B.B.C. Wins Three Italia Prises

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29060, 24 November 1959, Page 18

B.B.C. Wins Three Italia Prises

The 8.8. C. has won three of the seven awards in the 1959 international Italia Prize Contest for works specially written for radio. Two of the remaining prizes have gone to Commonwealth countries. The Radiotelevisione Italians Prize for literary or dramatic works has been awarded to Samuel Beckett’s most recent radio work “Embers,” first produced in the 8.8. C. Third Programme last June by Donald McWhinnie. The Italia Prize for television documentary has, for this year only, been split into two categories—films and telerecordnig. Both of these have been won by the 8.8. C.

Of the remaining categories in this year’s contest, the Italia Prize for a radio literary or dramatic work has been won by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with “Beach of Strangers,” written and produced by John Reeves. The Italian Press Association Prize for a documentary has been won by the Australian Broadcasting Commission with “The Death of a Wombat.” The music sections of the contest have been won by Italy and Poland. The Italia Prize was founded in 1948 and its awards are highly valued. 8.8. C. successes in the past have Included Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood” and “Gandhi—The Last Phase," a documentary edited by Francis Watson and produced by Maurice Brown which presented a portrait of the Mahatma in the last six months of his life, which was recently heard by New Zealand listeners.