Tom Stoppard play was a magnificent success

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 4

Tom Stoppard play was a magnificent success

It is a long time since this viewer has enjoyed anything on television more than “The Engagement,” a play by Tom Stoppard which gave David Warner the time of his life in the principal role. It was a rollicking comedy

in which David Warner, as Dominic Boot, sometimes recalled the shy charm of Richard Briers in "Marriage Lines” and sometimes brought back the high-speed comedy action of early Hollywood productions. The whole business was based on Dominic’s inability to pay a mounting taxi bill, which grew and grew as he made strenuous efforts to find enough money. It all started when he met his fiancee and bought the engagement ring, paying rather more for it then he had expected to pay and thus being just a few shillings shortafter he had bought her lunch—for the taxi-driver as he tried to get back to work. He had some magnificent misadventures. He was involved, unwittingly, in the getaway stage of a bank robbery which led to a deliciously over-dramatic chase; he went to a golf course to borrow from a friend who disowned him, but whispered that he was playing for a substantial . stake and was winning. Whereupon Dominic took a hand in proceedings, a helping hand in some delightful slapstick stuff. He tried to earn the money he needed as a blood donor, doing a steady circuit from the nurse to the pay-out desk until he was reduced to a state of helpless weakness; and finally the laconic taxi driver (George Innes) came up to his apartment, priced all his worldly goods, and settled for their removal. So poor Dominic was left without a job, a fiancee, money; and nothing to his name but a pair of pyjamas. It was extravagant nonsense, but an utterly refreshing change; even the Incidental music was perfectly suited to mood and movement. "The Engagement” was delightful; not that one can expect, or even wish for, something of its kind too often. It would be like maintaining a steady diet of Pavlova cake. * » #

“The South Tonight” made one of its fairly rare excursions into the “Gallery” world, with a debate on apartheid, between the Rt. Rev. E. Crowther, formerly Bishop of Kimberley ana Kuruman and LieutenantColonel A. C. R. Elderton, of the Friends of Southern Africa Society. This is no place to comment on what they said; but they were both gifted speakers, and their

debate was much too short for this viewer. “Gallery” had a sketchy look at the history of the New Zealand' Communist party, now 50 years old, and a debate between' Mr R. H. Stewart of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and Mr A. J. Kerry, a trade union secretary. Again, it was much too short. * * * The other principal programme was "To Catch a Thief’ in which the veteran actress Bette Davis was starred.

It was very unlike the usual Al Mundy story: to begin with, he was not besieged by lovely women. It was simply a vehicle in which Miss Davis could have a romp, as a top-line safe-breaker back in business after illness. It was not very good.—PANDORA.

CHTV3 Today 2.00 p.m.: Headline news. 2.03: The Debbie Reynolds Show. Comedy. 2.27: A Man and His Sport Documentary. 2.55: Moisyev Ballet. (Repeat.) 3.57: Curious Characters of Britain Duntisboume Rouse. Documentary. 4.27: Here Come The Brides—“To the Victor.” Adventure. 5.16: Sports Magazine. (Repeat.) 5.26: Headline news, weather. 5.29: Woody Woodpecker. Cartoon. 5.57: In the Nature of Things—" The Science of Cooking.” With Ron Walton. (New series.) 6.15: Happen-Inn. Popular music. 7.00: Network news. 730: Weather. Local news. 7.30: Note for Note. Musical quiz. 8.00: Dixon of Dock Green—" Breaking Point.” Detective. 8.49: Newsbrief. 8.51: Nearest and Dearest—“ Wrong Side of the Sheets.” Comedy. (Final.) 932: Name of the Game—“ Laurie Marie.” Drama. 10.46: The Science Report. 11.00: Late news, weather. 11.07: The Carol Burnett Show. (Final.) Tomorrow 2.00 p.m.: Headline news. 2.03: Film (1950)—"Cheaper By The Dozen” (Clifton Webb). Comedy. 3.30: Soccer. F.A. Cup, fifth round. 430: Dominion Highland Pipe Band Championships. 5.10: Bugaloos. 5.31: Headline news, weather. 534: Benares—Holy City. Documentary. 5.55: Disneyland—“ Gallagher Goes West.” 6.45: Servant Church. 7.00: Network news. Local news. 730: Weather. 7.23: Country Calendar. 7.40: The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Documentary. 8.28: Not In Front of the Children—“ Domestic Help.” Comedy. 838: Newsbrief.

