"Country Matters" has earthy vigour

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33452, 6 February 1974, Page 4

"Country Matters" has earthy vigour

I There is an outdoor I tang and earthy vigour I about the new series of I six plays. "Country MatI ters,” which began on I Monday evening. CliarI acters came through I strongly against a backI ground of rival deprivaI lion and ignorance in I the first in the series, I "The Watercress (Jiri.” I The plays take their inI spiration from the counI tryside and the lives of I country people They are I adapted Irom the works of lA. E. Coppard ancf H. E I Bates, two prolific masters I of the English short story.

I- Monday evening's plat did .. not rely on the quiet green .. of the English countryside in ‘ the days before motorways - and jet aircraft, but rathei pin the strong characterisations against a background of English landscape. ’ There was some fine act- - ing by the stars. Susan . Fleetwood. who played Man. and Gareth Thomas, as Frank Oppidan. ' Hugh Leonard adapted the story written by Coppard. whose atm in his short stor- . ies was to make his characf ters come alive by writing > in a pictorial rather than I discursive wav. '“The Watercress Girl"' s provided all the elements necessary for a compelling

I tale. espectalL the twist i solving Mat v s strange ut 1 willingness to mans het s lover. i Ihe birth of the baby pto- - sided a surprise, and it was - a relief to learn later that Mars 's father. I ergus McDo- • wall, did not burs it alive, i While the series will not I he remembered as the great est television fart, it looks like being a welcome change , to much of the rubbish that is screened by the N.Z.B.C. Ronnie Corbett has the , gift of making people laugh j _ there's no doubt about that, but the trouble with ..his latest show. "No. That's Me Over Here", is that so j mans of the smutty lines ' and gags fall 1 lai. Ronnie's efforts to beat age. especially in the face of a bewigged colleague at the office, and competition from a youthful nesveomer, could have been hilarious But somehow the scriptsvriters sell Ronnie short, and that much of the bubbling, spontaneous hu Fmour that he is capable of gets throttled at birth There are many viewers no doubt, who find Vai Doonican soothing, comfort ■ ing and tuneful. But fot others, his syrups rocking chair manner can be rathet much, except in small doses T h e special which screened on Monday evening |had sufficient variety, in (eluding Rolf Harris and New Zealand's Suzanne, to please (most viewers. »’< ; For an absolute low in jeomedy it would be hard to beat "The Odd Couple , Which fills the late slot on (Monday evening. Saying “1 object" at a wedding ceremony is one of the oldest gags in the bust ness, but to have it twice tn jthe same show was too much. Why doesn't the ■N.Z.8.l . stop buying such (puerile stuff? —K C.