FEELINGS OF DOUBT ON COMMERCIAL TELEVISION

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27709, 13 July 1955, Page 12

FEELINGS OF DOUBT ON COMMERCIAL TELEVISION

LONDON LETTER

[From KEITH EUN SON. London Correspondent of “The Press'-)

London, .July I.—One or two of the big concerns which have signed up with commercial television contractors to advertise their products at £lOOO a minute may be having some second thoughts about their investmen 1 . now. Figures estimated by the Radio Industry Council give the impression that commercial TV in London and the Home Counties when the “big star” programmes start in 12 weeks will have an audience of only 750.000. This compares with the 6.000.000 viewers for British Broadcasting Corporation programmes. The number of set owners who have paid anything between £5 and £l5 to have their sets converted to receive the new programmes total 250,000. About 2.000,000 owners now tune into 8.8. C. programmes. The council works on an average figure of three viewers to each set.

But the commercial concerns operating the new TV programmes are working at peak to meet the opening night deadline. New studios are being built and old ones converted, programmes are being arranged and filmed, staff is being trained and “star” performers are being signed up every week to make the opening TV programmes so attractive _ that owners will have to convert their sets to take both programmes. The commercial chiefs feel optimistic for their future and for the audiences that will be attracted to their programmes. Comedy Player As Hero j Kenneth More is best known to New Zealand cinema audiences as a comedy player, after his appearances in films like “Genevieve,” “Raising A Riot” and “Doctor In The House.” But his ability as a film player is so highly thought of in Britain that he has been signed to play the role of Wing Commander Douglas Bader, the legless Royal Air Force pilot, in “Reach For The Sky.” The film will be based on Paul Brickhill’s best-sel-ling book of the same title, and shooting is to start in August in the StOmer area of France. Bader recently visit ?d the district to renew acquaintances with tne persons who helped him attempt an escape after he was shot down by the Luftwaffe. Churchill “Best Seller” Sir Winston Churchill’s slim little book on painting, which has sent so many amateurs to buy paints and brushes for spare-time daubing, is among the best read of books in British public libraries. A friend who applied recently at one of London’s largest libraries for a copy of the book had to wait three months before the request could be met. She got the book after writing to suggest that as it was in such great demand, extra copies should be bought. And Again It is generally expected that Sir Winston Churchill will have one of his greatest literary successes when his latest work, “History of the English Speaking Peoples,” is published. In four volumes, the history deals with the period from Julius Caesar to the death of Queen Victoria and was written before the Second World War. Though he completed the history in 1938, Sir Winston Churchill wishes to revise it extensively before publication; and much of his time is now spent on that task. It is expected that revision of each voluifie will take him about six months, and they will be each published yearly, starting in 1956. This is likely to be the last literary work attempted by Sir Winston Churchill, and its publication is eagerly awaited. Serial rights have been bought by the American magazine “Life,” and it is likely that the work will be serialised in almost every European and British country.

Hillary as Author Sir Edmund Hillary, who is to motor to Britain from Italy, will also be engaged in literary activities during his visit in July. He is coming to London for the publicatiop of nis climbing autobiography. “High Adventure,’’ and on July 21 will be present at a city bookshop to autograph copies in person. Arrangements have also been made for a number of autographed copies to be sent through the post to persons outside London. Sir Edmund Hillary will also have business with the Trans-Antarctic Expedition committee and Dr. Vivian Fuchs during his stay in this country. The Royal Show When the Royal Agricultural Society of England held its first show at Oxford on a fine summer day in 1839, visitors declared that the display of stock and new machinery spread over seven- acres of pasture land could never be repeated. But at Nottingham the society is staging its 107th show, the largest ever held, which is 20 times the size of that first event at Oxford. One of the features this year is a historic reproduction of part of the original show. The staff of the recently opened Museum of Rural English Life, attached to Read-

ing University, has been at great pains to collect a wide range of implements and tools that were used in agriculture in 1839, and to have them operated by persons dressed in the costumes of the da/ The keeper of the museum even went to the trouble of training a man to operate a flail used to thresh corn. Private Ceremony New Zealand’s Ambassador in Washington and its special representative to the United Nations, Sir Leslie Munro, is to have a private audience at Buckingham Palace on July 22 to receive his knighthood from the Queen He is coming to London from New York on July 17, accompanied by Lady Munro, and they will stay the first few days with the High Commissioner. Mr T Clifton Webb, and Mrs Webb at the Official Residence in Cornwall terrace. Sir Leslie and Lady Munro will then move into the Savoy Hotel for the remainder of their stay. Knighted—at Last

Admiral Sir Guy Russell, the Second Sea Lord, was knighted by the Queen this week. Four years ago, in King George Vi’s New Year Honours List of 1951, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, but because of service abroad he had not been knighted by the Queen until last Monday. The delay of four and a half years is believed to be without precedent. Although a man is entitled to put the letters of his order after hii name as soon ase>the honour is an-

nounced, he is not entitled to put “Sir” in front until he has been knighted by the Queen. In special cases where persons honoured are abroad, such as 1 governors, ambassadors and military • chiefs, special dispensation warranto i are granted by the Queen so that the title may be used before the actual 1 knighthood ceremony. Queue for Wigs Nearly 200 new barristers were called to the Bar this week and in most cases they were wearing borrowed wigs. They will have to remain wigless for several months, as the only London wig-making firm for barristers has a waiting list that involves a delay of four to five months. Shortage of staff and horsehair is given as the reason for this delay in production. But it is most unlikely that any of the new barristers will be offered a brief for the first few months after they put up their shingle; in fact, some newcomers to the profession have to wait considerably longer than periods measured in months before they receive any briefs. That could have some bearing on the number of barristers who stand for Parliament. Commonwealth Home New Zealand Cabinet Ministers visiting Britain in future may be able to spend a week-end or two during their stay in the beautiful country house of Dorneywood, in Buckinghamshire. This estate was left to the nation by Lord Courtauld-Thomson for use by a senior minister; and Sir Anthony Eden has placed it -at the disposal of Lord Home, Minister for Commonwealth Relations. He will live there during the Parliamentary session and will entertain Commonwealth visitors during their stay in this country. A medium-sized sixteenth-century house, Dorneywood is now owned by the National Trust. Sir Anthony Eden used it occasionally when he was Foreign Secretary, but the new Foreign Secretary, Mr Harold Macmillan, has his own country house in Sussex and was unable to make full use of Dorneywood. Edinburgh Festival No-one need stay away from the famous Edinburgh Festival through lack of accommodation, according to the organisers. There is ample room in Edinburgh for all festival visitors, and the accommodation office will provide rooms for late-comers, even on the day they arrive. Last year, the office was finding accommodation for about 100 people a day during the festival. Tickets have been selling quickly and sales now total £76,000 or £9OOO more than at the same period last year. British Colonies Mud huts, picturesque but primitive, are what the Briton imagines when someone talks about the colonies. The word implies barbarism and stagnation, says a report by 27 colonial students gublished this week by Political and conomic Planning. The average Briton does not know very often where the colonies are, and is quite ignorant of recent progress, especially in education, say the students. That “Stiffener”

A vicar whose church has often “reeked of alcohol” during a wedding ceremony, attacks the habit of taking a fortifying drink before a marriage. At one wedding a man was so intoxicated that he attempted to light a cigarette during the service. The Rev. Kenneth Harper, vicar of Brampton, Cumberland, launched his attack in the parish magazine He is a teetotaller and non-smoker. He suggested that if couples wanted a wedding “by anaesthetic” the local doctor might oblige under the Health Service with a pill.