Viewers’ views

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 4

Viewers’ views

“THE YOUNG REBELS” I don’t think “I’m Backing Britain” can be a very good Englishman. What makes an Englishman so great is his ability to take a licking, his guts in being able to take another breath and go back for another go. I r wonder ■ what all these anti-“ The : Young Rebels” would think ■ if they were viewing “Joan i of Arc” and see burning at the stake; or the Battle of : Culloden and the bloody aftermath. This period must : surely rank first in man's inhumanity to man. Both atrocities were committed by Englishmen. As I said earlier, we cannot change history ( and its destiny. Like life, we have to accept it, like it or not. MARGARET QUANTOCK, Ealing. There must be' something basically objectionable about a series that provokes so much adverse comment, despite the odd letter in favour. The correspondent whb raised the most intelligent objection was the one who pointed out the unreality of presenting “the rebels very much, in the modem mould—even to the now essential inclusion (by act of Congress?) .of a black comrade. These up-to-date young men appear to have been born well before their time. It would have been most unlikely for a Negro to be accepted on equal terms with a white in those unenlightened days. Nor would they speak in today’s accent. Perhaps a reminder is needed that most of the early Americans were of British stock (as far removed from:, the present-day American of polyglot ancestry as is a beefsteak from a goulash) while the British army they

opposed was chiefly composed of Hessian mercenaries! Some of the letters seemed to be written not so much to be “pro” "The Young Rebels” as to take an opportunity to dig at the British. I wonder why?—C. GRANT. [Subject to the right of reply of “Fair Play, thi correspondence is closed.] “THE CITY OF NO" “Patient ’Viewer's" irr. patience with “The City o. No” seems grossly exaggerated. I seldom watch programmes on television without feeling afterwards that the time could have been better spent, but I did not feel that way about “The City of No.” I found it thought-provoking. Doubtless it had faults, but it was on an important theme, that of the basic values and way of life of our over-materialistic society. Many more polished overseas programmes have no such significance they are thorough trash however food the acting may be—and personally nope that the N.Z.B.C. will go on experimenting with locally written and produced drama.—MAßK D. SADLER.