QUIET HUMOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26746, 15 April 1948, Page 4

QUIET HUMOUR

8.8. C. QUESTION-MASTER

Listeners in distant parts of the world have had an opportunity in recent months of meeting the owner of a voice which has become familiar to them through the popular 8.8. C. “Brains Trust" sessions. That radio personality is Mr Donald McCullough, the tactful guide of the sessions, who has been in no small measure responsible for the approval which they have woivfrom listeners. Mr McCullough arrived in Dunedin by air yesterday. Since leaving England Mr McCullough has been in Ceylon, Singapore, Hongkong, Japan and Australia, and when he leaves New Zealand he will be returning home via America. During his tour he has conducted a considerable number of “ Brains Trust ” sessions and while in Japan he visited the New Zealand occupation area and spoke from the forces radio station in that zone. In Tokio he had met General MacArthur, whom he had found most friendly. When Mr McCullough had mentioned that his father was Scottish, the general had remarked that his grandfather had been born in Glasgow and that some day he would like to “ go and have a look at the place.” It was hardly surprising to find that Mr McCullough, with his easy type of quiet humour, is a contributor to Punch. He is the son of a minister cf the Church of Scotland, and was educated at Edinburgh University. He is married, with five children, and has a small farm in Norfolk, but Mr McCullough disclaims any pretensions to be a farmer —“My wife is the farmer,” he said. Before his appointment to the position in which he has won fame with the 8.8. C., he had written books and articles and had done other broadcasting work. His main interest during his present tour is in arranging exhibitions of a new and unusual series of county maps of England, the proceeds from which will be devoted to the benevolent fund of the Women's Land Army.