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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 658, 15 February 1952, Page 10

the play, seen the film, and heard the Picture Parade, of The Browning Version, it isn’t perhaps surprising that I found the NZBS production of Terence Rattigan’s work disappointing. Yet it might not haye fallen so flat had it not been for the unsatisfactory portrayal of Crocker-Harris, the frustrated classics master, of whom the piece is little more than a_ character-study. Frederick Farley, a most able actor, has a_ singularly characteristic voice (sometimes, I feel, almost too characteristic for good radio acting) and his pedantic mildness has adorned such plays as Fathers and Sons. But his Crocker-Harris in no way corresponded to the author’s intention, and contrasted sharply with the description of him given by the other characters in the elaborate exposition. His quiet, whimsical gentleness and meek courtesy did nothing to suggest the unlovable, lonely scholar. It was as if Mr. Pim had wandered in to supplant "the Himmler of the Lower Fifth." Except for a stilted Headmaster, the rest of the cast were good, notably Taplow and Hunter, but praise here must be anonymous, as the NZBS indulged in its spasmodic, infuriating habit of not listing the players at the end. \ I had both read and seen