"VICTORIANA"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1937, Page 28

"VICTORIANA"

DRAMATISED HISTORY

Sunday, June 20, is the hundredth anniversary of the accession of Queen Victoria. Everybody knows the story of the visit paid by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Kensington Palace in the early morning to acquaint the Princess of the death of her uncle, William IV. Then began the reign 'that did not end until the beginning of the twentieth century, and what is commonly called the Victorian Age.

The National Broadcasting Service is to mark this centenary by presenting at 2YA a dramatic mosaic of the accession and the condition of England in 1837. Listeners will hear the child Victoria being prepared for her destiny, and what took place on the morning of June 20 at Kensington Palace both at; the announcement of the Accession and in the subsequent council. Laurence Housman's play "A Six O'clock Call" (from "Victoria Regina," the ban on which has been lifted in England from the centenary date), is to be embodied in this dramatic reconstruction of the past.

Listeners will also hear Charles Dickens converse with citizens in the street and Disraeli make his maiden speech in the Commons. They will listen to a proposal at a ball. They will be taken into the home of a poor man and learn how in those days children were sent to work at six and seven years of age. They will hear the murmurings of the Chartist Movement, and they will be taken into the forerunner of the modern music hall.

Wherever possible the actual words of historical characters will be used.

The production has been constructed and will be produced by the National Broadcasting Service.

It is the intention of the National Broadcasting Service to treat the whole of the Victorian era in a similar way, in periods, thus presenting to listeners a cavalcade of this great age.

"Victoriana, No. I—Accession" will be broadcast at 2YA at 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 20. Preceding the special presentation there will be a Half-hour of popular music of the early period of Queen Victoria's reign, including a "Centenary Ode," written for the occasion by Mr. J. Malton Murray.