Radio diary

Press, 2 May 1988, Page 19

Radio diary

Australian Nobel Prizewinning novelist Patrick White is discussed in On the Wallaby at 8 this evening on the Concert Programme. Lydia Wevers, in the last of four programmes examining the development of Australian literature, looks at contemporary writing, with White as the obvious subject. Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop,” a 1938 comic novel about a newspaper’s nature writer who finds himself in East Africa as a war correspondent, once required reading for young journalists is passe in these days of high-tech news gathering. “Scoop” is still a good read, and should be worth listening to in late-night readings beginning on National Radio at 10.45 this evening. Australian writer Geof-

frey Dutton said that to understand a nation one must read its books. Elizabeth Alley has used his quotation as sub-title for the first of her 11-pro-gramme series, In the Middle Distance, starting on the Concert Programme at 9 tomorrow evening. If radio keeps up the present output of Australiana, by the end of the year we will know more about Australia than New Zealand without reading anything. Dedicated radio listeners would not have caught Clive James in Dallas on television recently, so they can hear about The Real Dallas, on National Radio at 8.5 tomorrow evening. London financier and one-time “Punch” editor William Davis talks to the rich, the richer and the richest about how they make and spend their money.

Those who are old enough can wallow in a little nostalgia from Musical Theatre of the Thirties, on National Radio at 8.5 p.m. Wednesday. Among ’ others there will be Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and Jessie Matthews, and presenter Brian Clark takes a look at shows from the 1930 s “Three Musketeers” to the 1934 production “Jill Darling.” Events might have moved faster than the series, but commentator Keith Ovenden sums up in the last of The Future of Television on the Concert Programme at 9 on Wednesday evening. Ovenden’s personal conclusions should be well worth listening to. Does New Zealand tele vision really go to sleep in front of the viewer? James Homes