BBC COVERAGE OF The Monte Carlo Rally Tele~ision and the Light Programme will be {olio wing the 'rally thrOltghollt Its 1,800 miles of thrills. Ronnie Noble and Peter Dimmoc/, (above) will head the T eievision 'S[Jorcsview' team, and Raymond Baxter (left) will compete and report in the Light Programme (see [ntge 3) Issu< dated 3 JANUARY 17 11'58 Editorial: BBC Publications 35 Macylebonc High St. Registered lit tIle G.l',O. nt 0 Newspaper JR A}IJ) li 0 TJIIWE§ London, W.l British Broadcasting Corporntion TUB JOURNAL Copyright of nil programmes in this Broadcasting House, London OF TnE nne J \v.i issue is strictly reserved by the nBC The first English production of Francis pOlllenc's op'era, I The Carmelites,' will be broadcast [f·om Copell't Garden on Tuesday The BBe and the (Third). Here EDWARD LOCKSPEISER draws a thumb-nail p_ortrait of Throughout the week the BBC will be following the progl'ess of the Monte Cal'lo Rally in both sOHnd and television. Raymond Baxter Poulenc: the Man and who is again taldng part as a competitor, will be I'cporting in the the Musician Light Programme, while Peter Dimmock, lcading a 'Sportsview' tcam, will be giving an average driver's impressions of the event OU have only to watch the long, doggy­ like face of Francis Poulenc for a moment Yor two to see in it the endearing charm WHAT'S NEW ABOUT THIS YEAR'S RALLY of his music. When you ace introduced the dis­ UFFICIENT unto the roads is the evil What's new about the Monte MKII (modi­ tant look is almost a mask. But the little eyes thereof. This may well have been the maxim fied) 1958? 50 on begin to twinkle; he has thought of the Sunder which the organisers of pre-war Well, the basic ingredients" are still there, only vecy joke you will be unable to resist, and he Monte Carlo Rallies planned their campaign more so. The main route to Monte Carlo has is rattling off one of the choicest of his marvel­ against the competitors. In those days, the task been shortened slightly to 1,800 miles, but the lous fund of anecdotes with the exuberance of a of getting to Monte Carlo on time, lJia all the penalties remain at ten marks per minute late schoolboy. There is no doubt about it-Poulenc, who is a sort of Fernande1 among modem stipulated controls en route, or early at each control. was sufficient to decide the Speeds aro somewhat higher: French composers, is as ebullient now, in middle age, as when he first began cocking snooks at winners. Old campaigners like e.g., Chambcry-Gap, 160 kilo­ the musical world forty years ago. Donald Healey (who won metres, minimum time 2 There is, of course, more to his abundant from Stavanger with an In­ hours 3 minutes, maximum musical personality than this. Look at his hands. victa in 1931), Tommy Wis­ time 2 hours 40 minutes. In You do not have great bony structures like that dom, Norman Garrad and other words, one's lowest per­ for nothing. Poulenc Maurice Gatsonides (who mitted average speed is 60 is known to be a most· eventually won with a Zephyr Ie.p.h. In previous years the sensitive pianist. And from Monte Carlo in 1953), lowest permi tted average speed behind the screen of will tell you astonishing stories of how they has generally been an arbitrary 50 k.p.h. (32 high spirits' and so­ dug for days in the snow of the Polish corridor. m.p.h.). But much more important' is what phisticated banter there This was when places like Koenigsberg, Umea happens after Monte Carlo is reached. is another personality (I'm not quite sure where that was), Berlin and \Ve shall have a six-hour rest following the altogether-the com­ John 0' Groats, were offered in the selection 55-hour journey; then we shall set out again 'poser of the Alass, of of starting points. on a 650-111ile circular run, based on the a series of severe reli­ But progress. is not to be denied, and im­ Alpine Trial rather than previous Montes. In gious .lylotets, and of proved roads, together with the improved this the time limits at controls will be much the • Li tanies to the performance of the modern car, have made the tighter, particularly for' Grand Touring' Class BJack Virgin: inspired actual mid-winter journey to Monte Carlo less cars like our Aston lvlartin, which I share by the composer's hazardous today. Conversely, the task of the with Jackie Reece. The route, too, through periodical visits to the organisers, in seeking out the winner 'on the the Maritime Alps on little-known roads, can ancient Sanctuary of road,' has become