Marksmanship Improving

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30498, 21 July 1964, Page 6

Marksmanship Improving

I remember, not so very long ago, when the slogan “Well Made New Zealand” rebounded and became a term of derision. Like all slick phrases, it was used glibly and indiscriminately, covering anything shoddy from faulty manufacture to poor entertainment.

Like all bad reputations, it has taken a great deal of living down, but we can no longer lump all New Zealandmade products together and stick a second-class label on them. While, perhaps, we are not quite red stripe yet in entertainment at least, I feel, we are not altogether reject quality. Some recent New Zealand programmes on television prove that we seem to be learning from our past mistakes. With more self criticism and a little less smugness, we can improve a lot more.

Nothing Escapes

I admit, that as far as TV viewing is concerned, I still have a strong bias toward British productions and professional performers. Television is a searching and cruel medium. Nothing escapes the camera’s critical and pitiless gaze. Every flicker of an eyelid, every gesture, every hint of nervousness is picked up and relayed to the audience.

No actor can fluff a line, no interviewer be unsure of his subject No-one being interviewed can wriggle and twitch like a fly on a pin without this “unprivate eye” recording every unfortunate incident and every awkward pause.

Because of this, watching amateur shows can become an excruciating experience. . So often have I felt a mixture of pity and embarrassment for the performers that I have hoped they didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I.

That is why I sat down to sneer at the first presentation of “Have a Shot on TV for 1964.” But I was amazed and rather disconcerted to find that I enjoyed it. I don’t really know why. Cats Joined In The voices were not particularly good. There were the usual guitar players (one wired for sound), and the poor choice of songs that seems inevitable in amateur shows. Also, why do nearly

all ; guitarists sing with a pseudo-American accent? “You” always sounds like “yeow” in this form, and it is particularly distressing to me, as my cats insist in joining in the choruses.

All this should add up to a thoroughly bad production, but it didn’t. I think its appeal was that the eight contestants were young, unselfconscious, unsophisticated and quite disarming. They performed with freshness and enthusiasm, and had none of that would-be blase air that so often mars an amateur stage performance. There is far more to a compere than the mere linking of entertainers and audience, and this John Nash obviously knows. Part of his job is to put performers at their ease, and I feel sure his relaxed and warm manner has con-

tributed greatly towards the poise of the contestants. The photography in “Have a Shot” is excellent—some of our other ’productions could learn from this. The second instalment of “Youth Wants To Know” was most disappointing. I had been looking forward to seeing Ngaio Marsh as a guest on this panel, but somehow last week’s discussion just didn’t get off the ground.

Miss Marsh is well known as a detective novelist and a producer of plays, but one of her greatest achievements, I think, is her ability to get on well with the young. This is not always easy. It is difficult to attain the right balance between talking down to them and being frightfully “chummy,” which they so' rightly resent. Because Miss Marsh has the happy knack of overcoming this, I feel the young panel lost a golden opportunity of finding out what “Youth Wants To Know.”

All the panel members seemed to be scratching round desperately for something to ask, and I felt the question “what do you think of education for women” deserved Miss Marsh’s reply, “I think it’s lovely.” She answered the inquiries with great patience and humour, but I found the whole feature most frustrating. The young fry reminded me of unsuccessful prospectors—the good rich metal was there, but no-one knew how or where to dig. The panel seemed more at home with Gordon Troup the week before. Perhaps the bearded father-figure gave them more confidence. What I do advise, however, is, that before the next panel, youth finds out what it really 'does want to know.

LOOKING AT TELEVISION WITH C.C.