Pickwick and Friends

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 758, 29 January 1954, Page 11

Pickwick and Friends

JHE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB, an adaptation by John Keir Cross to be heard in instalments on Saturday nights from 4YC, opened with a discussion between the publishers, Messrs. Chapman and Hall, of their recently discovered favourite, the coming young novelist, Charles Dickens. This discussion, which was by turns a satirical sketch of publishers and their "puffing’ of mew works and authors, an introduction to the structure of the series of excerpts from The Pickwick Papers, and an attempt! to reconstruct the period of their writing, achieved none of these aims fully, but was carried by the energy and speed of the presentation.: Yet I found myself wishing the producer would cut the cackle and come to the ‘osses. At last

we came to the meeting of the Pickwickians. Mr. Pickwick was admirable, with a voice filled with good humour and a fine genial chuckle; and Snodgrass, Tupman and Winkle were convincing. But to my surprise, Mr. Jingle and the Fat Boy, those richly comic figures which almost burst the confines of the printed page, suffered a diminution in stature when heard (apparently) in the flesh. These parts were quite well read, but left one feeling rather solidly entrenched in disbelief in the reality of the characters, and I found that the exuberant fancies of Dickens were hindered more than helped by the intervention of a voice. Nevertheless, there is a special pleasure in meeting the corresponding members of the Pickwitk Club, and this radio adaptation of their adventures promises lively listening.

Loquax