Survey of political gaffs

Press, 2 December 1981, Page 23

Survey of political gaffs

Listening

“He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” Shaw’s “Major Barbara.” Politicians have made themselves into figures of fun over the centuries. Satirists attacked them savagelj’ in ancient Athens and in Rome the emperor Caligula made his horse a senator as a gesture of contempt. Professor Laurie Barber, of Waikato University in a Concert radio programme talk at 8.50 tonight sees New Zealand as the world in miniature when it comes to politicians and looks at some of the political embarrassments and gaffs that have occurred in our short history. He starts with Sir George Grey but, wisely perhaps, does not “enter the lists of contemporary embarrassments, if any such exist.” Philharmonic In the final of a brief series with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in concert the music is by Bruch and Tchaikovsky. First Anne-So-phie Mutter is the soloist in a performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto and then the orchestra plays the Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony, the Symphony No. 6 in B minor. Concert, 9.10 p.m.

Murder “The ->Yorkshire Ripper” murders inspired Eric Saward’s play. "The Investigation of a Murder” on tonight’s National programme at 8.45. Sex murder cases are not difficult to solve and, when the little town of Wallingbridge discovers that it has its own local version of “The Yorkshire Ripper,” public feeling against what seems to be police ineptitude begins to run high. “Slippery Sam” — so dubbed by the press because of his facility in avoiding capture — seems to have it all his own way until the classic nosey parker presents the police with a vital clue. Disabled The International Year of the Disabled is drawing to a close. As a last-month contribution, the Concert Programme (7.00 tonight) is broadcasting a U.N.E.S.C.O. three-programme series under the general title "No Different from You.” The series is based on interviews with disabled people in Britain and some of their spokesmen. The second programme this week, “Just Ordinary People,” is an interview with Stephen Bradshaw, Director of the Spinal Injuries Association.

lan Wallace One of the stars of the 8.8.C.’s “Mj’ Music” is featured in a half-hour solo performance tonight. “lan Wallace Entertains” was recorded at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, on the same evening as a “My Music” show was produced for the same audience. “Usually in show’ business it’s never wise to look back,” writes lan Wallace. “But one day over a drink after rehearsing a concert with my old friend and versatile accompanist, David Money, he suggested that as I had been foolhardy enough to pursue a career which included opera, musicals, pantomime, straight plays, radio parlour games and after-dinner speaking, it might be worth trying to combine some of them into a one-man show.” The pair put together an informal show combining arias, classical, art, and folk songs, ballads and comic numbers interspersed with anecdotes and a few evergreen musical chestnuts. An extract can be heard at 8 p.m. on the National programme tomorrow.