LOOKING and LISTENING

We Waited for the End
TV AND RADIO. Influenza seems to creep in everywhere. It not only attacks us at home and leaves us all muddled and boggled but spreads itself among actuai T.V. performers so that our viewing is also at sixes and sevens. As I write, the family is still waiting patiently for the last instalment of "Little Lord Fauntleroy " on B.B.C. TN. The cast had been smitten by the fever some weeks ago and have, apparently, only just recovered. A pity about this as the serial version had turned out remarkably well.
Then last week's "Six Five Special," the Saturday T.V. programme for the between-adultsand-children group, was a queer mix-up with half the promised performers away. Usually this is a very interesting programme.
I am no lover of jazz but I find it fascinating to watch the young worshippers at its shrine and to watch, too, the ingenious way this programme is contrived. It is catering for an age-group which up to now has not had special attention. The producers must have to have great responsibility and discrimination as I am sure the singers and musicians. they let loose on us every week must influence the young a good deal.
HORSEY '
LAsT week's television, apart from the 'flu, seems to have been predominantly " horsey. ' " The Horse of the Year Show" and the racing at Ascot have to take a lot of beating from the entertainment point of view. The show jumping at Harringay Arena was both exciting and satisfying to watch in the artistic sense. Horseracing, on the other hand, only provides bursts of excitement with longer patches of boredom while we wait for the next race. But in both events the horses are a joy to
watch.
Another programme which is
surprisingly satisfying artistically is Saturday's "Jimmy Wheeler Show." I like very few funny men and Mr. Wheeler does not make me laugh at all, but I enjoy his show very much indeed. The Television Toppers dance well and do not just march about the stage as so many other dancing troupes. The settings are especially good and though, like in last week's show, the whole cast turns rather suddenly from South Americans to very Scottish .Scots, it is all great fun.
After that show was over a quick switch to Channel Nine gave us lots of laughs but not quite so much artistry in Val Parnell's Saturday Spectacular. Our dear Spike Milligan was guest artist and at his funniest. (We had seen him earlier in the evening on B.B.C. not being funny at all.) I do hope this very special funny man will not wear himself out by appearing on television too often. We all think that he is at his best when he has written his script himself, like he often does in his radio "Goon " show.
NETWORK THREE orT the radio I have been trying to listen to all those nice new Network Three programmes. "Christian Outlook " on Wednesdays 1 have found dull, but perhaps that is because I very
cleverly switched off before anything of Catholic interest showed Up.
The French Brains Trust on the Third on Thursday evenings is much too short. I had just settled down comfortably to listen last week when the chairman, Henri Appia, said " good bye." A quarter-of-an-hour is not really long enough for any worth while questions to be argued out. The fault of these new programmes is perhaps their bittiness. I expect the B.B.C. are trying to please as many kinds of listeners as possible. but it is very easy to forget to switch on at the right time, and even five minutes off one of thes,, collectors corners and so on means that a good part of the discussion or explanation has been missed. Let us hope they will all be repeated sometime.