Smooth and Thorough
F radio has developed one thoroughly distinctive form, it is surely the spoken documentary. Whenever I am_ beginning to be bored with radio-all radio-along comes a good programme like the BBC The Story of Curare to reconcile me to the medium again. I had a vague idea that this South American poison, which used to figure so prominently in detective stories, was now used in surgery. But I had no idea how or why it was used, ot of the experiments which led to its modern importance as a relaxant. It was fascinating to be told all this with the smooth thoroughness which characterises BBC documentaries. Yet its chief appeal for me was the discovery that one of my favourite ‘peop'e, Charles Waterton, the saintly, eccentric, squire-naturalist had brought curare to England and initiated experiments with it. I had never associated curare with the "wourali poison" he so often refers to in Wanderings in South America. Such unexpected bonuses are not the least of the appeals’ of the good documentary. And it is typical of BBC care for detail that Waterton was characterised by a--kindly, quizzically pedantic voice, which, one felt, was exactly right.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19541022.2.19.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 796, 22 October 1954, Page 10
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197Smooth and Thorough New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 796, 22 October 1954, Page 10
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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