ISLANDS AND ISLANDERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 9

ISLANDS AND ISLANDERS

OUNG people, and quite a few older ones, love islands. Put a few miles between yourself and the mainland, and if you're young enough in body or mind you can see all sorts of romantic possibilities in any islandwell, almost any. Of course, not every island is likely to have buried treasure ‘on it (though it’s, not hard to put yourself in the state of mind when you can imegine it might have), but with or without its chest of pieces of eight every island worth the name is likely to remain in the minds of young people a rather special place. Young listeners have a choice of two sorts of islands from National stations at present. One, in the middle of a stream in Devonshire, is the setting for Roland Pertwee’s exciting tale The Islanders, and the other, complete with Spy-Glass Hill, three red crosses and pieces of eight, is the Treasure Island of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous tale. The Islanders, an NZBS production of a radio serial based on the book, is being heard in the Children’s Session from 2YZ on Tuesdays-the second instalment will be broadcast on May 18 -and later it will be on the air in Children’s Sessions from other stations. Roland Pertwee himself, who had a part in the serial when it was produced by the BBC, prepared the radio Script. Mr. Pertwee is no newcomer to acting; some years ago he visited New Zealand with a touring company. If your mother and father were dead and you had been used to spending your holidays with an aunt at a seaside resort you would probably be as excited

as Pat Faraday was when he and two friends were offered the free run of a mile of river and 500 acres of woodland and hillside for the summer holidays. A condition was that they should house and feed themselves and, in fact, live entirely by their own wits and the work of their own hands. Like the Swiss Family Robinson they were. given something to start with -stores* and tools "washed ashore" near the island which they were to make their home and their fortress, In coming weeks young listeners will hear about their adventures — including an encounter with gypsy boys, a journey on a raft and a disagreement with a sportsman who is hunting and fishing in the area. The

principal parts in The Islanders, which was produced by Bernard Beeby, are taken by Gavin Yates, Raydia d’Elsa and Bernadette Canty. Treasure Island, it is generally supposed, started with the map, though G. B. Stern, in Collins Magazine, tells a story of a_ beginning-before-the-begin-ning: Stevenson, a candidate for a university post, rehearsing eloquent lectures with his stepson, young Lloyd Osborne, as audience, till "a weary but polite little boy" .asked him to "try atid write something interesting!" Still, Lloyd’s own story is of the map which he was tinting, and of his disappoint-

ment when Stevenson put it in his pocket- "after all, it was my map." But it was only next morning that his stepfather called him up to his bedroom (the beloved map was lying on the. coverlet) and read aloud to him the first chapter of Treasure Island. Turned into a radio play by John Keir Cross, and produced by the BBC, Treasure Island will be broadcast from 3YC at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 19, Leading parts are taken by Leidman Browne (Long John Silver), Deryck Guyler (Jim Hawkins the man) and Brian Smith (Tim Hawkins the boy).