SIX BIG BBC SHOWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 663, 21 March 1952, Page 15

SIX BIG BBC SHOWS

IX BBC plays of approximately an hour and a half duration each, will be heard from each of the four YZ stations during the next two months, They are The Linden Tree, Queen Elizabeth, Happy and Glorious, A Tale of Two Cities, The Face of Violence and Mr. Gillie. Each of the dramas listed has been played at least once before on another station in the NZBS network, but in view of the limited’ hearing they received previously, in some cases during |

the holiday period, they have been scheduled for replay from the YZ stations. These plays are among the best of the BBC’s recent dramatic productions, and _ include the 1951 Italia Prize-winning entry, The Face of Vio-

lence. This symbolic play, by Dr. J. Bronowski, reveals most of the manifestations and motives of violence in modern society. It was specially written for tadio and incorporates both poetic drama and social documentary. In this respect it is similar to other more ambitious BBC productions. On Friday, March 28, at 7.30 p.m., 3YZ will present J. B. Priestley’s The Linden Tree, the story of a family split by the conflicting ideals of its members. Professor Linden strives to preserve his environment because it is part of his position in life as a teacher, but other members of the family attempt to drag him, and themselves, away from the smoky atmosphere of the industrial city in which they live and in which the university stands. This play will also be heard from 1YZ at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, March 30, and during the following fortnight from 2YZ and 4YZ. The third of the six plays scheduled to be heard on this rota is Queen Elizabeth, by Hugh Ross Williamson. This BBC production stars Dame Edith Evans, a figure among English stage personalities ‘almost as imposing as Elizabeth herself was among sovereigns. The play is based on the story of the Queen’s unfulfilled intention to marty the Duke of Anjou. Royal relations are also the subject of Laurence Housman’s radio-adapted Happy’ G GI , the story of Victoria and Albert. known stage and screen actor Eric Portman plays. Sydney Carton in Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, whieh was adapted by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud. Mr. Gillie was the last of James Bridie’s Plays to be seen in London before he aon two years ago.