and forecast for farmers and shipping

London Light Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Michael Krein with Arthur Sahdford (piano)

Last of four services for Advent
Conducted by the Rev. Professor C. H. Dodd, D.D.
Hark, the glad sound; the Saviour comes (E.H. 6)
Prayers
O for a thousand tongues to sing
(E.H. 446)
Lesson: Istaiah 9, vv. 2-7
All hail the power (E.H. 364)
Sermon: From Advent to Christmas O come. all ye faithful (E.H. 614) Blessing
Hymns sung by the BBC Singers
Directed and accompanied at the organ by Dr. G. Thalben-Ball
From Broadcasting House. London

Overture. Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck): Halle Orchestra. conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
Piano Concerto No 1. in F sharp minor (Rachmaninov): Rachmaninov (piano) and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy
A Carol Symphony (Hely-Hutchinson):
Me-tropole Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dolf van der Linden on gramophone records

6-Becoming a Beak
Talk by Claud Mullins
Most barristers find in the Bench the end of their professional ambition, but for Mr. Mullins the day he became a metropolitan magistrate was one of opportunity.'

A weekly review edited by Anna Instone and Julian Herbage
Introduced by Alec Robertson
Contents:
' Music Magazine's Christmas Card ' composed by Arnold Bax and played by Harriet Cohen
' Christmas Carols : I-For smaller choirs' by Hubert Foss. with recorded illustrations by the choir of Christ Church. Shamley Green. Surrey
'Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) ' by Richard Gorer
A musical quiz for Christmas by Spike Hughes

Five experts on films, theatre, books, radio, and art
Conducted by Basil Wright
12.11 Films- Dilys Powell
12.20 Theatre: Philip Hope-Wallace
12.28 Books: William Plomer
12.37 Radio: M R. Ridley
12.45 Art: Demis Mathews

and forecast for farmers and shipping

A Christmas programme from all over Great Britain
Introduced by Ralph Wightman
Music arranged by Francis Collinson and played by the Wynford Reynolds Sextet
Singer, Cyril Tucker
Produced by Edward Livesey

A programme of seasonable operatic records introduced by Stephen Williams

Roy Hay introduces a discussion on this subject, in which the following g'ardeners from different parts of Great Britain join :
F. W. Loads (Lancashire)
Robert ScarLebt (Midlothian)
Fred Streeter (Sussex)
Professor R. H. Stoughton
(Reading University)

A radio version of the story by Charles Dickens
[Starring] Alec Guinness
Other parts played by Ella Milne, Leslie Crowther, Geoffrey Underwood, Gabrielle Blunt . and Denise Bryer
Incidental music composed by Hal Evans and conducted by Trevor Harvey
Carol sung by boys from All Saints' Choir School
Production by Cleland Finn

No Christmas is ever complete without Dickens. It is fashionable today to see some of his books as savage exposures of Victorian society. It is even fashionable to dwell at length, and sometimes disparagingly, upon his private life. But at Christmas the propagandist Dickens and the Dickens sometimes difficult to live with are forgotten. To paraphrase Scrooge: every twenty-fifth of December we allow him to pillage our hearts - and never more appropriately than with 'A Christmas Carol.' Here he brings merriment and goodness of heart and a masterly sense of story-telling. Here is the very essence of good cheer, comfort, and warmth. Here is a wintry touch of spookiness with ghosts and the clank of chains. And here, most seasonal of all, is the miraculous, as Scrooge's crabbed miserliness is changed, with that suddenness and that certainly which always constitutes a miracle, into sunny generosity - and all by the spirit of Christmas which, paradoxically, Dickens seems to have done so much to create. (Elwyn Jones)
PROGRAMMES FOR

in King's College Chapel Cambridge upon Christmas Eve

' Coppelia ' by Delibes
The story adapted by Ursula Roseveare and told by Bruce Belfrage with the BBC Midland Light Orchestra
(Leader, Frank Thomas )
Conductor, Gilbert Vinter
The music of the ballet Coppelia, with choreography by Merante , was composed by Delibes in his early twenties. He had already written a number of operettas for various theatres in Paris, but his great chance came when he was appointed to the musical staff of the Opera. Coppelia was produced at the Opera in May 1870, but it ran for only a few weeks, as the Franco-Prussian War broke out that summer. Later this charming ballet came into its own, particularly in London at the Old Empire Theatre, with Adeline Genee in the title role.

