Muddled documentary on care of children

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32521, 3 February 1971, Page 4

Muddled documentary on care of children

It was probably too much zeal in exploring and exposing a social problem in Britain that deprived “Mrs Lawrence Will Look After It” of some of its effect. This

dramatised documentary on Monday night attacked its subject very conscientiously, but an hour and a quarter was much too long for it in one sense, much too short in another. The closing of some Gov-

ernment-sponsored centres for pre-kindergarten age children apparently inspired this 8.8. C. film. Mrs 1

Lawrence, a kind-hearted middle-aged woman, collapsed in the street and was taken to hospital. When the police heard sounds in her found 14 children there, babies and toddlers. Mrs Lawrence had been looking after it, 14 times over.

The need for proper care of children whose mothers have to work, or whose parents did not care about them, is a proper subject for television reporting. And these were in fact case reports, given a dramatised coating, presumably to make the pills more acceptable for a blase television public. But the film tried to do too much, and like Stephen Leacock’s horseman, galloped off madly in all direc-

CHTV3 2.00 p.m.: Headline News. 2.03: World Sftries of Tennis—Pilic v. Barthes. (Repeat). 2.57: Petticoat Junction—Girl of our Dreams. 323: Hollywood Palace, with Don Knotts (final). 4.14: Animal World—Alligator adventure. 4.39: Clangers. 4.48: Trumpton—The Mayor's Birthday. (Repeat). 4.53: Funny Company. 4.58: Woobinda —Animal Doctor. s.2s:'Headline News and Weather. 5.28: The Road Runner Show. 5.51: And Another Thing—Palace Lumber. 6.02: The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. 6.30: The Midget Farrelly Show. 7.00: Network News. 7.20: Weather and The South Tonight. 7.46: Bewitched—Going Ape. 8.14: The High Chaparral—The Legacy. 9.08: Newsbrief. 9.10: Dad’s Army—A Stripe for Frazer. 9.43: Peyton Place. 10.36: On the Buses—First Aid. 11.04: Late News and Weather.

NATIONAL LINK (Including SYA Chrlatchurcb (690 kilohertz); 2YA, Welling, ton 070 kilohertz); 4YA, Dunedin (780 kilohertz): and SVZ. Graymouth 020 kilo hertz) 7.0 p.m.: N.Z.B.C. Sports News. 7.30: The Maori Programme. 8.0: My Word! 8.30: Weather and News. 9.0: Continental Cabaret. 9.30: Steptoe and Son. 10.0: Spotlight Bands. 10.30: N.Z.B.C. News, Comment, Weather. 10.45: Women’s Bowls. 11.0: 8.8. C. News and Commentary. 11.15: Swimming. 12.6 a.m.: My Word! 1.0: Sounds in Store: 2.30: Mantovani and his Orchestra. 3.3: Sealed Orders. 4.9: Continental Cabaret.

3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilohertz) 8.40 pan.: Britten: Cantata misericordium, Op. 69—Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer - Dieskau (baritone), New Philharmonia Chorus

and Orchestra under Benjamin Britten. 9.10: N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra Promenade Concert. Conductor, Christopher Seaman Mai colm Arnold: English Dances, Set 2; Butterworth: Rhapsody: A Shropshire Lad; Elgar: Wand of Youth, Suite No. 1. 10.2: China Survey. 10.30: Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 13 in C (K.415) Geza Anda (piano) with the Chamber Academy of the Salzburg' Mozarteum directed by the soloist.

3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz) 7.2 p.m.: Trotting Information. 7.40: Gardening with Reg Chibnall. 8.2: The Country and Western Show. 11.2: Late Extra. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 7.30 p.m.: Things are Swinging. 10.0: From the Top Pops.

tions. It did not base its message only on a Dickensian fervour in exposing an ill. It attempted to (bring to public notice the problems of illegitimacy, of adulterous mothers, the difficulties of working mothers, housing problems, financial hardships, and it first threw in a large slice of Britain’s permissive society, then attempted to cut it up into too many small pieces, as the background stroies of the children’s mothers were uncovered.

The sympathetic child wel- • fare workers and police had their share of the action, and it was difficult at times to know just where the story would head next. But it did expose a grave ill, and it did hint at there being hordes of ignorant, selfish, unresponsive parents. There were some appealing photographic studies of the victims of these various personal messes, but they were used far too often and far too long. And although the acting was of fair to average quality, there was a stilted amateurishness about the script which diminished the dramatisation and left only the documentary. No doubt, however, that it was an arresting piece of reporting. •-S * *

"The First Lady” provided another good story, this time of student "rag week” escapades which went too far; George Kingston’s kidnapping, and the efforts of his elegant sister to put things to rights, supplied the basis of a story which rang true, and which was of the competent standards typical of this programme. « * *

Anyone who has ever had a wedding in the family—and it might be unwise to suggest that there is a reader who hasn’t must have enjoyed this week’s piece of “The Governor and J.J.” in which the Governor’s mother was married to Kent Smith, who no doubt enjoyed this light-hearted business much more than his work in “Peyton Place.” There must have been many twinges of sympathy among the audience as difficulties were encountered with the guests lists .... “The Governor and J.J.” never gets anywhere, but week by week it produces just enough crisp lines to make it well worth-while.— PANDORA.