BETTER MOMENT FOR USTINOV

TV. When I saw "The Moment of Truth" during its short run at a West End theatre. I thought it a play with a good idea, a good start, and no middle or end. On Sunday night I was enthralled throughout. Was this because Peter Ustinov himself was now playing the Marshal. and how admirably! Was it because of changes in the script? Or was it because some plays need the intimacy and direct• ness of the TV screen to make their proper effect? I suspect that the TV has something to do with it, because one was held throughout by the personalities and had no time to reflect on the theme and any lessons it carried.
I, for one, am deeply in sympathy with the main thesis that
most contemporary political morality is bunk. This perhaps was brought out better in the theatre by the actor who guyed the part of the Prime Minister. Peter Cushing in playing it suavely and seriously was, I thought. a little out of touch with his lines. It would he inipossible to overpraise Peter Ustinov's Marshal, but he left the question : what was it all about beyond suggesting the pathos of old age? And I confess that I still am left to guess why the moment of truth was the moment of truth, despite the brilliance of Hugh Griffiths' cameraman.
THE three programmes " We, the French," have now been shown and they have earned a good deal of praise. I cannot think why. A certain sense of im• mcdiacy and importance was achieved by bringing sin an exPresident and one or two other figures of some note. But the series seemed to me bitty. insufficiently explained and totally uncritical. The problem of France is one of the most important in the world to-day. The BBC took a lot of trouble and got us nowhere in understanding, still less solving, it. On Sunday. March 20, Fernando Crermani, official organist in St. Peter's. Rome. will give a recital from St. Ciahriel's Church. Cricklewood. He will play Bach
and Liszt. M. B.
ADIO, Every Sunday this
month at I L30 a.m. on the Light Programme. Fr. Gordon Albion is conducting a service from St. Edward the Confessor's Church. Sutton Park. Guildford. These services are entitled " What Think Ye of Christ? " and the first one f listened to was intended to show that Our Lord was a man " just like us." I tried to imagine I was a jolly modern pagan hearing it all by mistake — perhaps not having switched off after " Have a Go. Fr. Albion has a pleasant radio voice and manner and I think he made nut a very good case. I would have been convinced and moved by the Service. We have been patiently listening to Warren Chetham-Strode's public school serial " The Barlowcs of Beddington " every Monday evening on the Light. Every instalment, I hope, will bring a bit of excitement to ee very dull affair. The too. too perfect headmaster and his even more perfect and understanding wife have taken over a public school catering for many scholarship boys. I don't know if this is meant to he entertaining fiction or dolled-up documentary. It seems to fall between the two with unfortunate results. We all know Warren Chetham-Strode's views from his controversial play " The Guinea-Pig." This serial seems to carry things a bit further with a whole school full of guinea pigs but very little unexceptional happenings. My remarks the other week about Rose Macaulay and women's magazines seem to have caused a few flutters in feminine bosoms. 1 will have to wait till next week to deal with these.
Joan Newton.