THE FORSYTES AGAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 27

THE FORSYTES AGAIN

"PEOPLE like Galsworthy’s Forsytes never die," said Muriel Levy in the Radio Times, introducing her version of the second book of The Forsyte Saga, In Chancery, which is to be heard from Main National stations on Sunday after-

noons, starting this coming weekend (November 11). In The Man of Property, the first book of the Saga, listeners who had not already met them by reading the book were introduced to the snow-clad-and-fire-within Irene, so

mucho needed Dy ner demanding husband Soames, the Man of Property; to James, with his forlorn cry of "nobody tells me anything"; to Old Jolyon, Young Jolyon, and his jilted daughter June. In In Chancery we follow the family fortunes and have a glimpse into the lives of the younger generation — Holly, Jolly, and the children of all the characters we met in The Man of Property. Do they suffer a _ similar fate? Are they guided by their elders? As much or as little" as_ the younger generation today. "It is one thing to write a script for radio, with a preconceived idea of what the characters should be like.", said Muriel Devy, "but quite

another to have a clear interpretation of one’s intentions. In this respect I have been extraordinarily lucky, both in producers and cast. Val Gielgud, in my eye, possesses some of the elegance of the Forsytes themselves, and it was with a ereat thrill that I watched him in the —

early production, coaxing fiction into life with the surest and most delicate touch. Again, in Hugh Stewart, producer of the new production, there is that gentleness and perception without which. no mid-Vic-

torian gentleman or lady could possibly be ushered into today’s English home and live to tell the tale. ; "The script of the three Galsworthy books took me about a year to complete, and I am sure that it was the best-spent year of my twenty-odd years of writing for radio." Most of the original cast play the leading parts-notably Grizelda Hervey, an experienced and talented actress who has been described as having "the perfect Irene voice"; Ronald Simpson as the acid, yet pathetic, Soames; Malcolm Keen as Old Jolyon; and many others who have so ably served the creator of the illustrious Forsyte family. The story is again told by Young Jolyon Forsyte now, at the close of the old century, a middle-aged man.