The Hectic Story of the Kelly

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 756, 15 January 1954, Page 15

The Hectic Story of the Kelly

[URING the evacuation ‘of Crete in 1941, German ~- dive bombers swooped on one of the British Navy’s most famous "maids of all work," the destroyer Kelly, and ended her short but hectic career. Among those left struggling in, the water was the man who had commanded her from the time she was commissioned, Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, now Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean. The story of the Kelly is one of two BBC programmes dealing with widely different theatres of war which are to be broadcast soon by National stations. They are entitled Destroyer and Letter from Korea. The Kelly was built at Hebburn-on-Tyne and commissioned just in time to take her share in the fighting and routine drudgery of the opening months of World War II. All the hazards of the war. at sea came, her way, and in one North Sea battle she was nearly sunk by E-boats. Kenneth Poolman, who wrote and produced the programme, tells the Kelly’s story mainly in episodes from the ship’s life as it was seen from the lower deck, building up the narration from personal reminiscences of ex-mem-bers of the ship’s company. He found himself in ‘famitiar surroundings, as "he himself \setyed as a naval: rating, gee the war. The feature ‘closes’: i

sonal message by Lord Mountbatten. Nigel Patrick, the well-known stage and film actor, is the narrator. The. Kelly, incidentally, has been in the public eye before. She is generally accepted as being the original heroine of Noe! Coward’s wartime movie In Which We Serve. The film ‘was. greeted, with favour by the critics and’ with glee by the public, much of the latter’s reaction scious use of a familiar term of abuse. Much of the dramatic effect.of Letter being provoked in part by the unselfcontrom Korea, by Conrad Voss-Bark, comes from what the characters think as well as what they say and do. Five soldiers are sent to hold a mountain pass / and cover the withdrawal of an acmy. | One of them, a boy of: 18, is drafting a letter to his mother; another, a ‘Scot, sends his’ mind back to -the hills and streams of home: another thinks he hears his wife’s voice speaking to the children. The play is performed by members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company, with. Raymond Raikes as producer. Destroyer plage’ fitst from 2YA at | 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, January 24, Letter from Korea, which has already been heerd from 1XN,. plays from 1YC at 7.50 p.m. on Sunday, January 17.. Both will be heard ‘later from other National stations, |