Ghoulies and ghosties

Press, 31 October 1979, Page 19

Ghoulies and ghosties

Halloween — October 3'l — is the night when the spirits and fiends roam, abroad. The National radio programme marks Ail Hallows Eve ’ tonight with a programme of stories and . music. The stories come from John Collier and de Maupassant and the music selected between the i stories is suitably spine- . chilling. ■ John Collier’s dramatised j story is “Thus I Refute j Beelzy.” Mr Beelzy- is ' small Simon’s friend. : though dismissed as a fig- | ment of the child’s imagination by Simon’s tyrannical | father. Then there is the day • when he comes unex- : pectedly to the boy’s rescue

and the scream heard from the second floor landing is not small Simon’s.

Guy de Maupassant’s grisly tale of terror and violence is “The Hand.” An explorer. Sir John Rowell, keeps, chained to the wall of his study, a human hand. The hand had been separated from its owner, a murderous Frenchman, by Ashanti warriors seeking revenge.

The Frenchman holds Rowell responsible for his injury and has vowed to seek him out.

“The Hand” was produced for R.N.Z. by Stephen Riley, was adapted and translated by Michael Robson, and features George Henare as Sir John Rowell.