“Softly Softly” Finished With Excellent Story

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32302, 21 May 1970, Page 3

“Softly Softly” Finished With Excellent Story

There will be many thousands sorry that the “Softly Softly” series has ended, as it did on Tuesday evening; but if it had to go, there could hardly have been a finer finale than “On the Side of the Law.” For once in a way, the absence of Barlow went almost unnoticed, so absorbing was this tory of investigation and interrogation. The prime virtues of "Softly Softly" have always been that its characters seem real, with human frustrations and foibles, that the heroes do not always win, and that photography and dialogue

support strong story lines. Not many viewers would learn to envy the men on the Regional Crime Squad, who have to withstand the acid of Mr Gilbert, the heat of Barlow’s temper, and even some peppery passages with John Watt. Most viewers probably enjoyed Watt’s firm stand against Mr Gilbert early in the story . . . the people in “Softly Softly” have become almost real, which reflects very well indeed on the casting as well as the script. This final story was an intriguing one. It did not depend on rubber-soled shoes, and sinister shadows, threats of violence, any of the customary whodunit catalysers. It was, simply, a story of the manoeuvrings of the sus-

pect and his shady lawyer, and the detectives assigned to charge him, if they could. It was a chess match, with the police by no means holding a preponderance of pieces. “Softly Softly" is to be replaced next week by “Wojeck,” a series of stories described as thrilling, evidently in the form of stories from the casebook of a city coroner in Canada. It may be very good, but it is almost certain to suffer by comparison with “Softly Softly.” # # *

The engaging Doris Day begins her “Doris Day Show” early this afternoon, and the early programme place is probably explained by the fact that this is not a variety show with weekly guests of renown, but a series of stories set on a farm, with Miss Day a widow and mother of two sons. There is also a dog. The evening viewing to-, night is not especially stimulating. The lawyers are on stage in “The Bold Ones” and they are usually better value than the doctors or the law enforcement officers. The lastslot documentary on Kapuni and the pipe line, produced by the National Film Unit, should be interesting.—PANDOßA.