RAISED EYEBROWS DEPARTMENT
WHEN the BBC broadcast a radio version of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," they needed the sound of a luckless Frenchman being guillotined. They achieved it by a remarkable combination of noises which, when recorded, produced a most gruesomely realistic effect. A very long straight saw was borrowed from the effects department and, while a studio manager played a little side drum, the saw was drawn downwards across the iron upright of a grand piano. When it reached the bottom Marius Goring, the actor who was playing Sir Percy, hacked a large cabbage in half with a sword and threw the pieces into a wicker basket, while various members of the cast who were standing by made suitable noises of ghoulish satisfaction. The result was so successfully appalling that the recording is now in the BBC’s effects library for use whenever a guillotine features in a radio production -BBC "London Letter."
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 785, 6 August 1954, Page 24
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152RAISED EYEBROWS DEPARTMENT New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 785, 6 August 1954, Page 24
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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