Harold Hobson. the dramatic critic, comments on this week's dramatic productions in the Third Programme. He deals in particular with Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife,' ' Imaginery Conversations ' by Michael Innes , and ' No Such Constant Lover ' by Douglas Cleverdon

Zorian String Quartet:
Olive Zorian (violin). Marjorie Lavers (violin), Winifred Copperwheat (viola), Norina Semmo (cello)
With
Anatole Mines (viola)
Part 1
Purcell's Fantasias for Strings were written in 1680 when he was twenty-one. In the words of Peter Warlock, who transcribed them, they are ' the last heirs of the sixteenth century rather than the ancestors of the eighteenth.'
It is fitting that three of them should precede Quartets by Tippett and Britten, since both these composers are Purcell enthusiasts. Britten's Second Quartet was, in fact, written in homage to Purcell and first performed .on November 21, 1945, the 250th anniversary of his death. The last of its three movements is a Chaconne, a favourite form with Purcell himself. Tippett's Quartet No. 2, in F sharp (1943), consists of four movements, the second of which is a short fugue. Both works were played for the first time by the Zorian String Quartet.

A weekly talk on international affairs by a BBC staff correspondent

Part 2

by Vanbrugh. Adapted for broadcasting by Ronald Simpson. Produced by Felix Felton

played by Robert Collet

First of four illustrated talks by William Glock on his recent visit to Munich, Vienna. Berlin, Hamburg, and Copenhagen