CHRIS BEAN RETURNS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 916, 1 March 1957, Page 20

CHRIS BEAN RETURNS

T is rather ironical that the one early Emlyn Williams play that seems destined for constant revival is not an original work, but an adaptation from the French. It must be over fifteen years since I last saw The Late Christopher Bean, but it bobbed up again on Sunday Showcase last week as large as life and twice as loud. The fat in this ironic comedy belongs to Gwenny, the Welsh servant who cherishes the memory and works of a painter neglected in his lifetime. In this role, which provided Edith Evans with one

of her greatest triumphs, Natasha Tver gave a full-blooded performance, which did not, however, sacrifice nuance and feeling to broad character effects. Roy Leywood and Bernard Beeby as two art collectors also contributed well-etched studies. As the doctor who tries to cash in on the Bean boom, William Austin seemed to play it somewhat too noisily and huff-puffily for radio, surprising in such a skilled actor. But I suspect producer and perhaps adaptor to be at fault here, for some parts of the play, which one could see as vigorously exciting on the stage, came across as a cacophony, too rushingly rowdy, if not for radio, at least for my not over-sensitive ears. Brighter Sundays [s the Main National Programme on Sundays brightening up? Depressed by the mortuary air of so many earlier programmes, I had steered clear of the

YAs for some Sundays, But attracted last week by some off-beat-looking items, I found that most of the day was unexpectedly listenable. A very able documentary in the morning, Frozen Cargo, celebrating the founding of the trade, got off to a good start. Gordon Mirams’s talk on censorship regulations after lunch, was, if inevitably fact-stiff, a good introduction to a promising series. The National Orchestra, under Professor Bishop, dishing up some attractive, familiar Grieg and Falla, and the witty, tuneful extravaganza, Arabian Nights, by, of all people, Carmen Lombardo, made ideal warm weather listening. And the whole fe-nily. sat in on Adventure in Space, wherein a team of experts, with giant patience, managed to provide interesting answers to rather naive questions from youngsters. All this, I feel, is much closer to Sunday entertainment for the average man. The clue appears

to be the insertion of one or more novel features as filling in the Sabbath

sandwich.

J.C.

R.