RADIO
MY favourite American magazine, which records in highlights the mores of the U.S.A., chronicles: Never before had Santa Claus worked so hard to give U.S. retailers a merry Christmas. . . . By last week it looked as if Santa had been almost done to death." I wonder sometimes whether the B.B.C. isn't in danger, at this time of year, of deafening us with jingle bells.
This week has been no more than, so to speak, a preliminary roll on the drums ; but it has been played with an ominous vigour. I liked very much Monday night's Christmas Round the Corner, a tour (documentary-plus-interview) of the provinces and London. Here were the pre-Christmas arrangements, -sanely selected and properly presented—how the crackers are made, how the ducks fattened, how toys are distributed, how the remote islanders of Barra make ready. Best of all, perhaps, was the household in the Rhondda Valley, girding itself for family reunion. How are thin ration-books to deal with a full table ? Well (said the house- wife), if you remember how in 1938 you fed and clothed nine people on £2 8s. a week, you learn how to share your rations. It was a well-balanced programme, with reality keeping a firm hand on seasonal romance—the sort of thing that the B.B.C. does unpretentiously, but very well.
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