9.00: Dr Finlay’s Casebook—“ Sweet Sorrow.” Drama. 9.49: Sir Malcolm Sargent. Biography. 10.50: Late news, weather.

SATURDAY NATIONAL PROGRAMME (Including 3YA Christchurch (690 kilohertz); 2YA, Wellington (570 kilohertz); 4YA Dunedin (750 kilohertz); and 3YZ Greymouth (920 kilo hertz) 7.0 p.m.: Sports Review. 7.30: Top Team. 8:0; Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair. 8.30: Weather and News. 8.40: Looking at Ourselves. 8.50: Local Sports Results. 9.0; Those Were the Days. 9.30: Does the Team Think? 10.0: Sounds Great. 10.30: News, Weather. 10.45: Cabaret Time: Martin Kini. 11.0: News arid Commentary. 11.15: All night programme. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilohertz) 7.5 p.m.: Lennox Berkeley: Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila (1947). 7.21: Gavin Saunders (violin). Bach: Sonata No. 2 in A minor for solo violin. 7.46: Mendelssohn: Two-piano Concerto in E flat (1824). 8.16: Bizet: Habanera: Sequidilla; Gypsy Song; Card Scene (Carmen). 8.30: Rim-

sky-Korsakov: Fairy Tale: 8.47: Cheltenham Festival. Louis Halsey Singers, The Venturi Wind Ensemble. 9.46: The Reith Lectures—Change and Industrial Society. (4) How Innovation spreads. 10.26: Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120—Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Georg Solti. 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz) 7.2 p.m.: Trotting. 7.4: Party Night. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 7.30 ■ p.m.: Things are Swinging. 9.30: Expo Discotheque. 10.0: From the Top Pops. SUNDAY NATIONAL LINK 11.0 a.m.: Holy Cross Roman Catholic College, Mosgiel. 7.0 p.m.: The Weakness of God. 8.0: Local Programmes. 3YA, Musical Miniatures. 3YZ, The Complex Dance Band, John Low. 4YA,

Sydney Brinsley. 4YZ, Brendan Wilkins (baritone). Other Stations: Heather Mixture. 8.30: Weather and News. 8.40: Point of View. 9.5: Music from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. 9.30: Books of the Week. 10.0: Music Exchange. 10.1: Frederick Harvey (baritone). 10.30: News, Weather. 10.49: The Epilogue for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. 11.15: AllNight Programme. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilohertz) 7.0 p.m.: All YCs, Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A (K. 201) —Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Szymon Goldberg. 7.27: May Hannan (violin), Judith McDonald, (piano); Franck: Sonata in A (1886). 7.55: Rachmaninov: Fantasy: The Rock, Op. 7 (1892), London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn. 8.10: Haydn: Sonata in E flat, No. 52, Ingrid Haebler (piano). 8.30: Albert Herring. Opera in three acts, by Benjamin Britten; Libretto by Eric Crozier from a story by Guy de Maupassant. Produced at Glyndeboume in 1947.

3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz) 7.2 p.m.: Sound Mirror. 7.30: Stop Messing About. 8.2: Julie Felix in Concert. 9.2: Joseph Vance. 9.45: Bonnie Parker. 10.15: Mai Chisholm's Skidoo Orchestra. 11.2: Late Night listening. 11.50: The Epilogue. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 6.00 p.m.: Top in Pops.