers fluttering in the ‘breeze. The Glasgow Police Pipe Band was "originally raised in Govan and, becoming popular almost immediately, was invited to play at public functions everywhere in the district That was in 1885. Since then it has won the World's Champiofiship Piping Contest a record number of times. Listeners will be able to hear the men playing one of their favourite competition sets, consisting of a march, a strathspey, and a reel, in the programme to-be heard from 4YZ at 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27. An appropriate tune also in the programme is "Lochiel’s Welcome to Glasgow," and the session ends with three Seaforth airs, including the popular "Caberfeidh."