Break from comedy proved fruitful

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33212, 30 April 1973, Page 4

Break from comedy proved fruitful

John Le Mesurier, a man known chiefly for his comedy roles, won the “Best Actor of the •Year” award in Britain for his brief excursion into straight drama in “Traitor,” which will be screened by CHTV3 this evening. Le Mesurier (Sergeant Wilson, of “Dad’s Army”) plays the role of Adrian Harris, a man who betrays his country although he appears to lack a motive for turning traitor, as he is rich and successful. Was his decision one of great courage and integrity?: Can the personal betrayals involved be justified by the political principle? These questions have been asked many times, and the author, Dennis Potter, seeks an answer to some of them in this political drama. Harris is a spy, said to have been responsible during his term as a senior official at the British Foreign Office for passing to the Russians the contents of every boxfile in Whitehall and half those in Washington as well. Now he has defected to Moscow, and in his apartment he is giving his first interview to Western journalists. In telling of the pain and poverty he found in his mother country, he reveals why he chose to become an alleged traitor. The journalists, polite ati first, cannot entirely suppress!

their antagonism. Their; questions begin to cover the( betrayal of lives, and in particular the murder of a defecting Russian agent in Helsinki, and, as the atmosphere becomes more hostile, the interview gets out of control. Dennis Potter has written many television plays, notably the famous pair “Stand up, Nigel Barton” and “Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton,” and the controversial play based on the life of Christ, “Son of Man.” The transmission of “Traitor” was followed by a six-part series about Casanova.