A programme for children under five
Nursery rhymes, stories, and music
There is one part of these broadcasts for the under-fives about which we receive constant requests for information-the piano duet which closes them It it the Berceuse from the suite ' Dolly,' by Gabriel Faur6. When these programmes, began, we announced it as ' sleepy ' music, and many children accepted the suggestion; some enjoyed just pretending to go to sleep when they heard it; others really accepted it as the signal for settling down. Many rocked their dolls and teddy bear* to sleep-like the little girl who picked up her doll and was busily rocking it, when the announcer's voice cut the music off. " He's spoiling it!" she cried indignantly.' But there were some who resented the suggestion of going to sleep, and others to whom the music genuinely did not suggest sleepiness. So we soon ceased to call it * sleepy ' music, and left it to make its own appeal to each individual imagination.
With the passing of time, ' Dolly seems to have become a much-loved part
- of these broadcasts, in spite of the fact that it is sometimes greeted with tears-for it heralds the end of the programme
Elizabeth A. Taylor