A visionary TV pioneer
QUESTION What became of Pat Keysell, the TV presenter and sign language interpreter who presented TV’s Vision On with Tony Hart?
Vision on was a children’s TV show on BBC1 that ran from 1964 to 1976. Designed for youngsters with hearing impairment, it was enjoyed by all children.
For the first two years, it was presented by only Pat Keysell.
Born in London on June 7, 1926, Keysell grew up in Petts Wood, Kent. A mime graduate of the Central school of speech and Drama, her TV career began in 1958 as assistant to Ursula Eason, BBC deputy head of children’s TV.
in 1960, Keysell formed the Mime Group to perform in the long- established monthly programme, For Deaf Children, which also used subtitles.
Keysell saw mime as a great way of introducing hearing-impaired children to the visual arts. she was the impetus behind the launching of Vision on, a fortnightly entertainment show featuring mime, theatre and art to stimulate the viewer’s imagination without the need for speech or text.
it was revamped in 1966 as a weekly show with the graphic artist Tony Hart as Keysell’s co- presenter. Hart added animation, the claymation character Morph, comedy films and wacky music, which increased the show’s popularity.
Best remembered was The Gallery, a segment displaying the many pieces of artwork sent to the show by children.
After Vision on ended, Keysell continued to work in mime, on TV and on the stage.
For iTV, she wrote and produced Under The same sun, 1978 to 1980, which told folk tales from around the world. it was based on her recent British Theatre of The Deaf show Under The sun.
she was the author of Motives For Mime in 1975; Mime Themes And Motifs in 1980; and Mime over Matter in 1990.
Keysell also worked at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Cumbria, and toured her Compass storytelling shows.
she retired to italy and died a few months later, on october 31, 2009.
Gail Vinton, Inverness.
QUESTION What is the doomsday fungus?
iT is the deadliest known organism when it comes to killing entire species. The highly infectious Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis, known as Bd or the doomsday fungus, kills frogs and other amphibians by infecting skin cells and multiplying rapidly. As the animal’s skin begins to peel off, it grows weary, its heart fails and it dies.
Until recently, Bd was thought to be responsible for major declines in 200 amphibian species.
However, a worldwide project, led by Ben scheele from the Australian national University and published in the journal science earlier this year, estimated that the fungus had caused a dramatic decline in 500 amphibian species — that’s around 7 per cent of the world’s total.
of these, 90 species have been wiped out. A further 124 have fallen by more than 90 per cent and are unlikely to recover.
DnA tests suggest Bd started out life on the Korean Peninsula, where the local frogs have developed immunity to it.
international animal trade and smuggling has seen the spread of the fungus to vulnerable amphibian populations across the world.
Lori Kelley, St Andrews, Fife.
QUESTION Did any African states resist colonisation by European powers?
AFriCAn history records only two countries that are considered to have survived the 19th- century period of colonisation known as the scramble for Africa: Abyssinia, modern Ethiopia, and Liberia. However, their status of freedom from foreign rule is contested.
Abyssinia did succumb to a short period of military occupation during World War ii, though whether this was true colonisation is debatable.
Liberia was established by the U.s. in 1821 and controlled by U.s. citizens as a colony for former African-American slaves and their free descendants. Though it received partial independence in 1839 through a commonwealth declaration, it took a further eight years to become a sovereign nation on July 26, 1847.
Even after that, the nation was widely viewed as a U.s. colony and so was avoided during the scramble for Africa.
But Britain did invade Abyssinia in 1868 when soldiers marched to remove Emperor Tewodros ii, who had imprisoned several missionaries and two British government representatives in an attempt to get the attention of the UK.
He’d hoped Britain would help him in his ongoing battle against Muslim Turks and Egyptians invading from sudan.
Led by General sir robert napier, a military force crossed hundreds of miles of mountainous terrain to capture the capital and rescue the hostages. Tewodros committed suicide.
This was a targeted mission to rescue the prisoners, not an attempt to colonise, but the invasion left a lasting impression on the Abyssinians.
The British Army had modern rifles and the locals could do nothing to resist them. Emperor Yohannes iV, crowned in 1872, created a modern army and forged diplomatic links with European powers.
When italy made a full-scale invasion to conquer and colonise Ethiopia in 1896, it was roundly defeated at the battle of Adwa. A second invasion was ordered by Mussolini in 1935 and Abyssinia was annexed on May 9, 1936.
The italians merged Abyssinia with somalia and Eritrea to form italian East Africa. Whether this was a true colony or a short-lived military occupation remains under debate. it did not last long. on May 5, 1941, Ethiopia regained its independence and Haile selassie was reinstated as Emperor of Ethiopia.
Peter Crawley, Hull.
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