PASSPORT TO PIMLICO All ZB Stations. July 1

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 6

PASSPORT TO PIMLICO

All ZB Stations. July 1

"The name of Burgundy has denoted very diverse political and geographical areas at different periods of history and as used by different writers.""-Encyclopaedia Britannica. URING the early part of the war a German pilot dropped a dud bomb on an. already -devastated site in Miramont Place, Pimlico, London. Years later, after the war, some small boys playing on the site accidentally rolled a heavy metal wheel into the crater and exploded the bomb. The immediate effects were slightBenny: Went right up in the air, I did. Just like a rocket. Monty: I went higher’n you. Come down on my funny bone. But the echoes travelled further. They Tattled the téa cups in the offices of Whitehall, disturbed the slumbers of Cabinet, and threatened to distract the attention of UN delegates from their pretty secretaries. And why? Because a grocer named Arthur Pemberton fell into the bomb crater and found there an iron-bound chest. Like most ancient chests, the Pimlico one contained treasure: crowns and ducats, golden goblets, pitchers and ewers to the value of £100,000. More important, it contained evidence that balked the British Exchequer’s claim to the treasure trove. Along with the coat-of-arms: of Burgundy was a charter of Edward IV granting Miramont House to Burgundy’s Duke and decreeing that the entire estate be recognised as Burgundian soil. Miramont Place and its treasure, it seemed, belonged not to the British Crown but to the heirs and descendants of Charlies the Rash. Just to clinch the matter a young Frenchman named Sebastian de Charolais turns up with the simple announcement: "I am the Duke of Burgundy." Pimlico reacts with characteristic witST Bian Does this bus go to Belgrave Conductor: No, lady. We're going to England. _Licensing laws, ration books, gaming regulations go by the board. Spivs flog "export" cars in the Bungundian markets. While Foreign, Home and War ce functionaries strive to foist the

case on each other, Pimlico steps high, wide and handsome toward anarchy. For the newly liberated Burgundians, however, life is not all black-market whisky and skittles. Britain’s government takes a "serious view" of the goings-on at Miramont Place. The frontier is closed, customs barriers set up and the water supply cut off. Pimlico retaliates by stopping the Underground trains at its borders and_ insisting on passports and customs declarations"Anything to declare, madam? Any feodstuff, livestock, linen, silk or cotton

goods .. .? Any muskrats, meal worms, motor cycles, hasheesh, prepared opium or agricultural machinery?" Between the tiny duchy and its powerful neighbour .a cold war develops. The Burgundians’ attitude is best expressed by Arthur Pemberton’s ‘wife Connie: "We always were "English and we always will be. And it’s just because we're English that we're sticking out for our right to be Burgundians." His Maijesty’s Government, of course, "is always ready to consider any reasonable proposals." All who saw the film Passport to Pimlico will know how, in time, the diplomats of the duchy and the kingdom hammered out a_ treaty. Those who didn’t, and the many who would like to hear it over again: (and catch the jokes lost in theatre laughter), should watch. for the coming broadcast of a radio adaptation of the

film story. T. E. B. Clarke’s screen play has been adapted by Charles Hatton and produced by the NZBS, with players of the. Stratford-upon-Avon Company in most of the. leading roles. According to Bernard Beeby, who produced the show for the NZBS, the Stratford players enjoyed their Pimlico performance immensely, taking it as light relief from the high and exacting demands of Shakespeare. The stars of the production were Leo McKern and Joan MacArthur, taking the parts of Arthur Pemberton and Professor Hat-

ton-Jones respectively. The Professor, a somewhat eccentric but highly learned lady from London University, is called in to confirm the authenticity of the documents found in the treasure chest. In the film the part was given a memorable performance by Margaret Rutherford. During the Stratford Company’s tour, Leo McKern played Iago in Othello, Touchstone in As You Like It, and Glendower in Henry IV. Joan

MacArthur was seen as Emilia in Othello, and Audrey in As You Like It. She is the wife of Raymond Westwell (Roderigo, Duke Frederick, and Worcester), who plays the part of Wix, banker and chancellor of Pimlico’s exchequer, in the NZBS production. Others of the Stratford players in the cast are Kenneth Wynne, James Grout, Jane Holland and_- Ian Bannen. The local actresses Peggy Walker and Ria Sohier are heard in the play as Connie and Shirley Pemberton, wife and daughter of Arthur, the grocer who unearths the treasure. Passport to Pimlico is the first show in the ZB Stations’ Sunday Showcase, which _replaces ZB Book Review at 9.35 p.m. It will be heard from all ZBs on Sunday, July 4. Pe