40. The 'Air Doctor' dealt with a variety of health subjects in his weekly programme, members of the Chinese Philatelic Association gave six talks on stamp collecting, and translations were broadcast of shortened versions of the lectures given on British Institutions under the auspices of the British Council.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

41. Hong Kong has a wealth of material for documentary pro- grammes; the research, writing and production of these programmes, however, is an extremely lengthy business and it is to be regretted that existing staff cannot do more than turn out a token number of such programmes.

42. During the year, the Urban Services Department, the Festival of the Arts, the Comet 4 and the Schools Music Festival were the subjects of Chinese documentary programmes whilst several series of programmes on 'Life in Britain' were produced from translated BBC scripts. The subjects covered in these programmes included seats of learning, British enterprise abroad, industrial achievements, and the great discoverers.

43. Early in 1959, the BBC Chinese Service took over production of these programmes which are flown out to Radio Hong Kong and remove the burden of local production.

VARIETY

44. 'Entertainment World' was the title given to a variety show which first appeared in May 1958. Again this was an experimental production designed to discover public reaction to a radio music-hall having all the usual ingredients, comedians, mimics, singers, but presented in a hitherto untried form. The show rapidly became very popular and has been regularly broadcast since.

45. Other variety experiments during the year were with a 'script show', a variety programme on the lines of the well-known British shows such as Take It From Here; little progress, however, had been made by the end of the year, principally owing to inability to find a scriptwriter.

46. Another new show was 'Top of the Pops', featuring the best local singers in half hour programmes of songs and interviews. ‘Cabaret on the Air', a studio variety show and live broadcasts from nightclubs presented the best in popular western music and 'Beginners Please'

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