George Speaight introduces some of the puppets being shown at the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild Exhibition which opens at the Royal Hotel, London, tomorrow.
Children's Newsreel
The Queen's Admiral
A play about Christopher Columbus by P.D. Cummins.
There are just one or two names in this play that may need a little explanation. Cathay and Cipango were the old names for China and Japan. Guanahani, where Columbus first set foot in the New World, is one of the West Indies - so called because the Admiral mistakenly believed that he was just off India when he sighted land. Juan is now called Cuba, and Hispaniola, Haiti. When, on his third voyage, Columbus saw the mainland of South America he thought it was an unknown stretch of the Indian coast. America took its name from the middle-aged Italian seaman Amerigo Vespucci. That of the true discoverer is found in Colombia and in the port of Colon at the end of the Panama Canal.
(Previously televised last Wednesday)
(Willoughby Gray is appearing in 'Carrington V.C.' at the Westminster Theatre, London)
(to 18.15)
