Tuesday’s programme took turn for better

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33110, 28 December 1972, Page 4

Tuesday’s programme took turn for better

Tilings are looking up. The programme planners must have figured that once Christmas was over, viewers would be more inclined to sit down in front of the box with the time and the inclination to be entertained. Tuesday evening’s programmes definitely took a turn for the better.

All viewers must have experienced that watching routine that goes something like this: I’ll just see the start of this programme and if it is no good. I’ll switch off and go to bed.

It is true that inertia sometimes takes over and you stay glued to your favourite chair irrespective of whether the programme turns out to be good or bad, but the drama "Crime of Passibn” was most persuasive. It was almost imperative that, once watching began, you had to stay to see what happened. This was a good yam in the best courtroom drama tradition. Its French setting gave that extra dimension used to advantage for dramatic effect as the young man accused of murder continued to refuse to reveal his motive.

And then at the conclusion of the trial, after the defence lawyer had virtually cleared Alain, the prosecution relentlessly drove the damning evidence home — he had meant to silence the man once and for all by killing him, hadn't he? * * •

Earlier in the evening there was a first class documentary entitled “Does it Pay to Survive” which left no doubt as to the seriousness of the world’s environmental problems.

Starkly realistic, the film, produced by Radio Sweden, showed how the big cities of

Europe have become places in which people have become shut under a blanket of dirt. Smokestacks belch poisonous sulphur fumes and deadly noxious fall-out sours the earth and that which grows on it.

The international exchange

of pollution over seas and borders was demonstrated with Sweden as an example. And the all-important questions were posed: civilisation has developed progress, towards what? A better life, for whom? Frightening were the

examples of the effects of acidifed water—mussel shells with their inner layer eaten away; the sperm of fish rotting in a lake and the twisted leaves of a tree fighting for its life beside a slag heap. The slow-motion film of the man running and breathing in the poison in the air needed no commentary. Neither did the politicians depicted discussing while people are being poisoned.

Whicker, the man who has just been in New Zealand, was at his best in the first of a new series of his distinctive documentaries.

Whicker was in the Caribbean this time and his meetings with some of the oldest inhabitants, as well as some of the nwest made an interesting contrast.

The members of the former cannibalistic tribe were all rather sad, it seemed, and of course Whicker underlined the whole approach of these people to life when he interviewed the French priest and some of his shy, listless flock. The British bobbies turned out to be rather nice chaps with a sensitive understanding of the people they had been sent out to keep an eye on.

And of course Whicker made the most of an incredible situation in the tiny territory of Anguilla where the people wanted a gaol and got sent half a million dollars worth of tranquillisers.

“The Two Ronnies” were back with another variety show with some real humour. They made the best use of that typical situation at a party when every effort is made to avoid a touchy subject, but somehow it gets into the conversation. This time it was baldness, with Ronnie Corbett suitably baldpated. Corbett and Barker team up well — they are distinctively individual at times and co-operate well at others.

They were entertaining and polished in the “Gilbert and Sullivan” act making full use of the lines and word-plays dreamed up by the team of 10 writers for the series. It makes one wonder whether they are rostered on for duty, work on various skits say in pairs, or all team v.p for mass production, 10-strong.

A light touch is always welcome and “The South Tonight” has often benefited from a deft dab of humour from Rodney Bryant. However, it is heartening to see that Rodney is realising that the hand must not be heavy. —PANDORA’S GUEST.

CHTV3 2.00 p.m.: News. 2.03: Lancer. Western. 2.53: Sportscene—cricket. 3.40: Petticoat Junction. Comedy. 4.05: Untamed W’orld. Wildlife. 4.29: Adventures of Rupert Bear. Puppets 4.45: You Are There. History. 5.07: Sportscene. Cricket. 5.30: News, weather. 5.36: Cricket. 6.33: Hogan’s Heroes. Comedy. 7.00: Network news. 7.17: Weather. The South Tonight. 7.32: Coronation Street. 7.58: The Storefront Lawyers. Drama. 8.49: Newsbrief. 8.51: On The Buses. Comedy. 9.18: The Protectors. Drama. 9.46: All fn The Family. Comedy. 10.14: Tales of Unease. Drama. 10.40: Tomorrow Today. 10.54: Late news, weather.

NATIONAL LINK [lncluding 3YA Christchurch (690 kilohertz); 2YA Wellington (570 kilohertz); 4Y'A Dunedin (750 kilohertz); and 3YZ Greymouth (950 kilohertz). I 7 p.m.: Melody on the Move. 7.30: The Old Curiosity Shop. 8.0: The Luck of the Irish. 8.30: Weather and news. 8.40: Swinging Banjos. 9.0: Roslyn Mills Kaikorai Band. 9.30: The Archers (8.8. C. 10.30: N.Z.B.C. news, weather. 10.45: The World of Kenneth McKellar. 11.0: 8.8. C. news and commentary. 11.15: Chess. 11.17: Water Polo. 11.19: (Continuous). 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilohertz)

7 p.m.: Cecilean Consort of Christchurch, directed by Barington Brinson. 7.22: Janacek: Sinfonietta — Pro Arte Orchestra under Charles Mackerras. 7.48: Beethoven:

Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata) — Andor Foldes (piano). 8.9: Cosmology Now. (6) A History of the Universe. 8.23: Verdi: Renata Tebaldi (soprano), New Philharmonia Orchestra under Oliviero de Fabritiis. 8.44: Prague Spring Festival (Czech Radio). 10.20: Schubert: The Omnipotence; The Wanderer; Loewe: Edward— Lawrence Tibbett (baritone), Stewart Wille (piano). 10.34: Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op. 20 No. 4—Koecken i Quartet.

3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz)

7.2 p.m.: Hit Wave! 8.2: Thursday Night. 10.2: Looking Back. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz)

7.30 p.m.: Sound Centre Show. 8.0: Christchurch Top 140. 10.0: Top of the Top 40.