Actor At Odds With N.Z.B.C.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30711, 29 March 1965, Page 12

Actor At Odds With N.Z.B.C.

Peter Jones, who plays the male lead in the French bedroom farce “Boeing, Boeing,” -opening-Jn Christchurch this evening, has severed relations with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

He has cancelled planned radio interviews and also a tour of a Christchurch clothing factory, arranged by the N.Z.B.C. with the object of producing a programme to amuse those who have seen the actor in the television comedy series, “The Rag Trade.”

Mr Jones said yesterday that he was “fed up” with the N.Z.B.C. because of its interviewing policy. Ajthough he was in New Zealand in a live play, he had never in any interview been allowed to say anything about the play.

He said he believed the N.Z.B.C.’s attitude was doing nothing but harm to the legitimate theatre in New Zealand. “I feel very strongly about live theatre,” he said. “We are the only legitimate theatre you have in New Zealand at the moment, and there is no sign at the moment of anything else coming. “It is still possible that the theatre will continue in New Zealand, but live theatre is dying all over the world and it needs all the help it can get. ‘Boeing, Boeing’ is a successful play, and a successful comedy contributes more to the theatre than a Shakespearean flop.”

Mr Jones said “Boeing, Boeing,” written by the French playwright Marc Camoletti, had been playing in Paris continuously for five years and in London for four years. He was convinced that such

a successful comedy contributed to the theatre as a whole by making those who saw it become more venturesome and begin going to other plays. Play On Words

The title “Boeing, Boeing” is a play on words. It can be pronounced in the same way as the name of the jet aircraft, or it can be pronounced “boing, boing.” “It’s about three air hostesses who are engaged to the same man,” said Mr Jones. “When the Boeing jets are put on the air routes of the world, the hostesses travel faster and find themselves all in Paris at the same time, staying at the same hotel. That’s when the doors start going ‘boing boing’.”

He said the farce was the slickest play seen in New Zealand for a long time. It had had good notices from the critics, and was the best success in living memory. Mr Jones is a playwright as well as a comedian, and his first big success was a 8.8 C comedy called “In All Directions ’ which he and Peter Ustinov wrote and performed together.

He has appeared in other television plays and comedy “ “ The Ra « Trade, and has written several television plays. He wrote a television play in Australia before coming to New Zealand, and plans to Write yet another in the autumn.