more difficult. only be described as a • stinker.' Rocamadour. A lai:ge Each year since 1949, the Automobile Club In this section, the winner of the 1958 Monte FRANCIS POULENG number of Francis de Monaco and the International Sporting Club Carlo Rally will be found. The organisers have Poulenc's recent works, have endeavoured to write-in fresh variations on in fact resorted to their original motto. For .:outaioing some of his most affecting pages, the theme. This year they have made some in those parts still, sufficient unto the roads is are in fact devoutly religious. fundamental changes in their regulations. the evil thereof. RAYMOND BAXTER Those who know Poulenc intimately, and I have had this privilege over many years, feel that the strands of this double personality-the irre­ ON THE ROAD WITH SPORTSVIEW'S CAR sistible bon enfant and the other-worldly monk VER since Sportsview began on BBe Tele­ Winter Olympic Games through fairly frightful -run through his entire work and account for' visi~n we have each year (except for 1957 conditions, and we reckon that after the shocks certain unexpected features 'in it. One is never Ewhen the event was cancelled because of we gave each other on that trip there is a remote quite SUre which of his two sides he will show petrol shortage) filmed the Monte Carlo Rally. possibility of. our arriving at Monte Carlo in next. His first opera, written more than ten years This year we have again decided that the event - one piece! agO, Was a brilliant comic farce. His second, The should be covered in Sporlsview, but this time There are eight starting points for this year's Carmelites, has a religious subject-the martyr­ with a difference. The Unit is to follow the prece­ Rally. Raymond Baxter is heading sonth from dom during the French Revolution of thirteen dent set up ,in sound radio by veteran Rallyist Glasgow, but we have decided to take the Paris nuns from a Carmelite convent. arid commentator Raymond Baxter who ",'tually itinerary. We shall set off from Paris at 4.33 competes each year in the Rally as he reports. p.m. on Wednesday, and are due to arrive at Never Forbidding Although there will, of course, be film of the 1,,\onte Carlo at 3.30 p.m. on Friday, driving It is a fact that even in his remote religiOils experts in action, the Sporisview Unit has . virtually non-stop for 48 hours. Then, after a Works, the Mass and the Penitential Motets, entered the Rally with the express and declared brief rest, we tackle the 650-mile 'round the Poulenc's music is never forbidding. His religi­ purpose of trying to show viewers what it is mountains' course. ous music is song-like, melodious, ecstatic. ' God like for the average driver to tackle for the first . The Roving Eye will meet the British com­ Protect llle from the more dreary of the Saints time what has often been described as one of petitors near Ashford in Kent en route for of history,' he wrote on the score of The Car­ the roughest and toughest winter car rallies in Dover, and we hope that Sportsview on Wed­ ~1e1ites, quoting the words of the charming and the world. Our number is 331. We shall be nesday night will include a first-hand report on Ingenuolls Saint Theresa of Lisieux. .. driving a Humber, and I shall have with me as progress from some of the drivers, together .There we have it. Even when his music deals my co-driver the Assistant Editor of Sports view, with our own first- report Of the Rally from I'llth sevece subjects it retains its child-like inno­ Ronnie Noble, and with us as the third crew France. We plan to send back reports of our cence and its spontaneous flow of melody. That member will be ace Sportsview cameraman, Alan progress in time for the Thursday and Friday ~obably :lCGonnts for the spectacular success of Prentice. Both he and Ronnie Noble have night editions of Tonight, and for Sports Special fi:~e Carmelites, Poulellc's latest larg~-scale work, filmed the Rally before but none of us has ever on Saturday. In next week's Sportsview we 11 SI produced at La Scala, which III less than actually competed. Ronnie and I did, however, hope to summarise the Rally with a complete Vo Years has swept Europe and America. drive to Cortina and back together for the and edited report. PETER DIMMOCK RADIO TIME:' lIigltliglIts oi die '\'c.'G.'I!. THE WAY OF LIFE AT l\. GLAN(;]K Since l~st October the regular Sunday Et·ening Service at 7.45 (HOllie) has been lJl replaced by a religious progralllme.