Startling portrait in Noel Coward play

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32800, 28 December 1971, Page 4

Startling portrait in Noel Coward play

A reminder that Noel Coward has not spent all his time making flippant attacks on society or in putting together musical shows was given by the 8.8. C. play on Sunday night, “The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe.” This was a startlingly, sharp portrait of a cruel, selfish, dominating woman, played to perfection by a former top-rated film actress, Phyllis Calvert. “The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe” was the centre-piece of Sunday evening’s programme,

I and it was well worth watching. Mrs Radcliffe was a 'terrible woman, for all her facade of charm. Her duplicity was monstrous, but it was equalled by her self-decep-tion: she even sought the assistance of God in putting the vicar on the right lines. Mrs Radcliffe’s character was skilfully drawn, the picture being built up with

light, deft touches: there was nothing obvious about it. Anthony Nicholls was a perfect Mr Radcliffe—a decent, reasonable, patient man; “The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe” was very much a change of fare, and a startling one. Vai Doonican and his shows seldom really excite the imagination, but they never strike a discordant note. Unpretentious, likeable, relaxed, smiling, Doonican and his roll-top jersey

go on easily and pleasantly and there must be many viewers who love his singing, especially, as on Sunday nights, when he presents such favourites as "Eidelweiss” and “Danny Boy.”

The Somerset Maugham play, “The Three Fat Women of Antibes,” was a genuine period piece. It was a telling story, and an amusing one, and it was well told, although it seemed to us that Renee Houston’s Frank was rather too much like Burlington Bertie; and that archaic schoolboy language of hers ("What a spiffing wheeze”) was a little hard to bear. Historical dramas usually get across convincingly, but

stories from the near-past often seem lame and unreal. It must be most difficult for younger viewers to accept that people behaved and spoke as they did in some of the Somerset Maugham stories, for all the quality of their composition.—PANDOßA.

British comedy “Grasshopper Island” is aimed at young children but has a two-level approach to attract adult viewers. It is a comedy series about Toughy, Smarty and Mouse, three brothers on Grasshopper island, which they think is uninhabited. Most of the series was shot on location in Corsica. Leading British comedy stars featured are Tim Brooke-Taylor, Charles Hawtrey, Patricia Hayes, Frank Muir and Julian Orchard. “Grasshopper Island” was produced by Doreen Stephens and Joy Whitby (who wrote the story), and it screens from CHTV3 on Sunday.