Pete and Dud were very much in form

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32634, 16 June 1971, Page 4

Pete and Dud were very much in form

Pete and Dud have not lost their magic.

The start of their new series on Monday night was an event. Thank heavens there are still entertainers who can make their audiences Cry with laughter. Moore and Cooke, with the prescription much as before, were very good medicine indeed.

This programme was the flnt of two made in Australia by the famous comedians, with the rest of the series in their more familiar surroundings. The visit to Australia, they said in a delightful interview with the immigration

and customs officer, was to assist the England cricketers beat Australia in the test series.

Perhaps it was because this viewer has a considerable affection for cricket that their sketch at the nets and their subsequent tactical discussion on the test series, came off so wonderfully well.

Aa usual, Peter Cook made long-winded speeches, in which he had one or two facta right among many which were not, and which were delivered on familiarly verbose lines running in such unexpected directions as to have W. G. Grace married to Princess Rainier. And of course Dudley Moore was an utter delight, looking more than ever like a little boy anxious to please, and Irresistible with his nervous little ways. Even when their material ia not outstanding,

the dead-pan Cook and the ingratiating Moore are certain winners.

Dudley Moore nearly outBorged Victor Borge with his classical variations on "Colonel Bogey,” and the longest finale in the history of the concert. Another outstanding sketch was the one in which Cook explained, at laborious length why Moore, because he had only one leg, was not the strongest of candidates for the role of Tarzan.

Perhaps the best measure Of "Not Only But Also" was that it seemed to be over in about 10 minutes.

There was some other very good fare on Monday night. Henry Fonda made an unheralded appearance with BUI Cosby and Elsa Lanoheeter. The three of them were left in a lift, between floors, all night Bill Cosby is never better than when he assumes his most confident and confidential air.

The men matched each other in verbal games of skill for most of the night; Elsa Lancheater said hardly an intelligible word, for she was cast as an Eastern European of some sort It was delightfully light and amusing, with a philosophical strain running through the nonsense. Fonda and Cosby are two outstanding screen personalities, and they made a very good team. Certain it is that Bill Cosby, on hfs visit to New Zealand later

this year, will command very large audiences. • * *

Even "The Revenue Men” seemed a little better this week. The story w« a stronger one, told with more authority than usual, and there was a very good performance from Veronica Strong, the suspect’s secre-

tary. There must have been disappointment that the brief sequences from the Canter-bury-Wellington Rugby match were so murky and the passages of the play shown so undistinguished. When a whole match is cut down to a very few minutes, some of the more attractive momenta might have been included. * * *

The "Horizon" documentary, "The Gifted Child" wu intensely interesting. Educationists on it sought to show that just as special arrangements have to be made for the education of backward children, so should there be special education for the out-

standingly bright ones. The belief is that the gifted child, when part of the formal education scheme, often becomes bored with work he can handle very easily, and that some further opportunity should exist for the development of talents. The work of pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School wu astonishing. The little boys and girls there looked very much like the product sought by every parent sending a chfld off to music lessons.

The standard of achievement among these youngsters was quite remarkable, ft was suggested that If there was such a school for outstandingly gifted young musicians, some such provision should also be made for young mathematicians. Something was seen of special classes for particularly skilled pupils at ordinary schools, and of a special arts and sciences school where, again, the level of achievement was Incredibly high. Perhaps in Britain there is a move to offer the young intellectuals a more stimulating challenge than most of them have now. As one of the spokesmen said: "We look forward to an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy a opportunity.”—PANDOßA.