“Comedy Playhouse” a hit with Beryl Reid

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 4

“Comedy Playhouse” a hit with Beryl Reid

In an extremely wellvaried set of programmes on Friday and Saturday nights, one of the most enjoyable items was the comedy “View by Appointment,” a halfhour of whinisy expertly handled by Beryl Reid and Hugh Paddick. It was delightfully absurd and refreshing. One of the “Comedy Plyhouse” series, “View By Appointment,” presented Beryl Reid as a lady who liked to play ladies very much, who was a little lonely for an audience, and who therefore persuaded her husband to put their house up for sale without having the slightest intention of selling it; but she was. able to entertain the callers in her own distinguished style. She was magnificant, cramming her matronly frame into a cocktail frock if the callers were scheduled for the cocktail hour and in all other respects meeting the social demands of the occasion, whatever it might be. She even had a visitors book. Her indulgent husband had his part to play: he was a sort of military reserve, being called into action should the callers look likely to be seriously thinking about purchasing the house. So before their arrival his ritual was to apply some more water to "the damp patch” (hidden by an enormous piece of furniture but revealed if necessary) and to water the fungus in the cupboard. And in one severe emergency he rushed about making what looked like borer holes in the woodwork and manufacturing apparent structural faults in the walls. Beryl Reid was madly gay and determinedly charming to what she called her house guests. And she summed the whole trivial, delicate thing up when she said, near the end: “I feel sorry for them when they leave. They seem bewildered by life." There was a great deal of entertainment value, as well as information, packed into the little 11-minute documentary on Friday evening, “Stand Up And Be Counted.” Ron Walton, a pronounced success in his science series “In The Nature Of Things”— another of which will soon begin—presented the programme, which dealt briefly >ut vividly with New Zealanders and the census. The models and the trick photography used to explain what New Zealanders were, and did, were delightful. Alan Whicker’s documentary on Count Robert-Jean de

markable ■ personality. He drives very fast and explains this by saying the less time he spends on dangerous roads the less chance he has ,of being hurt; all the animals on his farm are pure White (“As one gets older, One has to have a hobby”) and he is extremely keen on golf. At 73, he plays to a handicap of 18, and firmly believes that he needs only to improve by a stroke a year to be playing around scratch at the age of 90. One would not be too surprised if his sense of humour did not have some basis of fact. And what a domain he rules. Whicker was one of the visitors complimented by having a guard of honourworkers on the estate, in long, close-packed lines, popping champagne corks as he passed. This must be an experience few of us have enjpyed. There was a lot of fun in “Note for Note” again and again the courage of the competitors had to be admired. This viewer is not fully acquainted with the present pop scene, but if Mike Dumey is a typical example of its best, more should be seen and heard of him before long. He has an engaging personality, a most attractive singing voice. Carol Burnett is regarded by this viewer as one of the best of comediennes, but her Saturday night show was not as good as many of her earlier ones. She is at her best in her sketches, but was in action too little in this show. Our vote for outstanding support goes to Don Hinkley, a first-class comic by the best of standards. There was a considerable amount of crime about on Friday and Saturday nights. The “Mod Squad” was full of business again, but it really is about time it lost a round or two. The two nights’ programmes provided viewers with a considerable range of crime detectors. In the 1941 film “The Maltese Falcon,” Humphrey Bogart appeared as Samuel Spade, a private eye who was probably a little ahead of his time—a man of action with a sardonic wit, ruthless and efficient. He might be ranked among the first of the modem, tough, crime busters. David Ross was in busines again in “The Outsider”; his CHTV3 assignment ends next Friday. We find him one of the most likeable of TV detectives. He did a lovely little bit early in this story—cleaning up his housework, very much in male style, in a few moments before setting off for the day’s adventures.

Vogue was another success for a talented television interviewer. Whicker’s dry wit and his ability to persuade people to talk easily and naturally usually mark his programmes; not that he could have had much difficulty with the count. Count de Vogue, a champagne millionaire, is a re-

But “Dixon of Dock Green” was . disappointing. This has been a very long running and popular feature in Britain, with Jack Warner as Sergeant Dixon. He had comparatively little to do in this story of forgerypursuit by the police of “paperhangers.” The series is about 10 years old and the

New Zealand purchase of it apparently picks it up, from the lock of the motor-cars and clothes, about half-way through this period.

It was not at all convincing in some of its details. Typical of its little faults was the recognition by the casino proprietor of a forged note at considerable range and, apparently, without a glance at it although there had been no hint of forged notes beforehand.

Perhaps this was not a good example of the “Dixon” series. If it was, it is going to be a poor substitute for “Softly, Softly” when that series ends. The semidocumentary style did nothing to help it.—PANDORA.