Holiday radio

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 14

Holiday radio

Listening k • - -

For the August school holidays Radio New Zealand has prepared “Holiday Time,” a half-hour programme which will be broadcast in the morning on the Concert programme over the two weeks. Hosted by Peter Davis, “Holiday Time” will feature a 10-part serial entitled “The Runaways” written by Russel Duncan. An exciting action drama set in the convict days of early Australia, “The Runnaways” tells the story of a ■young boy who becomes involved‘ in a' plot to overthrow the colonial government. This puts his life in danger. Every day “Holiday Time” will also feature a “Tall Story” written by an Auckland writer, Ross Browne, after which listeners will be invited to spot the deliberate mistakes. Also included are some knotty mental arithmetic for the quickwitted and songs about some of our lesser-known animals from the singermodel, Twiggy, and others. A nationaLart competition to draw the characters or a scene from Edward Lear’s classic poem “The Jumblies” will also form part of the programme. Young folk who would like to enter should have entries in to Box 4419 Auckland before September 3.

Wells reading The afternoon book readings for the next two weeks on the National programme will be occupied by H. G. Wells’s “The Time Machine,” which should interest holidaying school children. Written in- 1895, “The Time Machine” begins at a dinner party where the host, an inventor, is telling his guests about his newly-created machine that can carry him through time. He is persuaded to show 'it. to them, The following -week there is another dinner party at the inventor’s home — without the inventor. Halfway through the meal he appears, exhausted and dishevelled. He has been time travelling, into the future and into the remote past. He tells his guests about the places he has been to and the things he has seen. Later he disappears forever, leaving in his stead two strange little white flowers of a species no-one has ever seen before. • Today’s reading is the first of 10 that have been produced by the 8.8. C. Chopin The third of six programmes which look at the history and the personalities surrounding the

prestigious .Warsaw Chopin International Piano Competition can be heard on the Concert programme at 7 p.m. This episode deals with the fourth competition, which took place in 1949. It features a recording of the pianist, Bella Davidovitch, in a performance of Chopin’s 24 preludes, Opus 28, which can be heard courtesy of Finnish Radio. ‘The Devils’

In 1634 Urbain Gradier, a worldly and exceedingly handsome seducer and priest, of Loudun, was burned at the stake. He was accused of causing a prioress and her nuns to become possessed by devils in one of the most bizarre cases of mass possession in history. John Whiting was commissioned in 1960 'to adapt Aldous Huxley’s book on the subject, “The Devils of Loudun,” for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The central story of this adaption to be broadcast on the Concert programme at 8.05 p.m. is that of Gradier, who seeks God through lust, then human affection, and finally martyrdom. This play was produced for Radio New Zealand by Gilbert Goldie in Wellington and has a cast of established New Zealand actors.