13 JANUARY 1950, Page 13

RADIO

ONE of the best recent B.B.C. broadcasts was of no earth-shaking consequence. It was Tommy Handley, a tribute by his old friends and colleagues on the first anniversary of his death ; and it was a far, far better thing than many more elaborate and spectacular productions. Mr. Gale Pedrick's arrangement of the old remem- bered voices was full of invention—and his best stroke of imagination, perhaps, was the decision to remember Handley merrily. Somewhere, to be sure, his shade was laughing. As for its final touch—the sound of the opening and closing of the celebrated lima door—that was both good taste and good radio. The only melan- choly thing about this programme was the inevitable reflection it inspired that the B.B.C. has not yet found a successor remotely comparable to lima.