POINTS of VIEWING

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 3

POINTS of VIEWING

Another Convincing Mogul Performance

One’s admiration grows weekly for the writers of the current “T h e Troubleshooters” series. With this week’s show they surely reached a peak of remarkable performances.

One would have thought it beyond the ingenuity of even the most adept story-writers to build an up-to-the-minute piece on the generations’-old practice in Southern Persia of seasonal migrations of tribes and their flocks to suitable grazing grounds. “The Troubleshooters” men were more than equal to the task. They allied to their basic theme the modern practice of agricultural reformers in Iran of halting the seasonal migrations, with the object of forcing the tribesmen to be static agriculturists, and nomads no longer. Mogul was brought into the story when a soil scientist and his young wife conceived ,a sympathy for the tribes iand, as it turned out in the end, had actively interfered lin business that was not theirs. Before it was all (cleared up we were given ■ plenty of local Iranian colour. We had inside views of the gaol into which the scientist and his wife were thrown, some grand panoramas of the wild, inhospitable deserts under which Iran’s oil is found, and even one of the traditional black tents of the nomads. We were given convincing portrayals of Iranian diplomats and police. A piece of persistent interrogation had a chilling effect on this viewer. In brief, a travelogue and a documentary accompanied this item in “The Troubleshooters," exactly as in: earlier items in the series we were given India in rich local colour, and in a story set in Canada, a close-up of one of that nation’s odd religious sects. “The Troubleshooters” characters have been having some strange experiences lately. In this week’s item Thornton, sent to Iran to shoot trouble on behalf of the incarcerated Mogul pair, found himself—■without seeming to know it—outwitted by a Persian khan, by Iranian Ministers, and by Stead, back in London.

The producers did not feel it necessary this time to build feminine interest by again dragging in the girl who must surely be television’s most unconvincing and inept public relations officer; the script-writers get an extra good mark from Pandora for this deed. Stead was Stead. This being so, the implied threat to his position

by Alec Stuart that is being written into the series carries little conviction. Stead’s strength is in every look. Stewart’s unworthiness to be seen as a rival is apparent when he “acts” the strong man by the so-repetitious method of thrusting out his jaw, pursing his lips, and looking for all the world like a petulant schoolboy. Stead deserves something better as a rival. Sometimes it is book-read-ing time when “The High Chaparral” precedes “The Troubleshooters.” But this week, the western was more than just bearable. In fqct, a lot of it was fun. Perhaps this was because we had nothing of granitefaced John Cannon, and little of (he must be) punch-drunk

Blue. The little Salvation Army-like convoy wending its way through the wild country, and being “saved by simple faith” from wild white men and wilder Indians, was good tongue-in-the-cheek fun. And the two playful characters from the Chaparral, Buck and Manuela, fitted delightfully into the little religious cavalcade.

But one did get a little tired of close-ups of Manuela and his Mexican enemy/ friend roaring with laughter into each other’s face while preparing dirty deeds, one against the other. The frequent proximity of their faces did suggest, however, that neither had committed Diana Rigg’s solecism—of taking garlic at lunch— PANDORA.

CHTV3 2.00 p.m.: Headline News. 2.03: Eugenie Grandet (David Sumner, David Bird. Mark Dignam, Betrix Lehmann) —“Love”—first of three-part adaptation of Balzac novel. (Repeat). 2.48: Life With Cooper—comedy. 3.14: Longing For Companions—education in Japan—(repeat). 3.44: Lawman—“ Thirty Minutes”—western. 4.09: France Panorama. 4.23: Arthur and The Square Knights of the Round Table—cartoon. 4.47: Marine Boy. 5.11: Cool McCool. 5.33: Bewitched—“ Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”— comedy. 6.01: Headline News, Weather. 6.03: Surf’s Up! 6.27: Hereward the Wake—“ The Broken Promise”— eleventh of 16-part dramatisation of Kingsle' novel. 6.52: Julia—“ The Solid Brass Snow Job”—comedy. 7.17: Sports Magazine. 7.30: Weather. 7.33: News. 7.54: Star Trek (guest star Skip Homeier)—“The Way to Eden”—science fiction. 8.43: Man Alive—“ Life Sentence Margaret.” 9.16: Film; “Morning Departure” (John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Nigel Patrick, George Cole, Bernard Lee, Kenneth More)—submarine disaster. 10.55: Late News, Weather. 11.02: The Roaring 20s—“Million Dollar Suit.”

NATIONAL LINK (Including 3YA, Christchurch <690 Kilocycles): 2YA, Wellington <570 Kilocycles); 4YA, Dunedin <7BO Kilocycles); and 3YZ. Greymouth <920 Kilocycles).) 7.0 p.m.: In the News. 7.20: Sports Review. 7.45: Local Sports Review. 8.0: Prom Concert, N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clyde Roller, Ladislav Jasek (violin)—Overture: The Beautiful Galathea (Suppe), Violin Concerto (1940) (Khachaturian). 9.0: Weather and News. 9.30: World of Science. 9.45: Startime in Paris featuring Marcel Amour. 10.0: The Moonlight Serenader, a programme in memory of Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Band. 10.30: The Piano Magic of Ronnie Aldrich. 11.20: All Night Programme. 11.30: Heather Mixture. 2.30 a.m.:; Sing It Again. 4.9: Folk .Singing Stars. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilocycles) 7.0 p.m.: Dietrich Fischer-

Dieskau (baritone) with Chamber Group Cantata: Infirmata vulnerata (A. Scarlatti). 7.15: New Philharmonia Orchestra under Georges Pretre—Symphony No. 2 in D (Sibelius). 8.0: She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith. 10.0: Inter-American Music Festival, National Chamber Orchestra under Antonio Tauriello—Elegy for strings (Rafael AponteLedee), Fissions (Edgar Valearcel). 10.20: Voyage Round the World. 10.30: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Rudolf Kempe—Suite: i Hary Janos (Kodaly). 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilocycles) { 5.30 p.m.: Tip Top Teen D.J. Quest. 6.20: Our Changing World. 9.5: Sound Out. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilocycles) 6.0 p.m.: Cilla Black. 7:0: Organ a Go-Go. 8.0: Midnight String Quartet. 9.0: Charley Pride in Person. 9.30: Prom Concert. 10.0: Nice ’n’ Easy.