Conflict of Choice
F there is one thing the listener dislikes as much as no interesting programme, it is two of them at the same time, and a black Wednesday at the beginning of June provided this conflict maddeningly. Station 4YC has been giving us a good series of plays on Wednesdays; but on this night, Country Calendar, from 4YA was at the same ‘time offering us a talk by Cotsford Burdon, Mr. Burdon, as I have found in the past, can be quite as good as a play; but the play went on for two hours, and he for fifteen minutes, the first fifteen minutes of the play. So I remained tuned in to Country Calendar. After Mr. Burdon’s wit, the play seemed turgid, a semi-poetic and sentimental treatment of Francois Villon, but I still concede that "a light-hearted treatment of the
town versus country question," occupying its first fifteen minutes was not its best introduction. One wonders if such a conflict of choice is really necessary. I do not regret my decision; the picture of Mr. Burdon fleeing Christchurch as "Lot fled Sodom," the libations and incantations of the young men from the Department of Agriculture, and the inimitable Burdon treatment of many other facets of country life are not easily forgotten, nor do they lose their power to amuse. Other listeners may have chosen the play first, and thus missed one of the best talks of the year.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 11
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241Conflict of Choice New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 11
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