TWO DRAMAS FROM THE BBC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 31

TWO DRAMAS FROM THE BBC

DAY OF WRATH is the BBC play to be heard from the YCs next week, starting from 1YC and 4YC on Monday, April 15. The idea for it came to Lydia Ragosin from a newspaper report of how LEistenstein, the great Russian film director, narrowly escaped death while making a film on the life of Genghis Khan. In a mounted battle charge Mongolian tribesmen rode down several technicians and the director escaped only because he was in a car. In Miss Ragosin’s story the re-awakened fighting fury of these Mongols threatens a small team of scientists whom the World Health Organisation has sent into the desert to find the source of a deadly plague which has struck the world. Dr Rhodes, the leader, is played by Stephen Murray; his chief aid is the American, Tom Quincey, played by Phil Brown. Howard Marion-Crawford is Kachenovsky, the Russian naturalist, and John Rae plays Sir Alan Forbes, a famous scientist. Harriet Garland, taken by Annette Kelly, has joined the expedition because she is afraid of the plague. The menace of violente coupled with disease drives each of the group to the limit of his or her endurance. In the end it all depends upon Dr

Rhodes, the hardened and matter-of-fact leader, whether they shall degrade or surpass themselves. Se Mistress of the House is a BBC play to be heard from 1XN on Monday, April 15, and later from other stations. In this play Elizabeth Dawson explores the story of Elizabeth, Countess of Shrews-bury-the fabulous Bess of Hardwick. A. L. Rowse, historian’ and author of a number of books about the Elizabethan Age, has described her home, Hardwick Hall, as "the most wonderful of all Elizabethan houses." "Building Bess" set her initials on the very rooftop as a triumphant challenge to all the world, and today her spirit still broods over her home. The red-haired daughter of John Hardwick, Squire of the county of Derby, spent her life in the building of the great house and the founding of a great family-and after four marriages she was surpassed only by Queen Eljzabeth herself in power and wealth. Marjorie Westbury is Bess, in this portrayal of her’ most ambitious project, her attempt to secure the crown for her grand-daughter, the Lady Arabella Stuart, played by Elisabeth London.