More Than Skin Deep
N example of how a fine script, tiptop performances and hard-headed direction can make a horrifying subject, didactically slanted, into excellent radio listening, was the BBC Ordeal by Fire. A dramatisation of the work of the Plastic Unit of the Queen Victoria Hospital, it used the case-history of a woman horribly burned when her dress caught fire at home, to show both the work of the Unit and to preach a sharp warning against carelessness in the home. But astute use of sound-effects, highly literate dialogue and firm characterisation dampened the gruesome element and aroused pity for the victim and admiration for the skill of the surgeons who enabled her to lead a normal life again. What impressed me most, however, was the psychological aspect of the ordeal-first, the woman's great emotional shock at her injuries and then the series of crises during the two years’ treatment, handled here with firm tact and \understanding by the doctors. The impression left was that a fundamental part of a plastic surgeon’s work is psychological-true of all good doctors, I suppose, but brilliantly implied in this feature. Ordeal by Fire again detmonstrated that, in the field of radio documentary, the BBC has no equal,
and few successful imitators.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570712.2.49.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 31
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211More Than Skin Deep New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 31
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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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