ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT TV: The Top Team

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30706, 23 March 1965, Page 8

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT TV: The Top Team

(By C.C.) I don't like flying; I have no passionate interest in aircraft or the industry which produces them. But I have been absorbed for weeks by each episode of “The Plane Makers.” On my screen it is still at the top of a list which includes “Maigret,” “Z Cars,” and “Coronation Street.” Some of my friends have asked me why I have said nothing about “The Plane Makers” in this column. The answer has been easy. There has been no need to draw attention to a consistently outstanding programme. And I have felt that any regular viewer who failed to recognise the merits of “The Plane Makers” should not be watching TV at all. But now I have learned that the series has not much longer to go, and it seems the right time to hand out my bouquets. There will be a break of about four weeks to give us time to prepare for meeting a new Mrs Wilder, and then there will be only 13 more episodes. I’m not surprised that British viewers were given a spell after the present Mrs Wilder decided to leave the cast, and I’m pleased that the N.Z.B.C. decided on the same procedure. Since we entered the Scott Furlong factory John Wilder, Arthur Sugden, Don Henderson, and Pamela Wilder have become so much a part of our viewing lives that it has been difficult to remember they are not real people. Pamela Wilder has been in the background more often but it is still a shock to realise that she has been displaced. No Heroes I must admit that I was not enthralled immediately by what was described as a dramatic series concerning the lives of those who designed, built and sold commercial aircraft At first viewing John Wilder seemed nothing more than a ruthless bully; the mock-up of the Sovereign which he was trying so hard to sell was unconvincing; and some episodes seemed to overemphasise class divisions in industry and the superiority of the Old School Tie. But I realised after a few episodes that I was watching a new kind of television fiction that was exciting, authentic, superbly acted, and most definitely not sheer escapism.

“The Plane Makers” is an outstanding example of the style of television fiction now known as the dramatised documentary. It has replaced the murder, comedy or romance of so much TV entertainment with the realities of big business, politics, technology, and labour-management relations. The stories have dealt with personalities and clashes of temperament, and we have been given a series without heroes or heroines. Admirers of John Wilder may disagree, but I have regarded each character as simply a person with some strengths and some weaknesses.

More than any other programme “The Plane Makers” has given me the illusion of reality. Its supreme virtue has been its assurance and consistency. The approach in each episode has been tough

and uncompromising. There has been no padding of the script with irrelevancies, and every word and action has been made to count Each episode has moved concisely and powerfully to its climax, and although different writers have had a hand in the series it has preserved a unity of style. The dialogue has been pungent and penetrating; the acting has been incisive and exciting. Ruthless One critic has drawn a parallel between “The Plane Makers” and the novels of C. P. Snow. I could not disagree more with the comparison. The novels have been detailed to the point of dullness, and their characters have been curiously faceless. In “The Plane Makers” John Wilder and Arthur Sugden have impressed themselves on my memory. Wilder is ruthless and devious in his business dealings but has some qualities which can be admired. I can understand and accept his single-mindedness of purpose, and I can accept him as a businessman who passionately believes in what he is doing. The bluntness and honesty of Arthur Sugden also are completely credible. These two characters are outstanding but the rest of the team they lead also seems to have a fierce interest in what it is doing. ' Dominates Screen Although the emphasis in “The Plane Makers” is not on leading characters in the normal way, Patrick Wymark has come to dominate the series. Trained in the Shakespearean tradition, he portrays Wilder so convincingly it is hard to believe he is acting. Every syllable, every silence and every gesture, seem to count. He is the most brilliant actor in an ideally chosen cast. He is tough and often ruthless but always human, a virtue he shares with two other forceful characters on my screen— Stratford Johns, who plays Inspector Barlow, and Rupert Davies, who is Inspector Maigret. There have been some complaints that “The Plane Makers” is like an egg without salt when John Wilder is off the screen. Again I disagree. Recently he has been on holiday in the Bahamas but I have not missed him for the other characters have been strong enough to carry on without him. I will miss him if he does leave the series but it will not be the end of the world or of Scott Furlong. But the end of • “The Plane Makers” will mean the end of something which has been very real to me for a long time. Like many viewers there are times when I am pleased to escape from reality for a little while. We have to suffer much in television fiction that is banal or unbelievable and it is doubly pleasing therefore to be given a programme as finely conceived and executed as “The Plane Makers.”