RADIO
MY cherished eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica says of William Cobbett that his " ruling characteristic was a sturdy egoism. . . . His opinions," continues this invaluable com- pendium, " were the fruit of his emotions." Mr. J. B. Priestley is not, though from this quotation you might be tempted to think so, an exact replica of William Cobbett. But just as his sturdy and egoistic predecessor went on his Rural Rides, so Mr. Priestley has, on behalf of the B.B.C., embarked on a series of cross-country journeys ; and there is similarity enough between the two sturdy egoists to point a comparison. Those who listen to Mr. Priestley's From Bicker to Blue Anchor on Sunday evenings at 9.15 may care to pursue the comparison at their leisure.
Last Sunday, this commentator (who is both warm and wise) told us that he went to Rugby, found no hotel room, and continued onwards to Coventry. Thereafter, he gave us the fruits of his labours. There was perhaps not quite enough labour. It is, after all, in essence a journalistic job. If you are to report, you must observe. Good as this talk was, was it not rather casual ? Rugby and Coventry are towns of the most jealous individuality: we would wish to have heard more of them There was a beautiful passage, in decorous purple, about visiting the ruins of Coventry
Cathedral—but 1 do not think that all Coventry will agree with the plea that its cathedral must be kept, picturesquely and war- memorially, as a ruin. Surely, a cathedral is a home of worship ; and surely worship is more conveniently done with a roof over one's head.
Mr. Priestley is, by universal reckoning, one of the best broad- casters of our time. To lesser broadcasters one could be indulgent. 11 is only when artists show signs of haste, as Mr. Priestley did last Sunday, that one feels disappointment. The critic's reluctant resentment against Mr. Priestley is that the critic is sometimes forced into the position of the schoolmaster who is obliged to write: " Could do better if he tried." I do not think you could have said that about Cobbett. But I invite you to reflect what stammering nonsense Cobbett might have produced if they had faced him with a microphone, week by week during his rural rides !
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