TV I WONDER who exactly are represented by the journalists who comment on television in the popular Press. In two such commentaries which I read about Peter Ustinov in "Peer Gynt" the views were virtually identical. it was a had husiness in view of impending "Commercial" competition; it was in verse; it was unintelligible; it was on Sunday, of all days; and it certainly ensured to millions of viewers an unusually early bed.
Are we to believe that the vast majority of viewers have no wish to see one of the greatest actors of our time in :t classic play, particularly suitable for TV, with music rendered familiar by thousands of B.B.C. recordings? I cannot believe it.
The verse was fully as intelligible as prose. Ustinov is worth watching in anything. And those who turned off as soon as they realised that this was not another instalment of the Groves or Mrs. Dale missed a most beautiful, touching and u t ter l y simple death of Ase, the memory of which they might have carried for their consolation for many a day.
I HAVE criticised as utterly phoney I all the "You Are There" series that 1 have seen, but I was wrong in supposing that the formula was useless. In "The Mutiny at Spithead" a lesson in history. not without its significance even today, was most effectively presented. It was simple, clear. to the point, and the commentators weaved into the story tactfully and intelligibly.
"In Town Tonight," though early in the evening for those who do not sup by their sets, is invaluable in cutting through the ballyhoo of contemporary publicity. i felt I knew more about lean Simmons after a minute or two of her conversation than any Press release or film itself had told me. M. B.