TV With C.C.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30588, 3 November 1964, Page 7

TV With C.C.

wrong to encourage them in the belief that they are talented when they are not It has been suggested that the N.Z.B.C. should screen would-be contestants. But I don’t think that would be any improvement. When this had been done there would be very little left of “Have a Shot.” Another suggestion has been that the alleged talent quest should be competently judged instead of being left to the too tender and undiscriminating mercies of the few thousand viewers in the country who trouble to vote. But competent judging would make little difference. It might assess the true entertainment value of some of the performers more accurately; it would not improve a programme that is basically illconceived and well below the high standard the N.Z.B.C. sets for itself. “Have a Shot” has been praised by one of my colleagues as a programme for the people, of the people and by the people, a monument to the democratic way of life. All I can say is that if “Have a Shot” represents democracy in action I’m for a TV dictatorship every time. When I consider the time and effort that have been wasted on this programme, and what the N.Z.B.C. can do and has been doing, I hope I will not have to endure another winter of discontent and a summer of dissatisfaction next year. I Getting Better There is one field where the N.Z.B.C. seems to know its own mind and does not allow democracy to have a hand—the commentaries which follow the news under