Radio: Exit Priestley

Last week Nazis short-waved to the U. S. the propaganda that Duff Cooper had booted ace Commentator J. B. Priestley off the air waves. Alleged reason: Priestley was threatening to supplant Duff Cooper as headman of the Ministry of Information. Truth was: although Priestley had not abandoned his thrice-weekly broadcasts to Canada and the U. S., he had given up his Sunday-night talks to the radio listeners of England.

Admittedly the most effective speaker in England after Winston Churchill, Priestley left the English air waves amid a hubbub of press excitement. London papers suggested that he had been squeezed into silence by pressure from Whitehall, which was, they said, alarmed at his forthright pleas for more democracy in Britain. Declared the New Statesman: “He tells us he was not stopped. But . . . that these broadcasts should stop is a national calamity which may matter more than Dakar.”

Not in line with press comments was Priestley’s explanation of his silence. Said he in Glasgow a few days after quitting: “I’ve simply stopped my talks for a time because I think it’s a good thing. The people get tired of hearing one voice, but if they’re not tired and would like to get me back—well, I’m waiting in the wings.”

A difficult man is Commentator Priestley. Feverishly insistent on getting his just due in BBC publicity, he once raised hell for two days after the London Times neglected to list his program. On another occasion, sharing a 15-minute overseas talk with Actor Leslie Howard, he stomped angrily around the studio, trumpeted within Howard’s hearing that he couldn’t write a good script for a program shared by “an actor fella.” Always surcharged with temperament, he arrives at BBC headquarters at 8 or 9 for his overseas broadcasts, sulks fiercely if program directors and other minor officials don’t sit around with him until he goes on at 2 in the morning. Easier to handle last week was his substitute, Novelist Clemence Dane, but BBC was hopeful that its star would soon feel rested and calm enough to go back to work on the home front.

While BBC without Priestley was having its troubles last week, German short wave was also striking squalls. Angry were U. S. newscasters at an order barring them from reporting anything but official news as supplied by D.N.B. between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. (air-raid hours in Berlin).