Overseas Post Bag
Christmas greetings and news from boys and girls in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Belgium, United States of America, France, Switzerland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, . Singapore, and Hong Kong
Edited by Lorraine Davies

Shipping and general weather forecasts, followed by a detailed forecast for South-east England

BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Clarence Raybould
Shura Cherkassky (piano)
In his autobiography Berlioz tells us that when Benvenulo Cellini was produced in Paris in 1838, the Overture received tremendous applause, but the rest of the opera was ' hissed with admirable energy and unanimity.' The Overture suggests the boisterous spirit of a carnival in Rome in the sixteenth century, the solemnity surrounding a Cardinal, and the love felt by Cellini for Teresa, the young daughter of Balducct, treasurer of the Pope.
It was the illustrations to a book of French fairy stories that inspired Ravel to write his ' Mother Goose ' Suite. ' The idea of conjuring up the poetry of childhood in these pieces,' he said, ' has naturally led me to simplify my style and clarify my writing.'
Rachmaninov's brilliant Rhapsody consists of a set of continuous variations on Pagamni's Violin Caprice in A minor. The work was first performed at Baltimore in 1934, with the composer playing the volo part and Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Harold Rutland

from St. Columba's Presbyterian Church, Worthing. Conducted by the Minister, the Rev. Leslie J. Macpherson Introduction
Good Christian men, rejoice (C.H. 58) Lesson : St. Luke 2, vv. 4-20 Carols:
In the manger he lies (Polish, arr.
Aitken)
In the bleak mid-winter (C.H. 50; music by Harold Darke )
See In yonder manger low (C.H. 51)
Sermon
Thou dddst leave thy throne (C.H. 67)
Prayers
As with gladness (C.H. 63) Benediction
Organist and Choirmaster. John Crabb

Appeal on behalf of the British Sailors' Society, by Gladys Young
Contributions will be gratefully acknowledged and should be addressed to [address removed]
The British Sailors' Society from its beginning in 1818 has spread world wide. founding a chain of sailors' clubs and hostels. Every aspect of caring for seamen is dealt with in its vo'untarily supported system.
A sea training school on the Norfolk
Broads trains lads for the Merchant Navy, and seamen's orphans are received into the school without payment. The Society extends its contacts with seamen on ships and hospitals by a staff of visiting chaplains and missionaries, and cases of need are specially dealt with by its Welfare Department, which helps promptly and sympathetically. At sea the Society provides ocean libraries and games cabinets.
The hostels of the Society are modern and comfortable. Bedrooms and board are provided at the lowest possible charges, and chapels, concert halls, and the full amenities for religious and social contacts are administered hy its chaplains and managers.

by Charles Dickens
Dramatised for broadcasting by Mabel Constanduros and Howard Agg
11 — ' In which we are present at two weddings '
Other parts played by Howieson Culff and Bryan Powley
Produced by Hugh Stewart

A programme of Christmas music specially recorded in Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy,. Austria, France, Belgium, and Great Britain, and arranged in illustration of the Christmas story as told in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke
With a verse commentary by Terence Tiller
Readers : Jill Balcon
Felix Aylmer , Alan Wheatley
Produced by Terence Tiller and Maurice Brown
.

New London Quartet:
Eric Gruenberg (violin) Lionel Bentley (violin)
Keith Cummings (viola) Douglas Cameron , (cello)

' The word was made flesh '
Silent might, holy might St. John 1, vv. 1-14
Behold the great Creator (S.P. 72) 1 John 4. v. 14